County commissioners review governance, service levels for Lawrence Douglas County Fire Medical

At a Jan. 22, 2025 Douglas County Commission work session, county commissioners and leaders of Lawrence Douglas County Fire Medical discussed updating the joint governance agreement that governs the countywide fire and emergency medical system and reviewed service levels, response-time benchmarks and staffing strategies.

Why it matters: The agreement sets how the City of Lawrence and Douglas County share costs and governance for fire suppression, advanced life support (ALS) ambulance transport and other technical-response programs across roughly 475 square miles of Douglas County. Changes could affect response times, budgets and deployment in rural townships as well as service levels inside Lawrence.

Acting Fire Chief Joe Hardy and Mackenzie Zell, interim chief of staff for Lawrence Douglas County Fire Medical, told commissioners the governance committee—comprised of staff from the city and county and LDC FM leadership—has been meeting to define the scope of a rewrite and next steps. "I am Joe Hardy, the acting fire chief for LDC FM," Hardy said during the presentation. Zell summarized the service footprint: "We have 7 stations," and described how LDC FM staffs five frontline fire apparatus in Lawrence plus a ladder truck at station 5, and seven frontline ambulances…