'Here to work together': Mount Pleasant and Titus County reach new fire protection agreement | Local News

After all, the Mount Pleasant Fire Department will provide fire protection throughout Titus County.

After months of controversy between city and county leaders, the Titus County Commissioners Court and the Mount Pleasant City Council on Monday approved a 10-year contract under which Titus County will pay Mount Pleasant $650 $000 per year for its fire department to respond to fires and the like. emergencies outside the city limits.

Mount Pleasant leaders say revenue from the contract will help close a gap in next fiscal year's budget and prevent layoffs of the city's firefighters. Meanwhile, Titus County leaders say the new contract will give them the fire protection guarantees they previously sought at a more reasonable cost.

“You have to repair the obstacles and take the time to work through some things,” Titus County Judge Kent Cooper said. “But I think we can all work together.”

New leaders, new talks

The future of fire protection in Titus County has been a hot topic for months.

Titus County has been paying Mount Pleasant for countywide firefighting services for decades. But in late 2023, Titus County commissioners voted to end a 10-year fire protection agreement between the county and Mount Pleasant, saying the amount the county would pay the city — $1.3 million dollars per year – was too high and far more than other counties in the state pay for fire protection.

Although commissioners voted to cancel the agreement, they had to provide a year's notice, meaning the city's fire department would stop providing services to the county in October.

Cooper also questioned whether the agreement ensured that the city's fire department would handle fires outside city limits, because it gave the Mount Pleasant fire chief complete discretion to determine the number of firefighters and trucks that would intervene.

For several months, Mount Pleasant leaders prepared for the loss of contract revenue, believing the town's expenses would have to be cut and some firefighters might be laid off. Meanwhile, county officials moved ahead with plans to open their own full-time fire department that, like the Mount Pleasant department, would work alongside volunteer agencies throughout the county.

Relations between Mount Pleasant and Titus County leaders deteriorated as city and county officials attempted to renegotiate the previous 10-year agreement last year. But in May, Mount Pleasant voters elected three new city council members: Jonathan Hageman, Carl Hinton and Kelly Redfearn.

Shortly after the election, former City Manager Ed Thatcher resigned and new council members set about reopening negotiations with county leaders. County and city officials reached a new agreement following a meeting last week, Hageman said.

County officials' concerns about the old fire protection agreement have been assuaged with the new agreement, Cooper said. The Mount Pleasant Fire Department will respond to all county emergencies as long as personnel are available, and the city will be required to provide fire response data if requested by the county.

County and city leaders will meet quarterly to discuss fire protection. Cooper and Hageman said the agreement would also promote more cooperative training exercises between city firefighters and volunteer firefighters in county departments.

Hageman told the News-Journal Wednesday that the contract helps improve relations between city and county officials.

“A little understanding moves things forward,” Hageman said.

Financial concerns persist

While Mount Pleasant officials were eager to renegotiate the contract, the amount is about half of what the town would have received under the previous fire protection agreement, leading some to wonder what impact the loss of revenue would have on the city and its fire department.

Hageman said the new contract would give the city enough money to avoid layoffs in the fire department. However, five vacant positions within the ministry will not be filled.

“It’s better than nothing,” Redfearn said of the contract amount.

The level of service the fire department is able to provide could be reduced somewhat, but not severely, said Acting City Manager Greg Nyhoff.

“I don’t want people to think that taking that much less money won’t have any impact,” he said. “When you call 911, you will have a full fire department taking care of you, but there will be some reductions in the overall budget to account for that.”

Mount Pleasant Mayor Tracy Craig said city and county leaders should “always try to meet in the middle.” However, he said he is concerned that the amount the county pays the city will not increase with inflation.

Redfearn and Hageman said during Monday's meeting that city and county officials could renegotiate the amount in the future if necessary. Cooper said county officials would be willing to pay more if city officials could determine how much the city spends responding to calls. Previously, county money was used to fund municipal functions unrelated to the fire department, Cooper said.

“I’m trying to make things better”

As part of the agreement, Titus County gave full possession of certain jointly owned fire vehicles to Mount Pleasant, and the county will allow the city's firefighters to use certain equipment that had been purchased for the county's firefighters .

“We’re not trying to cut off the legs of the city fire department,” Cooper said. “We’re trying to make things better.”

Although revenue from the contract will help close Mount Pleasant's budget deficit, city leaders still need to find other ways to turn the city's finances around in the next fiscal year. Further layoffs cannot be ruled out, although city officials hope not to have to take such measures, Nyhoff said.

Hageman said he hopes to “relieve” the city's budget by reducing administrative costs, reducing spending on parks and recreation and paying off some of the city's approximately $124 million in bonds.

Moving forward, Cooper said he hopes the brotherhood between city firefighters and volunteer firefighters across the county can be restored — as can the relationship between city and county officials.

“We have great firefighters in Titus County, volunteers and paid firefighters as well,” Cooper said. “And we just want to be a baseball team again, where we can practice together, practice together so that, [when we’re in] a game situation, we know what our teammates are going to do.

“We are here to work together.”