[1/10/04City and county elected officials have instructed their fire department bosses to look into a way for Vicksburg firefighters to respond to fires outside the municipal limits.

Vicksburg’s mayor and aldermen met with Warren County supervisors for the first time this year and for the first time since those meetings broke down months ago amid debates and some name calling. The first meeting with the new county Board of Supervisors led by new board president District 3 Supervisor Charles Selmon went smoothly with most present saying they felt they had accomplished more than in previous years.

Former board president and District 5 Supervisor Richard George was not at the meeting because of a family problem, Selmon said. The other three supervisors and the city’s elected officials attended.

Officials agreed to meet again later this month with a plan to allow Vicksburg firefighters to provide mutual aid to Warren County volunteer firefighters. They pointed specifically to areas around Sherman and Indiana avenues where the city has fire stations near the city limits, but firefighters cannot respond to neighborhoods just across the lines.

Oak Park Subdivison, off Indiana Avenue just east of the city limits, is one of the county’s largest subdivisions.

“All of these major collections of people need to be addressed,” said Mayor Laurence Leyens.

District 2 Supervisor Michael Mayfield, whose district includes all of Sherman Avenue, raised the topic after saying he had been asked by many residents in his district about city firefighters responding outside the municipal limits.

“People are becoming really antsy about that,” Mayfield said.

Leyens said the city is willing to enter an agreement with the county that would allow Vicksburg firefighters to respond as mutual aid, meaning they would back up the volunteers if needed, or to take primary responsibility for fighting fires in a designated area around those stations.

County officials indicated they would be willing to provide financial support for those stations. District 1 Supervisor David McDonald said that one concern he has run into in his district is that people are concerned that the city will try to annex those areas next.

Leyens said he has no interest in more annexation until the city has finished making improvements in areas annexed 14 years ago.

Officials also agreed to meet together with Warren County delegates to the Legislature before the end of the month to pitch a request for authority to raise telephone surcharges that fund E-911.

Per-line rates of $1 a month for residences, $2 a month for businesses and $1 a month for cell phones help fund the countywide emergency dispatch center, but fall short of covering the center’s $840,107 budget. Those amounts are capped by state law.

The city and county have supplemented that funding since the joint operation was created 13 years ago. Last year, city officials proposed seeking legislation to raise those caps to $2.50 for residential customers and $5 for businesses, but county officials did not agree to that request and the session ended without any action.

Supervisors set those rates in compliance with state law which today are at the maximum allowed.

“One of the problems is the perception that you are raising my taxes or penalizing people who have multiple phone lines,” Selmon said.

McDonald said one way to make that plan more palatable to business owners would be to make the surcharges the same for business and residential phone lines or limit the number of phone lines that are billed for the surcharge at a single location.