County, Brooksville approve fire aid agreement
The mutual aid pact is expected to create more streamlined responses to emergencies.
By BARBARA BEHRENDT and JOEL ANDERSON, Times Staff Writers
Published February 6, 2008
BROOKSVILLE - Hernando County Fire Rescue Chief Mike Nickerson said it best: When someone is in trouble, "you don't really care what patch or what sticker is on the fire truck. You just want help."
Tuesday's signing of a mutual aid agreement between the Brooksville Fire Department and county fire rescue is expected to create more streamlined responses to such emergencies.
County Commission Chairman Chris Kingsley and Brooksville Mayor David Pugh signed the agreement after the commission approved it unanimously. The Brooksville City Council signed off on it Monday night.
The measure essentially ends jurisdictional boundaries and allows for immediate response by the closest agency.
"I think this is a good day for the citizens of Hernando County and a good day for the citizens of Brooksville," said Nickerson.
Kingsley called it the first step toward implementing provisions of the fire master plan that commissioners recently received. That plan urges more cooperation among fire departments.
"Now it doesn't matter who's going to respond," Pugh told the council Monday night.
Pugh said the agreement could spark talk of moving the Hernando fire facility in Brooksville, which sits next to the Brooksville Fire Department building.
"This is a new day," said Tim Mossgrove, chief of the Brooksville Fire Department. "It's proof that we're trying to do what's best for citizens."
The city is also in the process of consolidating its emergency dispatching with the Sheriff's Office.
Kingsley was happy about the cooperation among local government branches.
"A lot of the obstacles of the past are disappearing," he said.
The commission also agreed Tuesday to allow the county's six fire departments to meet and decide which other provisions of the fire study's proposed master plan they all agree to implement. And the commission helped set the makeup of a second committee, one that will sift through recommendations that the departments don't agree on or don't want to do.
That second committee, which will probably be formed in the next couple of months, will have representatives of the six fire departments, plus appointees by the County Commission, the city of Brooksville and the Spring Hill Fire Commission, as well as firefighter union representatives.
Kingsley, a former firefighter, will serve as well as liaison for the commission.
Barbara Behrendt can be reached at behrendt@sptimes.com or 352 848-1434.