Brevard County’s Board of County Commissioners will vote on the fire union’s pay
After Brevard County Fire Rescue lost 100 of its first responders due to low pay, Brevard County officials on the Space Coast will vote on a new contract that could significantly increase firefighters' and paramedics' wages over the next three years.
If approved, firefighters would get a 21% salary boost in the first year. Paramedics could get an 18% wage increase and fire prevention inspectors would see a 26% pay raise
Back in May, county officials voted to raise fire services special assessment fees by over 37%.
Brevard County’s Board of County Commissioners will vote on the fire union’s 3-year contract at the Regular Meeting at 9 a.m.
Ellis Road project underway.
Preliminary work that will pave the way for the widening of Ellis Road has finally begun. WFIT’s Rick Glasby reports:
It’s been the Space Coast’s No. 1 transportation priority. The planning has taken over 20 years, and the project will take another year or two to complete. Right now vegetation is being cleared from the right-of-way along Ellis Road from west of John Rodes Blvd to west of Wickham. Then there will be a nine-month window for moving utilities before the widening project begins.
That’s scheduled for late next year.
Florida leads nation in home insurance non-renewal rates
While recent reforms aim to stabilize Florida’s insurance crisis, new data analysis shows the state leads in home-insurance policy non-renewals.
Insurify, an insurance comparison website, finds home-insurance non-renewals in Florida spiked 280% in five years… the highest increase in the nation. The data comes from a U-S Senate Budget Committee report that shows it’s the insurers who are choosing NOT to renew.
Julia Taliesin is with Insurify and says insurance companies are trying to balance their risk exposure due to an increase in frequency and intensity of extreme weather events.
She says Florida homeowners have options to harden their homes against storms and stay insurable. but it all costs money and takes time.
“I don't want to sugarcoat it: It's really hard – especially in high-risk areas of Florida, sometimes finding new coverage affordably can be a challenge. So, I'm not telling anyone to move. but it may be that this climate risk is starting to kind of price people out of certain regions.
Taliesin says the state offers grants and many insurers offer discounts for strengthening a home and installing storm mitigation. If not, she says homeowners who decide to stay in Florida should shop around and -quote- “shake every tree.”
How healthcare cuts is affecting HIV care in Florida
South Florida HIV preventative care is in jeopardy. This comes after millions of dollars in federal health care funding cuts.
Miami-Dade County represents the highest rate of new HIV diagnoses in the United States. Florida overall ranks 3rd among states with the most newly reported cases.
Dr. Elizabeth Sherman – an HIV clinical pharmacy specialist – is an associate professor at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale.
“ these cuts have real time implications for us here. and, you know, not in abstract numbers, but really human lives,, and, and, uh, and the reversal of some of our most hard won progress. In the, in the fight against HIV.”
Multiple grants for prevention efforts were shuttered in June.
“it's rather inefficient to wipe out, you know, our nation's established successful programs to prevent infectious diseases like HIV.”
Many clinics across the state have already paused their free HIV testing programs.
More: www.floridatoday.com
