At the City Council’s special budget meeting on Monday, the council unanimously approved a five-year lease and service agreement with the Woodburn, Indiana-based Safe Haven Baby Boxes nonprofit organization that will provide the box. Crestview City Manager Tim Bolduc said funding for the initiative will be included in the city’s fiscal year 2025 budget. FY ‘25 starts on Oct. 1.
The baby box will be installed on an exterior wall at Crestview’s Fire Communications Center, which is manned 24/7 and located at Fire Station 1 at 321 W. Woodruff Ave.
As of July 1 of this year, a parent can anonymously leave a newborn infant who is less than 30 days old at a hospital, emergency medical services station or fire station that is staffed 24/7, according to city information. Except in cases of actual or suspected child abuse or neglect, the identity of the parent who leaves a newborn infant is confidential and a criminal investigation shall not be initiated.
No infants have been left at any of the city’s three fire stations in the last five years, according to city information.
At the budget meeting, Bolduc said Fire Station 1 is located in a “low to moderate income” area where the need for a baby box “exists pretty heavily.”
On Nov. 13, when the council last discussed baby boxes, Bolduc had said that City Hall, which stands adjacent to Fire Station 1, is in one of the poorest parts of town.
“It’s also a part of town where we constantly battle with things like drug addiction and things like that,” Bolduc said at the Nov. 13 meeting, “and so the probability (of someone surrendering their newborn infant) does exist.”
The Safe Haven Baby Box is a climate-controlled safety device that legally permits a mother in crisis to surrender her unwanted newborn safely, securely, and anonymously, according to information from the SHBB organization.
“The parent opens the door to the Baby Box, which triggers a silent alarm, and a call goes to 911 dispatch,” SHBB officials said on their website. “The infant is placed in a medical bassinet. A sensor located on the inside of the box triggers a second 911 dispatch call. The exterior door automatically locks upon placement of a newborn. Within five minutes, the infant will be rescued by first responders. An interior door allows a medical staff member to secure the surrendered newborn from inside the designated building. The infant will be quickly taken to the hospital for medical evaluation.”
The idea for having a baby box in the Hub City came from City Council member Cynthia Brown, who initiated it a few years ago and has pledged to provide $5,000 from her council discretionary fund to contribute to any initial costs.
The Supreme Court decision in June 2022 to overrule Roe vs. Wade, ending the constitutional right to an abortion, as well as “growing social and socioeconomic stressors among adults and young adults alike,” served as the primary motivation to revisit and reconsider the topic of baby boxes in Crestview last fall, according to city information.
Currently, there are more than 200 Safe Haven Baby Boxes across the United States. The only two cities in Florida that have one are Ocala, which is south of Gainesville, and Newberry, which is west of Gainesville.
“I certainly think it’s a feather in our cap to be leading the way” by soon obtaining a baby box, Crestview Mayor J.B. Whitten said at Monday’s meeting.
“In Northwest Florida, I do, too,” Brown added.
According to the council-approved lease and service agreement, the city will pay an initial fee of $15,000 to SHBB. Each year, the city must pay a $500 annual fee to SHBB, and every five years a renewal fee of at least $500 is due to the organization.
The city is also required to pay an alarm service for monitoring, which is estimated by SHBB to cost $300 annually. The installation of the baby box is currently projected to cost about $25,000, though SHBB estimates it could be more in the range of $5,000 to $7,500. The city also must pay for the estimated $500 to $1,000 cost of delivering the box.
“From a funding perspective, we have the funding to make it happen,” Bolduc said.
To learn more about Safe Haven Baby Boxes, visit https://www.shbb.org/.