The Pinellas County Commission voted unanimously on Tuesday to approve the funding for an emergency services building to be constructed in North Redington Beach. Once built, it will serve Redington Shores, Redington Beach and North Redington Beach. Six new positions will be created to staff the new emergency services building. Pinellas County approved $7.4 million for the project. The city of Madeira Beach provides fire response services for the Redington communities. The fire chief, Clint Belk, is overseeing the new emergency services building. "We're going to have something very similar to what we have right here, the medic unit," Belk said as he pointed to his Madeira Beach medic unit truck. "The county is funding that, as well, and they're kind of giving me a blank palette." Belk said when response times were at their worst, it would take upward of nine minutes to get a medic to respond to an emergency call in the Redington communities. Once the new station is complete, response times are expected to be around five minutes. "Try holding your breath for an additional 30 seconds when you're already, your heart rate's already increased, your respirations are increased, you know, you're stressed out, you're panicked," Belk said. "So cutting that response time literally in half is going to be huge for the residents and the visitors to all three Redington communities." MORE: https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/local/pinellascounty/pinellas-county-emergency-services-redington-communities/67-0d28d2a8-0b2c-4889-8b9f-6e0dfb54b6e3 ►Subscribe: https://on.wtsp.com/youtube ►Website: https://www.wtsp.com/ ►Facebook: https://facebook.com/10TampaBay ►X: https://twitter.com/10TampaBay