By RUBY KEARCE
The South Walton Fire District (SWFD) Board of Directors met for its regular monthly meeting on Monday, April 10. The meeting began with the South Walton Fire District Board of Fire Commissioners declaring the week of April 9 through 15 of 2023 Public Safety Telecommunications Week in South Walton. “Public safety telecommunicators are the single vital link for SWFD firefighters, EMTs, paramedics, and lifeguards by monitoring their activities by radio, providing them information, and ensuring their safety,” said Chair Maurice Gilbert. Gilbert went on to say, “public safety telecommunicators of the South Walton Fire District have exhibited a prompt, competent, caring response in time of need with respect to their job, and the citizens and visitors of South Walton in the past year.”
During Fire Chief Ryan Crawford’s chiefs report he announced that SWFD held a Battalion Chief assessment center that helped fill several operational leadership positions. This multi-day assessment center consisted of written tactical scenarios and an interview. Two internal candidates, Lt. Philip Block and Lt. Nate Brown, were promoted to the rank of a battalion chief, and Sergeants Mike Surface, Steve Smith, and Sean Hutchins were all promoted to Lieutenant. Firefighters Travis Spencer, Drew Machad, and Chris Moyer have all been promoted to the rank of sergeant. A pinning ceremony was held the morning of April 10 for the family and loved ones of the promoted to see them ceremonially pinned.
As a result of the recent promotions, four candidates from SWFD’s eligibility list were selected and will be scheduled to begin their new firefighter orientation process hopefully by the first week of May. Crawford also gave an update on the third floor of the fleet logistics facility project. SWFD is currently awaiting a sprinkler flood test scheduled for Tuesday, April 11. The last remaining items include a partition wall which will be in later this week, and AV components that will not arrive until sometime in June.
Crawford also announced that himself and Fire Marshal Sammy Sanchez plan to attend an additional south connector road PD&E meeting on April 18 at 5 p.m. at the South Walton Annex. The two will be attending since the district has provided a letter supporting an additional connector road . Crawford also attended a meeting last month in the fire district’s interest for an additional north/ south connector road between U.S. 98 and CR-30A between Hwy 395 and Watersound Parkway.
Vice-Chair Mark Foley then explained that the week of March 13 through 17 was one of the busiest spring break weeks and went on to explain that in Seaside, 13 homeowners associations (HOA) closed their roads. Foley went on to explain that at Seaside area schools had an issue with spring breakers walking down the school hallways intruding on gym class and various other things. Foley also mentioned the bumper-to-bumper traffic in the area of the school and Smolian Circle, and proceeded to ask Crawford how SWFD would respond if there was an emergency at the school, if the traffic was so thick no one could move over.
Crawford went on to explain that 30A is riddled with trouble areas during the spring, and the Walton County Sheriffs Office had tried to control this issue with temporary ballards, but travelers began to just park in front of the ballards, thus defeating the purpose. Crawford went on to say, “We’ll get to what we need to get to, but it is very challenging down there.” Going on to say that the design of the neighborhood mixed with the large amounts of people make the job more difficult.
Crawford also reminded Foley that there are pre-spring break meetings held between Walton County Sheriff’s Office and SWFD staff, stating that they need to take note of the issue revolving around the traffic at Smolian Circle and bring it to next year’s pre-spring break meeting. Sanchez believes a meeting needs to be held between Seaside, Walton County Sheriff’s office, and SWFD to find solutions to this problem.