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Keystone makes a play to obtain volunteer fire station

City hopes department donates building for CCSO office, training facility, gallery

By Wesley LeBlanc wesley@opcfla.com
Posted 3/4/20

KEYSTONE HEIGHTS – The city council is interested in turning the volunteer fire department building into the home of a Clay County Sheriff’s Office sub-station, a legacy memorial, training …

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Keystone makes a play to obtain volunteer fire station

City hopes department donates building for CCSO office, training facility, gallery


Posted

KEYSTONE HEIGHTS – The city council is interested in turning the volunteer fire department building into the home of a Clay County Sheriff’s Office sub-station, a legacy memorial, training facility and heritage gallery.

The Keystone Heights Volunteer Fire Department building located at 120 Flamingo St. housed the volunteer fire department, a city staple for decades. The KHVFD board president, Tony Brown, who also sits on the Keystone Heights City Council, said the department is in a six-month contract for the building that’s expected to end in July. What comes next for the building is unknown, but the city is making a play for it.

“In addition to the benefits of this would be...a better rapport with the youth in the town,” council member Larry Peoples Sr. said. “Our intelligence will be better and faster because the kids will be invested in it. It’s a win-win for the community, I think.

This idea for the building came after two previous two council meetings. The council discussed creating its own police department in January after discovering that the community’s perception of public safety in the city is low only to come to the conclusion it wouldn’t be financially sound.

At Monday’s meeting, city manager Scott Kornegay told the council of a potential idea that would increase the perception of safety.

Kornegay said if the council and all involved parties like CCSO and the KHVFD follow through with the idea, the building will become a CCSO sub-station, a meeting and training facility for nonprofits and other organizations, a KHVFD legacy memorial site and a Keystone Heights heritage gallery.

Potential partners would be CCSO’s Community Engagement team, the Sheriff’s Safety Net, Friends of the Library and Friends of Keystone Heights.

“The city would be the building manager and others [organizations using the building] would run the center,” Kornegay said.

The second floor of the building would house a training facility and CCSO office for additional officers in the area to use. It would help brighten the reputation of public safety in Keystone Heights, although numbers don’t reflect the safety inadequacy felt by residents.

“We’ve had concerns in the past about citizens not feeling safe and while the numbers do not indicate that, perception is reality, and that’s what we’re seeing,” Kornegay said. “This would go a long way in changing that perception.”

Kornegay said the building could lead directly to an increased police presence in the area too as the building could house additional equipment like jet skis, ATVs, patrol cars, trucks, boats and diving equipment.

The additional people coming to town to use the building’s training facility or other sections would lead to an increase in traffic to local businesses, which would ultimately lead to an increase in economic growth, according to Kornegay.

Brown said another party is already interested in turning the building into a youth center. He acknowledged how the relationship between Clay County and the volunteer fire department makes navigating this potential idea risky.

“I want to make one thing clear,” Brown said. “The Keystone Heights Volunteer Fire Department is not against doing anything in this community. We’re talking about five decades of committed volunteers who never got a penny for getting up in the middle of the night...and leaving our families...to go help somebody, but I want you all to know that we will make a decision.

“There’s seven of us on this board and it’s not going to happen overnight. We are in that contract and maybe we can get out of that contract, but right now we’ve got two of you, the sheriff’s department and another organization looking at it. Is the county going to be willing to give money [to this]?”

The council came to a consensus that Kornegay should continue to look into that idea and determine how funding would work from all involved parties, including the county.

In other business, Mayor Karen Lake will serve the city another three years after qualifying for a seat on the council unopposed.