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Public safety committee backs equipment‑sharing agreement with Mountain Brook
Summary
Homewood's public safety committee voted 3–0 to ask the mayor to sign an interlocal agreement allowing Homewood and Mountain Brook to share fire equipment, an arrangement officials said supports response capacity and can improve the city's ISO insurance rating.
The Homewood City Public Safety Committee on June 3 voted unanimously to request that the mayor sign an interlocal agreement allowing Homewood and the city of Mountain Brook to share fire equipment.
Battalion Chief Glover said the agreement would let departments "borrow equipment back and forth from each other" as they work toward an automatic aid agreement with Mountain Brook and a neighboring jurisdiction, Mesavian. "It's just a benefit all the way around for everyone," Glover said, describing the arrangement as a way to add capacity for ladder trucks and other apparatus.
Glover told the committee the city's insurance service organization (ISO) rating — a nationally used scale that runs from 1 (best) to 10 — factors in equipment, personnel and water supply, and that participating in mutual‑aid arrangements can contribute to points that support a class‑1 designation. Committee members asked whether the agreement carried any direct cost; staff said there was none.
The committee approved the motion by voice vote, ayes 3, noes 0. The item will go to the mayor for signature per the committee's request.
The agreement is intended as an operational measure to improve mutual response capacity; committee members noted it could also have insurance‑rate implications for commercial property owners, while no immediate budgetary commitment was reported.
