Spanish Fort city, fire department merger plans moving forward

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SPANISH FORT – Discussions on plans to merge the Spanish Fort Volunteer Fire Department with the city are moving forward following a meeting between department board members and municipal officials, Mayor Mike McMillan said Monday, Aug. 16.

McMillan and City Attorney David Conner met the week before with members of the board of directors of the Volunteer Fire Department. The city and department have been working several years on plans to make the VFD a municipal agency.

“We had a very constructive meeting with the fire board. I think we’ve all come forward with a basic understanding of everything,” McMillan said “Now it’s just a matter of Mr. Conners with his legalese on the contracts and everything along those lines that we need to start putting this together to complete this integration of the fire department with the city of Spanish Fort.”

The mayor said the city plans to complete the merger around April.

“I think we’re on the path that we originally decided to move this forward somewhere around six months into our fiscal year pending all the legal documents that need to be adopted by all the parties,” McMillan said.

Conner said the parties agree on the merger and the agreement can be done as soon as legal details are completed.

“There were a few little things, jurisdictions and things that we talked about,” Conner said “I think everybody left there with a good understanding of both sides and I think both sides appreciated, the council obviously appreciated what the Fire Department’s concerns were and, likewise, the Fire Department appreciated the council’s side, so I think it was a great meeting.”

Fire Chief Roger Few said department members agree that the VFD should be part of the city. He said the city already provides much of the funding for the Volunteer Fire Department.

It’s something that needs to be done in order for us to move forward,” Few said.