By Matt Anderson
Chattanooga Times Free Press (Tennessee)
Copyright 2006 Chattanooga Publishing Company
In a region where growth ignores city, county and state lines, fire stations pop up in clusters.
Stations in East Ridge; Walker County, Ga.; and Fort Oglethorpe stand within a few miles of each other. In Dalton, Ga., a city station is located on a county road.
A former Chattanooga fire chief says that’s just politics standing between taxpayers and the best possible service.
“It shouldn’t matter whose name is on that firetruck,” George Spencer said. "(The taxpayer) wants service. He couldn’t care less whose name is on it. The worst thing to do is say, ‘That’s outside my jurisdiction, you’ll have to notify somebody else.’”
Current fire chiefs say that doesn’t happen, but Mr. Spencer said doubters should “just listen to a scanner.” He said different departments should bury the hatchet, stop protecting their turf and pool their resources.
Kevin Lauer is a fire consultant with the University of Tennessee’s County Technical Assistance Service.
“There’s a lot of competing interests in any type of merger,” Mr. Lauer said. “A lot of these folks, they’ve put many hours and years into it, and it’s hard to hand over something that you’ve got so much work put into.”
Mr. Lauer wrote an assessment of Tennessee’s fire service about two years ago. The report cited a need to consolidate fire departments under centralized control.
Mr. Lauer gave Bradley County high marks for its setup in which paid firefighters at a central station join volunteers at outlying stations. That plan was a recommendation from his report, he said.
In many cases, departments do pool resources, according to Whitfield County fire Chief Carl Collins.
Whitfield’s fire department runs about 10 calls per month with the Dalton Fire Department, he said, although the two remain separate. Whoever gets there first takes command, he said.
“The only argument we have is (over) who’s going to do the paperwork,” Mr. Collins said.
Most area fire departments, except Chattanooga, are part of the Tri-State Mutual Aid Association, which facilitates fire departments working together across city, county and state lines.
Officials say that despite that pact a fire station near a boundary line does not affect insurance rates across the line because the Insurance Services Organization only gives credit if the two stations are on the same radio frequency.
The agreement comes in handy when one department has equipment another department needs, according to Bradley County fire Chief and Tri-State Mutual Aid Association President Dewey Woody.
Mr. Woody said the clusters make sense because one jurisdiction shouldn’t depend on another for safety.
“What happens when that other agency you’ve been depending on is not available?” Mr. Woody said.
Current chiefs said the question of whether to consolidate services rests with city council and county commission members.
Mr. Woody said the right formula could save Bradley County taxpayers money, but the decision is up to elected officials.