Brooksville council hears fire department plan as residents urge keeping local control

Brooksville — The Brooksville Fire Department presented a staged plan to add advanced life support (ALS) capabilities and eventual ambulance transport at a city workshop, and residents urged the council to keep the department under local control rather than transfer it to Hernando County.

District Chief Nicholas Halaimo, representing the Brooksville Fire Department, told the council the department’s proposal would begin with ALS non-transport units and progress to ALS transport over a multi-year timeline. "The goal of this is to develop and implement a long term fiscally responsible plan to address the short and long term needs for the protection of life, safety, and welfare of the citizens of Brooksville," Halaimo said, summarizing slides on staffing, startup costs and projected revenues.

Halaimo outlined two staffing options for an ALS non-transport start: hiring six full-time single-cert paramedics (two per shift) on a 24/48 schedule or alternatives that place paramedics on existing apparatus. He estimated first-year startup costs for ALS non-transport at about $720,000 with annual operating costs thereafter of about $689,000. For a single ALS transport unit, Halaimo estimated first-year startup costs near $1.3 million and subsequent annual…