Burnet County suspends contract with Briggs VFD
The Briggs Volunteer Fire Department is no longer being dispatched for calls. The Emergency Services District No. 8 let its contract expire, and Burnet County suspended its contract with the department. Photo courtesy of Briggs Volunteer Fire Department Facebook page
STAFF WRITER JARED FIELDS
Burnet County commissioners voted Feb. 26 to suspend its mutual aid contract with the Briggs Volunteer Fire Department.
The Emergency Services District No. 8 previously allowed its contract to expire with Briggs VFD.
The county’s contract is contingent upon the volunteer fire department providing services to its service area. Without a department responding to calls, the commissioners felt the decision to suspend the contract was warranted.
The county’s mutual aid contract is $23,000 per year, and the next quarterly payment was coming up in March. Those payments will not be made until the county believes the department can again provide services to the area.
The Briggs department is not responding to calls, so the area is being covered by the Oakalla Volunteer Fire Department.
“They’re (Oakalla) manning it and they’re doing the responses,” said ESD 8 President Roberta Elmore.
The contract expired March 1, at which time, the ESD took possession of all equipment it owned.
The ESD plan is to have stations in Oakalla and Briggs that both work under the direction of the Oakalla VFD. The Oakalla department has been accepting new volunteers after the contracts with Briggs dissolved.
The ESD No. 8’s next meeting is 6:45 p.m. March 25 at the Briggs Community Center, 185 Loop 380.