Lesley White, Suwannee Valley NAACP vice president, asked the city to meet with the county to discuss merging fire stations at the Live Oak City Council meeting Tuesday.

LIVE OAK, Fla. — At a city council meeting Tuesday night, council president Keith Mixon said the City of Live Oak is not interested in merging fire stations with Suwannee County to a crowd demanding Emergency Medical Services (EMS) north of the railroad tracks.

The meeting heated up as Lesley White, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) vice president, said the city and county need to meet and discuss merging fire stations.

White said that everyone north of the tracks is in danger if they have a heart attack. Mixon responded by asking White why he didn’t bring that up to the county. He said the city has no control over EMS in the city.

“The board has said it does not want to merge fire departments,” Mixon said. “The city is not interested in a merger.”

Councilman Frank Davis agreed with Mixon that he was not in favor of the proposal presented by the county. He said he would be open to a discussion, but the city is not at a point of any counter proposal.

“We would be interested in discussion,” Davis said. “There are probably some joint issues we can sit down and talk about.”

Davis said the county has responsibility over the issue of EMS north of the track. The county decides the protocols for dispatching EMS through the city. Live Oak Fire Department is not on the list of calls and does not receive dispatch for medical emergencies.

Chad Croft, fire chief, spoke about this issue at the meeting. He said he reached out to the county safety director, James Sommers, to include the fire department in EMS dispatch.

“I believe the citizens would benefit from our service. I think it would be more timely, obviously, having an ambulance come from the city,” Croft said.

The city had a EMS protocol that stated if the county is delayed the Live Oak Fire Department would first respond. Croft said Sommers pulled his protocol, meaning the fire depart is not dispatched.

“Could we have saved lives?” Croft said. “Well, we’ll never know.”

After more comments from the audience, Mixon requested that the council set up workshops over the next couple of months before city meetings to discuss these and other issues further.

He said those workshops should begin before city and Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) meetings at 4:30 p.m.