WHAT'S NEXTThe next meeting of the Emergency Services Merger Task Force is set for noon Feb. 8 at the Cleveland/Bradley Chamber of Commerce, 225 Keith St. S.W., in Cleveland, Tenn. Future meeting dates are Feb. 22; March 9, 16 and 30; April 13 and 21 and May 5. All meetings are at noon except Feb. 22 which is at 1 p.m. All meetings of the task force are public.
CLEVELAND, Tenn. - Salaries will be one of the first issues to be addressed by a group formed to look at merging local fire and emergency medical services.
"People worry that they may lose something over which they have no control," Danny Lawson, director of the Bradley County Emergency Medical Service, said Monday at an organizational meeting of the Emergency Services Merger Task Force.
Lawson was one of several city and county staff and administrators attending the meeting along with the nine-member task force.
"We don't want anybody to lose salary or benefits," said Cleveland Mayor Tom Rowland, a task force member.
At the first work session, scheduled for Feb. 8, the task force will look at payrolls, rank and seniority. A mission statement and bylaws also will be discussed.
The group also plans to consider how a combined emergency service would be managed and what the name of the service might be.
If a merger plan is not adopted by both the city and county by June 20, members said, then two other options will be back on the negotiating table: Expanding the county department and operating separately, or negotiating a new contract between the city and county.
The group elected Julian Sullivan, who is chairman of the Bradley County Fire Board, to be chairman of the task force. Bradley County Mayor D. Gary Davis was elected chairman pro-tem.
The group will make its recommendations to a joint City Council and County Commission meeting on May 25 at the Mountain View Inn.