Captiva fire commission approves policy change, fire plan
The Captiva Island Fire Control District’s commission approved two resolutions at its meeting.
On Aug. 10, the commissioners voted unanimously 3-0 in favor of revisions to the district’s administrative policy in regards to vacation leave and sick leave. Prior to the vote, Fire Chief Jeff Pawul explained that the change will mirror the policy of the Firefighter Retirement System.
In addition, the commission voted 3-0 to approve an agreement with the Fort Myers Beach Fire Department for the beach agency to provide the district with its Fire Plans Review Services.
Also at the meeting, Pawul reported that he received an update from DexBender Environmental Consulting on the search it is conducting for a new landing zone on the island for Lee County’s EMS helicopter. Earlier this year, the district lost access to the Rauschenberg lawn as one of its zones.
DexBender is examining all options available, including possibly a mangrove or beach area.
Pawul reported that the update focused on using a mangrove area.
“It would be very tough, per the environmental protections, to do it,” he said, noting that the option is not “necessarily impossible,” however. “But it wasn’t a big thumbs up, let’s go ahead and do it.”
“It would be very difficult,” Pawul added.
He reported that he did not have an update yet on using the beach.
Also during the meeting, Pawul provided an update on his research for the district to be able to medically transport a patient from an incident site to a helicopter landing zone, rather than waiting several minutes for a Lee EMS ambulance. It is currently not authorized by the county to do so.
He reported that the Upper Captiva Fire Protection and Rescue Service District apparently has an agreement in place with the county that allows it to do what he is looking into for his district.
“They are doing the exact same thing that we are talking about,” Pawul said.
“The only difference is they’re only accessible by boat,” he added.
Pawul pointed out that if the bridge is cut off, however, Captiva would also be inaccessible.
“I don’t know how they can allow one (barrier island) fire district to do it and not another,” he said, noting that he plans to talk to Upper Captiva’s chief and get the specifics on how it got approval.
“There’s no reason ours shouldn’t be able to mirror what theirs is,” Pawul said.
The commission voiced support for him continuing to research it.
“We’re just looking to be able to transport the patient to the landing zone,” Commissioner Jeffrey Brown said. “At least we’d be able to get the patient from here to there without waiting 20 minutes.”
In his update, Pawul reported that 50 percent to 70 percent of the district calls are medical.
“The majority of our calls are medical,” he said.
IN OTHER NEWS
– The commission began discussing proposed changes to Pawul’s employment agreement with the district. He and the commissioners are expected to continue the discussion at the next meeting.
– The district responded to 68 calls in July, compared to 43 for the same month in 2020. For the year-to-date numbers, the district responded to 363 calls so far this year, compared to 227 calls in 2020.
“This year is a decent amount over last year,” Pawul said. “It’s been a busy year so far.”
To reach TIFFANY REPECKI / trepecki@breezenewspapers.com, please email