Finally a fire service agreement in Salisbury

Friday Salisbury Mayor Jake Day and Wicomico County Executive Bob Culver were finally able to do something their predecessors weren't. Put together a five year fire service agreement.  

The first between the two entities since the last agreement expired in 2010. 

"This is a situation that I think is win-win-win and that's what we were searching for and yes it took a long time to get there, but you know look we've been working on this for about year," said Salisbury Mayor Jake Day.

Unlike the previous agreement Wicomico County will now pay Salisbury per call rather than on a stipend basis.

"Every ambulance call is based at $405 per call. Every fire call is based at $300 per call. Every non-transport, meaning if we send an ambulance out meaning if we send an ambulance out cause someone has fallen or been hurt off a bicycle or something and they don't want to go in the hospital we pay $100," said Wicomico County Bob Culver.

As for the former station one volunteers the agreement says they will have a new home in a hangar at the Salisbury-Wicomico airport and cover a portion of the area they used to respond to when they were station one.

"We have asked them to step in and take care of the area outside of the bypass from the bypass out to the airport, which was the county portion of the station one's territory," Culver said.

The agreement will still have to be approved by both the city council and county council. Meanwhile any changes to the fire service areas will have to be approved the fire chiefs association.

As for the future of the station one volunteers the next step for them will be to reach mutual aid agreements with the departments surrounding their service area such as Salisbury,  Fruitland and Parsonsburg.  

After that they will have to bring their proposal to the fire chiefs association for final approval.   

The one part that still seems up in the air is what duties the former volunteers will have at the Airport. 

The county says volunteers will provide fire service to the incoming airplanes starting in November, but despite their discussions, volunteers weren't aware that anything was set in stone. 

The county executive office says if they don't agree the county's proposal they most likely wont receive funding from.