Copyright 2006 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
By CYNTHIA DANIELS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Fulton County might call it a broken engine, but in Sandy Springs it translates into a breach of contract.
Two of the city’s six firefighting vehicles are out of service, forcing firefighters at one of its two fire stations to respond to calls in an ambulance and depend on other municipalities for help.
The news came only a week before the Fulton County Commission’s scheduled vote on whether to extend Sandy Springs’ contract for fire service, emergency medical service and 911 communications until Dec. 31, 2007.
“I’m not sure if the command staff is playing politics and putting politics over public safety or if they just never planned so many pieces of equipment would be out of service,” said Sandy Springs City Councilman Dave Greenspan. But “we’ve got a life and property issue here in Sandy Springs,” he said.
Shortly after Sandy Springs became metro Atlanta’s newest city late last year, it signed a seven-month, $3.5 million fire service contract with Fulton County. The contract allowed for Sandy Springs to have the same level of service it had when it was an unincorporated area --- four engines, two trucks and one battalion car --- but also added one firefighter to each truck and engine serving the city.
That level fell last weekend, according to a statement issued by Fulton County, when several pieces of fire apparatus were being serviced at the same time in the same battalion, leaving the city with only two engines in its fleet.
Sandy Springs Mayor Eva Galambos said she was fully aware of the situation and was told by the county that one of the vehicles had water in its engine. Still, Galambos said, with neighboring fire entities standing by, she didn’t “consider that we were in any kind of crisis.”
The county, which called the situation “a rare and unusual occurrence,” said that because of mutual aid agreements with other government entities, at no time was Sandy Springs left “vulnerable to any catastrophic events.”
But Jeff Hays, president of Fulton Professional Firefighters Local 3920 of the International Association of Firefighters, said that any time firefighters are showing up at a fire scene with nothing more than their uniforms and oxygen tanks, there is a danger. And while firefighters have started to ask DeKalb County or the closest unit to meet them at the scene, that takes time they don’t have.
DeKalb will respond, said City Councilwoman Ashley Jenkins, “but two or three minutes to respond might be the difference in a house burning down or a house being saved. That’s not a chance I’m willing to take.”
For the past month, the Fulton County Commission has delayed the vote on extending Sandy Springs’ contract through 2007.
Although state law requires the county to provide services to the city for up to 13 months, it’s unclear whether the county will extend the contract under the terms already established or create new ones. Worries about the extension’s effect on county budgets and services, as well as the financial stability and staffing required to continue contracting with the new city, have peppered the commission’s discussions from the first day the Sandy Springs contract appeared on its agenda.
Both staff members for County Commissioner Robb Pitts, who co-sponsored the resolution for the extension, and Galambos said the city and county are still in negotiations on the contract.
Galambos was certain that an agreement would be reached in time to bring the resolution before the commission during its Wednesday meeting. But just in case nothing is worked out, she said the city is prepared “to go in a different direction,” whether starting its own fire department or looking into a new authority when the cities of Johns Creek and Milton, if approved by voters, are established.
“All of these are options; none of them are anything people have looked into,” Galambos said. “Right now we’re negotiating. . . . We have all our options open.”
Photo: StaffWith some of the firefighting vehicles assigned to Sandy Springs by Fulton County out of service, some city crews are using ambulances for transportation and calling on officers from other metro Atlanta departments to meet them at fire sites. The city and county are negotiating a new contract.