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This is the proposed fire coverage map that the City of Hardeeville is proposing to Jasper County.(City of Hardeeville)<\/p>\nHARDEEVILLE, S.C. (WTOC) – Jasper County leaders are moving to consolidate five county-created fire districts into one Jasper County Rural Protection Fire District, to improve response times, reduce gaps in coverage, and create more efficiency as the county continues to grow.<\/p>\n
As that effort moves forward, the City of Hardeeville is pitching a separate proposal\u2014called \u201cProject Phoenix\u201d\u2014that would expand the Hardeeville Fire Department\u2019s coverage into the southern unincorporated portion of Jasper County, an area currently served by county fire services.<\/p>\n
This is the proposed fire coverage map that the City of Hardeeville is proposing to Jasper County.(City of Hardeeville)<\/p>\n
Hardeeville City Manager Josh Gruber said the plan is centered on public safety and getting first responders to residents faster.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost residents and citizens don\u2019t really care whose name is on the side of the truck that shows up,\u201d Gruber said. \u201cThey just want them to show up as quickly as possible and help them when they need help.\u201d<\/p>\n
County officials say the consolidation effort is intended to enhance service while also addressing financial challenges tied to fire protection funding. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal is ultimately to save taxpayer dollars, but the problem in the rub in all of this is I think we are effectively underwater on what we should be charging for fire service currently,\u201d Attorney for Jasper County, Lawrence Flynn, said.<\/p>\n
Under Hardeeville\u2019s proposal, \u201cProject Phoenix\u201d would cost an estimated $3.5 million. <\/p>\n
The city would take over operations at stations currently used by the county in those unincorporated areas and would hire about 30 new employees, adding to a current staff of around 50 firefighters.<\/p>\n
Gruber said the project would not mean job losses for current Jasper County firefighters. Instead, he said the additional hiring would fill vacant county fire positions.<\/p>\n
\u201cEffectively, what we are hoping is going to be able to happen is that the county can take those vacant positions off of the employment role and the city will bring them on, and we\u2019ll fill those positions,\u201d Gruber said.<\/p>\n
The proposal also outlines a cost-sharing approach, with Jasper County paying $2.9 million of the $3.5 million total, according to the city.<\/p>\n
Jasper County\u2019s timeline is to consolidate by the start of the 2027 fiscal year, which is July 1. <\/p>\n
Gruber said Hardeeville could incorporate \u201cProject Phoenix\u201d by that date if both sides reach an agreement, but the city is also willing to launch the project later if more discussion is needed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HARDEEVILLE, S.C. (WTOC) – Jasper County leaders are moving to consolidate five county-created fire districts into one Jasper…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":782932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,1587,320305,74172,320306,5025,224897,168217,1589,25238,5292,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-782931","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-arizona","10":"tag-az","11":"tag-city-of-hardeeville","12":"tag-consolidation","13":"tag-coverage-area-expansion","14":"tag-fire","15":"tag-fire-districts","16":"tag-jasper-county","17":"tag-phoenix","18":"tag-project-phoenix","19":"tag-public-safety","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116541426843452851","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=782931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=782931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=782931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=782931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}