Bradford County commissioners voted Aug. 4 to keep the county’s fire protection assessment rates unchanged for the 2026-27 fiscal year, adopting a preliminary rate resolution that carries the same per-parcel charges into a second year while formally exempting cemeteries and reworking how recreational vehicle parks are billed.
The rates, approved 4-0 as part of the board’s consent agenda, are $167 per dwelling unit for residential parcels, 11 cents per square foot for nonresidential buildings, and $47 per parcel for vacant land. County officials said in the agenda item that the rates are identical to those charged for the current 2025-26 fiscal year and do not exceed the maximum rates the county previously disclosed to property owners.
Beginning with the new fiscal year, recreational vehicle parks will be billed differently. They’ll be assessed as commercial property, with each RV space or campsite counted as 300 square feet at the nonresidential rate and reduced by a 70% occupancy factor — a change county officials said is required to bring the assessment into compliance with a 2026 revision to state law governing how RV parks may be specially assessed. The resolution also exempts cemetery property from the fire assessment starting this fiscal year and reaffirms that property owners who qualify for an economic hardship exemption must reapply for it annually.
According to the resolution, the county expects to apportion approximately $1.68 million in fire protection costs across the assessment roll for 2026-27. Finance Director Dana LaFollette, presenting the tentative budget for the Clerk of Court’s office, told commissioners the county has budgeted a more conservative $1.4 million in anticipated assessment revenue for the year.
That revenue is walled off from the county’s emergency medical operations. Under the resolution, assessment proceeds “will be utilized for the provision of fire protection services, facilities, and programs” — fire suppression, apparatus and related facilities — and cannot be spent on ambulance transport or other emergency medical services. Bradford County Fire Rescue, which combines firefighting and EMS in a single county department, otherwise draws on ambulance-service fees, Medicaid-linked reimbursements, state grants and a transfer from the county’s general fund; those revenue sources, not the fire assessment, cover the EMS side of the department’s roughly $11.3 million tentative budget for 2026-27. The resolution states the assessment is designed to cover only about half the cost of providing fire protection services, with the balance funded by other county revenue.
The Aug. 4 vote sets the preliminary rates. A final Annual Rate Resolution will come before the board for adoption after a public hearing during its Sept. 1 meeting at 6:30 p.m., where affected property owners can raise questions or objections directly with commissioners.
Property owners who want to see how their individual parcel is assessed can review the assessment roll at the County Manager’s Office, 945 North Temple Avenue in Starke, where the amount for any parcel can be looked up on a public computer terminal. If you believe you own a structure that should not be on the fire assessment roll, or if you want to inquire about applying for an exemption, contact 904-966-6228, or email fireassessment@bradfordcountyfl.gov.
New interim extension director introduced
Also at the meeting, County Manager Scott Kornegay introduced Annie Wallau as Bradford County’s interim County Extension Director. Wallau told commissioners she has worked as a University of Florida extension agent for nearly 17 years, including the past 10 years as a county extension agent in Clay County, where she also served as extension director. She said she is filling in on an interim basis after Dr. Cindy Sanders, the prior interim director, moved into a new role overseeing county extension logistics for the University of Florida across all 67 Florida counties.
Wallau said the University of Florida is covering her full salary during the interim assignment and that she works in Bradford County on a 20% full-time-equivalent basis — about one day a week, typically Thursdays — while remaining available to the county as needed. Board Chair Carolyn Spooner welcomed Wallau and thanked her for stepping into the role.
