The High Springs City Commission re-signed its mutual fire aid contract with Alachua County for another year with a unanimous vote during a regular meeting on Monday. 

The contract will begin Oct. 1 and is a continuation of last year’s agreement, where the High Springs Fire Department (HSFD) and Alachua County Fire Rescue (ACFR) receive $865.50 per call when each department responds for the other.    

The contract continuation comes after the commission previously weighed reducing HSFD staff or eliminating the department altogether to address a $723,000 deficit in its 2025-26 budget.  

Last month, the county informed the city its amount of mutual fire aid would likely fall from around $300,000 to $197,000 since ACFR’s new Fire Station 21 is allowing the county to absorb about one call per day more that HSFD would’ve previously been compensated for. 

Commissioner Katherine Weitz emailed the county on Aug. 14, asking for more time to base the reduction on a greater amount of data before it reduced its budget for HSFD. 

But on Monday, she said the $865.50 cost per call rate might be a better deal than the city first understood it to be, since the county also covered some extra expenses, like medical supplies. 

City Manager Jeremy Marshall also said a continuation of the same contract would allow the time the entities needed to collect data from Station 21 and evaluate any changes moving forward. 

“Our original contract negotiations were asking for a soft landing to give us enough time to get data and that’s what the county said no to,” Weitz said. “I think it was worth asking and I understand their perspective as well…we’re going to have to figure it out, and I think we will.” 

The commission also waived sending a letter to the county expressing concerns about the mutual fire aid negotiations, as it had directed its city attorney to do during the Aug. 28 regular meeting after discovering the concerns were based on false information. 

Ryan Lowery, president of the Fire Rescue Professionals of Alachua County, Local 3852 labor union, informed the commission last week of the “multiple inaccuracies and unwarranted personal attacks” it’d made against ACFR based on misinformation from city staff.  

HSFD Chief Joseph Peters and public information officer Kevin Mangan gave the misinformation, referring to ACFR’s procedures, response time to city fires and transparency about the financial impacts of Station 21 on the city. 

High Springs Mayor Tristan Grunder issued apologies to ACFR and Chief Harold Theus last week for comments he’d made against the department, but defended on Monday the passion he’d shown after a resident criticized his tone. 

“I’m passionate about this town, I always will be,” Grunder said. “I care about the people who work here. I care about people who live here. If someone is doing something, or I’ve been given information that they’re doing something to what I would consider hurt people that work or live in this town, I will always stand up for them.” 

Although Peters did not attend Monday’s meeting, Marshall read a statement on his behalf. In it, Peters acknowledged that emotions ran high during the Aug. 28 meeting and that inaccurate things were said.  

He said he never meant to discredit ACFR personnel and that he’d apologized to Theus. Peters said that after taking the reins as HSFD chief last year, he’d been able to execute instructions he’d been given for calculating department costs and that it’d become more unified. 

“Mistakes are how we learn and grow,” Peters said. “I want nothing more than to see the city succeed and become the best version of itself. …We work together daily to ensure the most transparent, efficiently run city as possible and I’m proud to work beside each and every one of the employees of High Springs.” 

Mangan also issued an apology on Monday, saying that he’d immediately notified Marshall of his mistakes following the Aug. 28 meeting, had apologized to Theus and was now more committed to accuracy than before. 

Commissioner Chad Howell read Lowery’s letter from the dais before encouraging everyone to move forward from the mistakes.  

“It was a horrible meeting on several parties,” he said. “It’s done and over. We need to move forward. One of the worst things that I see here is people want to continue to bring up the past, and we can’t move forward.” 

The city also settled on a proposed 6.99 millage rate and approved a second hearing of its budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year. 

The rate is an increase from the city’s current 6.74 millage and a more than 10% increase from the 6.3438 rollback rate. It aims to address the deficit in next year’s budget, along with a fire assessment rate increased to $250 and $24.25 monthly increase to the sewer fees. 

A public hearing will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 22 at City Hall to finalize the millage and budget. 

Editor’s note: This story was underwritten by a grant from the Rural Reporting Initiative at the Community Foundation of North Central Florida. To learn more or get involved, click here.