Brentwood officials in a meeting Monday night approved a resolution to commit the city to working out details of a joint fire command with Clayton, Maplewood, Richmond Heights and Rock Hill.
The five cities would each have their own fire departments and fire stations, but would share a joint fire command staff structure.
“The feasibility study by a national expert simply said ‘it sure looks like that conversation is really worth having,’” City Administrator Bola Akande said in an email.
Mayor Chris Thornton said in the meeting that one advantage would the possibility of having someone dedicated to inspecting places like the Brentwood Recreation Complex, which has ammonia tanks for cooling. He also said any reduction of service to Brentwood residents is a non-starter.
Thornton said he thought it might take the group 12 months to finish the study, though Akande said it could be 12-18 months. Thornton said the mayors of three of the cities hoped to have a report in six months.
Ward 4 Alderman Kathy O’Neill said Brentwood Forest residents would like to see the city response time to be the same, and also see no pay reduction for Brentwood firefighters.
The aldermen passed the resolution unanimously, by voice vote.
Maplewood is the last city in the group not to agree to the resolution; that could happen at its Sept. 13 city council meeting. The agenda isn’t out yet.
Harold are you related to Maureen?
I am glad Brentwood has signed on. We were looking for a Piano player to join the rest of the Cities to play on the top deck as the ship goes down. It will be grand, Bagpipers, Piano, Drums, and to round this group out, how about a few city employees with tissuepaper and combs to make sure we have all sides covered. As the Clayton Chief is made the the Superleader of this five city fire dept. they can play kumbaya from the back of a dump truck. After the residents see their taxes going up, service stays the same ( very high now ) a dump truck will be needed to haul away this mess and let them get started on the next big piece of the puzzle, our Police Depts. !!