Commission to take look at department mergers
By Steve Herring
Published in News on March 31, 2014 1:46 PM
Wayne County commissioners Tuesday morning will hold a public hearing on the proposed consolidation of four of the county's volunteer fire service districts.
Under the proposal, New Hope and East Wayne fire service districts would merge to become New Hope W(ayne County) and Eureka and Faro fire service districts would merge to become North East Wayne.
Commissioners could vote on the consolidation following the public hearing or wait until later.
The public hearing will start at 9:15 a.m. The board's meeting will begin with an agenda briefing at 8 a.m. followed by the formal board meeting at 9 a.m. in the commissioners' meeting room on the fourth floor of the county courthouse annex.
The changes in the fire service districts were necessitated by the mergers of the respective fire departments.
The mergers had been discussed for several years and were finally spurred into action by the findings of a survey of county fire departments by the Volunteer Fire Insurance Services.
In other business Tuesday, commissioners are scheduled to tour the nearly completed Steele Memorial Library in Mount Olive.
Commissioners just last week agreed to allow the Steele Memorial Library Steering Committee to spend $50,000 of the money it raised for the project to renovate a small outbuilding that was not part of the original renovation project.
The county awarded a $2.275 million design/build contract to Jackson Builders in October to convert the former Belk department store building into the library's new home.
The project is ahead of scheduled and is expected to open in early May.
Also on the agenda,
* Office of Emergency Services Director Joe Gurley, EMS Manager Andrew Coccaro and Wayne County Medical Director Dr. Terry Grant will make a presentation on the cardiac arrest management protocol the county is implementing.
* Health Director David Madden will discuss a $32,335 grant from the Young Families Connect program.
* The board will be asked to approve proclamations for National County Government Month and Child Abuse Prevention month.
Public comments will be taken at 10 a.m. People will have four minutes to speak on their topic of choice.