Board Approves Cypress Pointe Fire Service District

Thursday, May 20, 2010

With the stroke of midnight on June 30, Cypress Pointe Fire Service District will come into existence to replace Circle V/Vass Fire Service District, Cameron Fire Service District and Vass Rescue Squad.

The Moore County Board of Commissioners made the change official at its May 17 meeting with approval of a resolution dissolving the three existing units and merging them into the new Cypress Pointe, effective July 1.

“This is historic and major. I hope it will be the model for future actions,” Board Chairman Tim Lea said after the unanimous vote.

The merger proposal was worked out through a cooperative arrangement among the three service units, including the award-winning Vass Rescue Squad.

Representatives of the three units were recognized during the meeting to signal mutual agreement on the merger. A budget for the new unit is included in the budget recommendation for the 2010-11 fiscal year, to be voted on at the board’s June 7 meeting. Formation of the Cypress Pointe Fire Department cuts the number of fire departments serving various parts of the county from 17 to 16.

Before their vote, the commissioners called a public hearing, but no one signed up to speak and no opposition was expressed.

D. Bryan Phillips, county public safety director, said that a contract for provision of service to the new district is the only remaining legal issue to be resolved.

The resolution, which was read by Phillips, says, in part, that “the consolidation will benefit the citizens of the newly consolidated service district by improving response times and equipment available for response and improving the overall insurance rating for residents within the new district.”

Phillips said the concept of merger has been informally discussed by members of the three units for several years but those discussions did not become serious until 2007.

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ASU88 2 years ago

I'm sure the new budget for this new fire deparment will surpass the total from the former three departments. I wonder if the county is heading for a take over of all rural fire/rescue districts. If the county really wants to save some money let FirstHealth take over the county run EMS system. FirstHealth runs the EMS programs for several neighboring counties due to the fact that they can do a more cost effective job providing this service. @Tim Lea...historic and major event...model for future actions? Have you no clue? This board has been cutting funding to fire districts and rescue squads for the past few years. Is this new merger going to really lower insurance ratings as well as lower response times? The only way this will happen if new substations are built to properly cover all areas of the new service district...homes must be within six road miles of a fire station to receive a lower ISO (insurance) rating. Are these future substations going to be built and staffed for free? Let's make a county wide fire tax and also do group purchasing of fire engines, bunker gear, fuel etc...then we will see some savings for all the tax payers of Moore County. Maybe this board is more concerned in building a new detention center,courthouse and office building and having their names engraved on bronze placks in the lobbies for all to admire than protecting the citizens of Moore from the dangers of fire and emergency medical calls. Commissioner Elect Kennedy please do not have your unbasis vision clouded by the smoke screens placed in front of you at board meetings. If so I'm sure you will serve one term and will be shown the door back to Robbins! In firefighting it is known that smoke will rise and follow the path of least resistance...the smoke screen is surrounding the historic courthouse in Carthage and so far has met little resistance. The polls will one day open again and hopefully we will have have new choices/candidates to mull over! One can only hope or maybe file?

inthepines 2 years ago

To hear you talk it seems that you think of this as the county's idea? Yes the county supports it. Is it the county's idea? NO. Will this merger lower the ISO rating within 6 miles of a fire station? The members of the department are working hard to lower the rating once again. As for the group purchasing of things. It can be good and bad. You can definately save some money. And you can also be like a neighboring county and offer your people some of the cheapest and poorest quality equipment available. Each fire departments needs are different. You talk bad about a county take over of the departments, but when you support group purchasing of everything that sounds more like you are supporting it to me. This is not the start of the county taking over fire departments. This is the start of three closely working departments mutually agreeing and merging to provide some of the best service in the county.

ASU88 2 years ago

@inthepines Your young head must be inthesand! Each fire deparments needs are not that different in a rural fire district in Moore County. As for group purchase...I did not say to buy the cheapest equipment...but the best equipment for a group discount. Re ISO insurance ratings...let me know when they lower their district rating below a six without county water mains in place and also let me know what the added budgets costs will be. Let's see, save some money on homeowner's insurance and then pay higher fire district taxes is that really providing some of the best service in the county? If you believe this I know where you can buy some swamp land in Carthage..my mistake the County Board of Commissioners have already bought the swamp land that was for sale for their new Detention Center and Office Building...my bad not the Office Building....oh yes the Office building no 2-1 rules at BOC meetings no office building on swamp land now..well not until the next BOC meeting next month! As they say in the barber's shop, "Who's next!"

inthepines 2 years ago

ASU88, " Let's make a county wide fire tax and also do group purchasing of fire engines, bunker gear, fuel etc...then we will see some savings for all the tax payers of Moore County." That sounds exactly like what happens in a county take over of fire deparments. So you are against the merger and you are against a county run fire department, yet the things that you are for are some of the same things that are happening with this merger and would also happen in a county run department. If there was a county wide fire tax some areas tax rate would go up and some would go down. With this merger between Vass and Cameron, the residents of Cameron will go down a little bit and up a llittle bit in Vass. It is not going to bother me paying a little it more. While you are discussing this how about leaving the county's other crap out of it. I do not agree with a lot of things that happen in the county. This was the fire departments decision, not the county's. Why don't you try getting your ideas straight. You are preaching one sermon, but singing a different tune!

mooremedic 2 years ago

I guess ASU88's line of work includes studying fire and EMS services to see how they can save money???....I'd sure like to see the numbers on how Firsthealth is so much more effective than Moore County EMS!!....first of all when you switch to a private service, who needs to make a profit, then most of the decisions are based on money....and that has to take a back burner when you're talking about the health and welfare of your citizens. First Health has a couple of good systems, but they came in and took over systems that had no other options....Moore County runs a great service that would be hard to improve on without cutting service, and I promise you that cutting services is the last thing this system needs.

CSmithson 2 years ago

Re: Service Levels

ASU is spot on when it comes to the biggest factor in fire protection and insurance ratings- WATER LINES.

As far as the County playing around with the rural fire departments goes, it is probably inevitable. It's also going to cost a lot of money. One thing people will need to realize, whether it is for fire or EMS, is that if you want to live out in a sparsely-populated rural area, you can't expect the same level of service/response time that you can in a more urban area. Well, I guess you could, but that would mean you'd have to pay a heck of a lot more in fire district taxes than the County is legally authorized to charge.

All that said, the Cypress Pointe deal sounds like a good thing.