Hoping to make up for some of the $2.9 million a year in free fire service provided to UF, the city will use University Police Department officers to help patrol late-night parties and the bars along University Avenue.
Maj. Brad Barber said the department will likely provide a handful of officers to help the Gainesville Police Department with its Party Patrol unit and to police midtown bars.
The specifics of the arrangement are still being worked out, Barber said.
In a June 2008 letter to UF President Bernie Machen, Gainesville Mayor Pegeen Hanrahan suggested a fire fee that would have been phased in over four years.
Machen responded by saying he could not agree to the proposal because of budget cuts.
Hanrahan's letter was written when the city was considering a citywide fire fee to prevent cuts to the fire department. The proposed fee was voted down.
Florida law would've exempted UF from the fee because the campus is government property, but the commission asked if the university would be willing to pay anyway.
Although the city has provided free fire service to UF for years, some commissioners said they might eventually consider pulling the plug if UF didn't start repaying the city.
"Ultimately, we may come… to the point where we need to say that we can't do this any longer,"Commissioner Craig Lowe said at a November commission meeting. "I hope that's a point we never get to."
According to city documents, UF accounted for 10 percent of Gainesville Fire Rescue's non-medical responses in 2006.
Other state universities, like Florida State University and Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, pay fire fees to their host cities.
City Manager Russ Blackburn said the arrangement between UPD and GPD is a natural one because of the existing cooperation between the two agencies during football games and off-campus traffic details.
It's not clear yet how much UPD's assistance would be worth, he said, or whether it would come close to the $2.9 million price tag of its fire services, he said, but at this point, the city is not looking at other forms of repayment.
He said the city is willing to be forgiving because it realizes UF has a significant positive impact on the community.
