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Lake City and Columbia County agree to pursue joint feasibility study on fire service consolidation
Summary
After hours of debate over insurance impacts, retirement systems and staffing, city and county officials signaled a majority consensus to commission a joint feasibility study (estimated $200,000) to evaluate consolidation or other models for fire services; final approval will come at upcoming formal votes.
Lake City and Columbia County officials agreed in a Jan. 20 joint workshop to move forward with a jointly funded feasibility study to examine whether the city and county fire departments should consolidate or otherwise reorganize.
The meeting produced a straw poll indicating a majority of both governing bodies supported commissioning the study, which administration estimated would cost roughly $200,000 split between the two jurisdictions and would be returned to each body for a formal budgetary vote. "The study in question is gonna be looking at establishing the fire district and whether or not it's feasible to establish a fire district," Mr. Rosenthal said, while adding the feasibility review can be scoped to evaluate multiple consolidation options.
The discussion centered on sharply practical concerns raised by Jefferson (Jeff) Crawford, who identified himself as "the fire chief for the county." Crawford told officials he had reviewed…
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