Aldermen have approved a proposal to continue operating the joint E911 emergency-dispatching operations with Adams County and having Natchez firefighters respond to calls outside the city.
The proposals will be offered to Adams County supervisors with hopes agreements will be finalized in July, Natchez Mayor Dan Gibson said Tuesday as aldermen approved the proposition to break what’s been a stubborn impasse.
“I’m very encouraged and also encouraged that we can continue working together,” said Gibson, noting he’s “received positive comments” from county supervisors about the city’s proposals.
“It’s time for us to get this done. This has been going on far too long,” Alderman Valencia Hall said in approving the city’s latest offer to present to Adams County supervisors.
For the NFD to be on call to fight fires out in the county, the proposal has Adams County taxpayers living outside Natchez paying about $990,000 a year for this service, according to a report presented to the mayor and aldermen by Natchez Fire Chief Robert Arrington. That’s about $288,000 more than the previous annual payment. Arrington said the proposed funding is based on paying 16 firefighters.
The compact Natchez-Adams County has for the NFD’s service outside the city originated in 1994. With Adams County only having a volunteer fire department, residents outside Natchez rely mostly on city firefighters.
Since the long-term fire contract expired last year, the county has been paying the city on a month-to-month basis. The city and county boards did recently collaborate to purchase a fire truck the NFD has ordered costing about $900,000.
For the joint E911 operations, based on the city paying for 10 emergency-call dispatchers, Natchez would annually allocate about $460,000. That’s an increase of about $166,000 from what the city was paying to augment what the county pays. This might be increased to give pay raises to dispatchers to ensure they can be attracted and retained for what can be a stressful job, Gibson said.
While city and county officials haggled over renewing the emergency-dispatching compact they’ve had since
Just 2 more examples of why we need a single, consolidated government.