Green Pond fire chief tells Laurens County Council redistricting map would cut department’s coverage

Ed Burns, introduced to the meeting as "Mister Ed Burns" and identifying himself as chief of the Green Pond Fire Department, addressed the council during public input on Dec. 22, 2025, to raise concerns about an apparent redistricting of fire-service response areas.

Burns said the proposal or map he received reassigns roughly one‑third of Green Pond’s territory to a NEST station, citing a five‑mile radius guideline used for station assignment. He told the council that in practice the proposed changes would reduce Green Pond’s effective service area — pointing to bridge closures and road access issues that make the reassigned territory more distant or harder for NEST responders to reach.

"He’s taken over a third of our district and given it to NEST because it's in their 5 mile radius," Burns said. He added that Green Pond’s personnel and volunteer responders have been providing reliable coverage — noting the department is on track for a record roughly 500 calls this year — and said morale and local confidence were harmed by the redistricting discussion. Burns said he had been called individually to meetings and was told the decision was "a done deal," but also said the board chairman wanted to meet in January.

The meeting transcript does not include a formal staff presentation of the map, the agency that prepared it, or a county action instructing staff to change coverage; Burns asked the council if anything could be done. Council members thanked him for raising the issue. Further clarification of the map source, criteria used and any formal redistricting timeline would need to come from county emergency services staff or the agency that prepared the map.