Municipal Department where Vol. Department Serves

[cgaines78]

I would like everyone opinion as well as references for law on a Municipal department being formed for a city already covered by by volunteer departments. I have a city trying to form a municipal department and take 1 Sq mile of my response area and approx 2 sq miles of another departments area. This municipal department will be solely volunteer in nature with no paid positions. They have asked the current Chief of the other Vol department to be chief therefore putting him in a chief position for two departments in the county. Just wanting everyone opinion no mater what it is. As well as any laws you can relate this too. I have not spoken to the City Council yet due to waiting on next meeting. Also as a side note the area taken from my department for the volunteer municipal department includes my house and land.

Thanks ahead of time for input and information.

Thanks,

Chris

[medicd]

As far as the city is concerned, they have the right to form and protect there city limits. No matter who is covering it know. As far as unincorperated areas of the county, that falls with the county ADEM person and the county judge.... D

[GrantCountyFF]

This would be a dream come true for most rural dept's. My dept. at one time covered most of the county. We ran alot. As rural dept's were formed, the call volume and size of the dist. went down. We received no money for the calls out in the county. Plus it took the service from the tax payers that were in the city.

If your dept. was close to that city, I would look into forming a Consolidated Fire Protection District. With the city getting a fire dept. for the first time, a sales tax would be easy to get passed. After the new F.D. is up and running, go into talks about Consolidated the two ot three Fire Dept's.

You can break it down like this: 1 Small Department, with 10-20 vol. FF's, old fire equipment, old trucks, little training and little funding.
or
A Consolidated Fire Protection District, formed from 2 or 3 small dept's. A tax that funds new equipment, stations, trucks and training. You will have a firefighting force of 30-50 vol. ff's. Plus your service to the community will be much better.

The down side of a Consolidated Fire Protection District, is that you will lose the name of your small V.F.D. Most fire chiefs ive ever talked to in Arkansas would not dare loss there name. Even if it means providing a higher level of service to the community.

This is not something that I would fight. There are to many good things that can come of this.

[cgaines78]

If your dept. was close to that city, I would look into forming a Consolidated Fire Protection District. With the city getting a fire dept. for the first time, a sales tax would be easy to get passed. After the new F.D. is up and running, go into talks about Consolidated the two ot three Fire Dept's.

You are correct except that this municipal Department forming will only protect a city of approx 700 people in 3 sq miles and very few buisness except gas station and hotel. Sales tax revenue would not support the department I do not believe as this is located next to a larger city of 9000 that get most of sales tax revenue due to more buisness. Thasnks for all the input.

[medicd]

I was wondering how this was going... Also is it to sensitive to give the city name and vol. departments?

[SilverCity4]

Can I safely assume that the 3 square miles in question is on the edges of the two existing districts? Or is the new department trying to carve out a piece with your district around it?

You can fight it, but it probaby won't work. Best thing to do is work with them. Trust me, starting up a VFD is a nightmare and takes a LONG time to get going, and it involves support from existing departments.

If this isn't a done deal, I'd think you Board or Chief (whoever's in charge) should approach the town and see what there concerns are. If it's station location for insurance reasons (which I see as the most likely reason, assuming the existing department's are providing decent fire protection), it makes a whole heckuva lot more sense for the municipality to contract with the existing department's OR one of the existing department's could construct a substation in the town.

That's my two cents, until we get a little more info.