Burnet County agrees to pay Burnet Fire Department for mutual aid

JARED FIELDS • PICAYUNE STAFF

BURNET — The Burnet Fire Department has long responded to mutual aid calls outside city limits, but now it will receive money from the county for those services.

The City Council agreed during its regular meeting Aug. 13 to a contract with Burnet County to provide mutual aid to the county and be paid $5,834.50 per quarter, or $23,380 a year.

Burnet County Precinct 1 Commissioner Bill Neve said the agreement makes sense for the services the BFD provides.

“They respond to any and all calls, so the argument was made that if they are doing mutual aid they should receive the money also,” Neve said.

The county also gives money to volunteer fire departments in the county. Neve said the county sees more benefits than just wildfire support.

“The best thing about all the fire departments is when someone has a heart attack, it’s nice to get a first-responder there,” he said.

In another agreement made during the meeting, the city will partner with the Burnet Consolidated Independent School District for a School Resource Officer (SRO) to be on district campuses.

Burnet schools and the city had a trial run in the spring and decided to continue the SRO program.

“We had no negative feedback at all. I think everything was overwhelmingly positive,” city manger David Vaughn said.

The school will pay 75 percent of the salary and expenses for the officer, which is $54,727. The officer will spend the majority of time on the middle school and high school campuses.

Also during the meeting, the council approved the proposed ad-valorem property tax of 62.65 cents and scheduled public hearings Aug. 27 and Sept. 10.

jared@thepicayune.com