CLEVELAND, Tenn. – The Bradley County Commission gave its approval Monday to buy an acre on Georgetown Road that could become a county fire station location next year.
The county will pay $28,000 to Volunteer Energy Cooperative for the property, with the money coming from the county fire and rescue department’s capital projects fund.
The same approval calls on the commission’s finance committee to work with the county mayor’s office and the commission’s own legislative administrator to update financial information about the three fire protection options facing the county.
Those options include a merger with the Cleveland Fire Department, a countywide department or another contract with the city when the current one expires June 30, 2013. The current contract calls for the city to provide fire protection for county urban areas adjacent to city limits.
The commission wants all that information ready for a vote in January.
When the possibility of buying a site for a fire station came up recently, some commissioners said it was a hidden way to go ahead and lock them into a decision for a countywide department.
That decision has not been made, Commissioner Jeff Yarber said.
“We have a plan,” said Commissioner Howard Thompson.
He noted UT’s Municipal Technical Advisory Service produced a study on a countywide fire department with approximate locations where fire halls should be.
Five new commissioners, voted into office in the August general election, said at their first meeting they wanted more information about the county’s long-range fire protection strategy.
“I really hate that such a divisive issue as fire has come up so early with a new commission,” Mayor D. Gary Davis said in prepared remarks Monday.
The Cleveland Fire Department has five stations. The county built its second on Tasso Lane in 2008.
Contact Randall Higgins at rhiggins@timesfreepress.com or 423-314-1029.