Guyton works with county for fire coverage agreement

After two specially called city council meetings this week, Guyton continues to work with Effingham County to reach an agreement for fire coverage in the city.

Mayor Jeff Lariscy said negotiations continue on an agreement that will please both parties. He said he expects something to be hammered out soon.

"We're looking at all options but we're not going to be looking at them long," Lariscy said Friday. He noted that negotiations between Springfield and Effingham that resulted in a merger of their departments in 2015 took months to accomplish.

One possibility would be for the county to be a mutual aid partner with the Guyton fire department, Effingham Fire Chief Clint Hodges said Friday. Such an agreement would mean the city would retain its fire department and would stop short of a complete merger, such as the deal Springfield brokered.

Another option being considered is a full merger of the Guyton and Effingham departments, Hodges said.

Guyton has an interim fire chief and three volunteers, which is enough to respond to a structure fire and keep the city's ISO, or insurance, rating of four, Lariscy said Friday. But that would require all three volunteers to be free at the time of the emergency, which might not happen, he said.

Lariscy said the city is looking at ways to increase volunteer turnout and participation.

In December of last year, county commissioners agreed to terminate the county's agreement to have the City of Guyton fire department cover the unincorporated area around the city. The county fire department began covering that area instead.

The county had hoped that Guyton would agree to merge its fire department with the county's and provide full-time paid firefighters to cover the city and the area around it instead of Guyton's combination of volunteer and paid firefighters.

But the Guyton council decided against merging departments at that time.

Hodges said Friday the option of merging the departments was still being considered.

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