By Janet Jacobs
Corsicana Daily Sun
Corsicana — The Corsicana City Council and the Navarro County Commissioners Court will meet in a special joint work session of the city and county commissioners at 2 p.m. Tuesday at the Corsicana Government Center to discuss how to split costs on the shared services, such as EMS, fire fighting, animal shelter and library, as well as reimbursing the county for tax collections.
For the last three years, the city has been sending notice to the county that it wanted more money for shared services. In recent years, the county has paid a flat fee of $75,000 to allow rural residents to use the city’s library, animal shelter, and to have Corsicana fire fighters respond to rural fires.
These requests for more money have not been included in the county’s budget, however.
In August, the city asked for a $10,000 increase in reimbursements for each service, and particularly on fire responses. The county did not agree to it. In response, the city said it would begin billing the county for individual fire calls. The new fee was set at $250 each time a fire truck responds to a fire out in the county, while fire investigations will cost $50 per hour, plus expenses.
“We’re billing on a per-call fee, but the county has not paid those yet,” said Connie Standridge, city manager.
The county hasn’t been dispatching the city fire trucks to county fires as much since, said Fire Chief Donald McMullan.
“Our call volume to the county is less than it was last year,” he said.
The upcoming meeting will discuss the three types of services, as well as ambulance services the city provides for the county, and the city’s payments to the county for tax collection services.
No votes or action are expected to come out of the meeting.
The meeting is merely the usual annual joint work session in preparation for the budget process, said H.M. Davenport, county judge.
Also on Tuesday, the city council will meet in regular session at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the city hall to approve the final version of the parks master plan. The plan is necessary to applying for grants which could pay for the realization of some of the plans.
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Janet Jacobs may be reached via e-mail at jacobs@corsicanadailysun.com. Want to “Soundoff” on this story? E-mail: soundoff@corsicanadailysun.com
