Canton is focusing its efforts on finding a consultant who will help find the best ways for the fire department to succeed on its impending ISO (Insurance Service Office) rating, as well as identify where gaps in service in staffing level and stations are located.

City Manager Scott Wood said the city will be inspected in either February or March. ISO ratings represent the level, on a 1-10 score with one being the best and 10 the worst, the level of fire protection  and also determines what homeowners pay on their insurance. Inspections are conducted roughly  every 10 years.

While this is going on, Cherokee County has met with city officials at least twice in recent weeks over discussions of a possible merger of Canton Fire into Cherokee County Fire and Emergency Services.

County Manager Jerry Cooper confirmed the talks, and said there could be some real benefits to a consolidation. He said the city approached the county in 2002 about a merger, but “due to a number of issues, it didn’t work out.”

“We have since been approached in the last maybe six months about the idea of consolidating the services,” he said. “In doing so, if we can achieve efficiencies and enhance the services provided, it would certainly be a worthwhile goal, and we’re fully supportive. It’s all about the details that we have to work out.”

For example, Cooper said in order for Canton to maintain its ISO rating, they likely need to construct two fire stations — one in the Laurel Canyon/Great Sky area and the other along Ga. 20.

“We have two stations near those areas, one is Station 3 at (Ga.) 140 and the other is Station 9 off of (Ga.) 140 on the north side of the intersection of Old Ga. 5 and downtown,” Cooper said.

“We could work with them and construct two stations to save money,” he added.

Combining equipment for the two fire agencies would help to better utilize that equipment and the personnel they each have, he added.

“Station 9, we would have those personnel in the new station and also, we have personnel at Station 3 that we could house in the new station,” he said. “It would reduce the necessity for the city of Canton to hire personnel to staff those stations. So, (it’s) not only capital efficiencies, but operational efficiencies.”

Lingering issues the county has include taking a look at capital contributions, retirement and health care benefits, he said, “the standard issues you’d have to look at in accepting personnel from another organization.”

Cooper said any merger would simply be a transfer of assets.

“It’s what I envision,” he said. “That would be the best approach.”

Wood confirmed the discussions with the county, characterizing them as “preliminary and conceptual.”

“I think we always ought to be open-minded to any opportunities that could accrue to the benefit of both governmental entities and their respective citizens,” he said. “Whether this specific opportunity would do that, we don’t know.”

Wood said before the city seriously considers consolidation, it needs to first put focus on the pending ISO inspection.

“We do have some pockets of concern, no question,” he said. “We need to, in particular, look at the Laurel Canyon area, but not necessarily limit it to that area. We know we’re going to at least need one fire station ... then we can contrast that against what proposal it is the county wishes to make, specifically.”

The city has been discussing floating a bond measure before voters for the July primary that would pay for the cost of a new station or stations. It would not, however, fund staffing.

During a discussion on developing a comprehensive fire protection plan at the Jan. 26 City Council meeting, Fire Chief Dean Floyd told the council that the ISO standard is six personnel staffing each station per shift; currently, the city is at three people per shift.

Floyd estimated that the total cost of paying additional personnel to meet that level would amount to $400,000-$500,000.

Mayor Gene Hobgood followed Floyd’s remarks, saying funds to support additional personnel would have to be addressed in the city’s next budget in July.

Hobgood said he has some apprehension about a merger with the county and would rather pursue the bond issue.

“My initial impression is it’s not something the city would probably want to do at this point,” he said. “There’s two things that would have to occur … it would have to be something that would not cost our city taxpayers any more money than they’re already paying, No. 1, and No. 2, we’d have to be assured that our ISO rating would not increase.”

Currently, the county is at a 5/9 rating, while Canton is at a 4 rating. The county recently had its ISO inspection, but won’t receive results for about six months. Floyd has said he believed Canton Fire, at its current state, would be downgraded to a 5. ISO allows one year for adjustments to be made to improve the rating.

Ward II Canton Councilman Bob Rush, who lives in Laurel Canyon and has been vocal about the need for fire department improvements, said he thinks a merger is a bad deal for the city.

The city is allocated $500,000 in SPLOST (Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax) funds for the construction of a new station (Canton currently has two — one downtown and another on Marietta Highway), and Rush said he feels that’s what the county is after.

“Plus, we already have the equipment available for a fire station, and if the city merged with the county, then the residents of Canton would have to pay 3.1-mill fire tax,” he said. “That could be done two ways – the city would make the payment to Cherokee or Cherokee would assess city residents 3.1 fire tax, and I would imagine the city millage would diminish by 3.1, which would give us 3.7 mills of property tax, which is not enough to do what we need to do, I don’t think.”

Canton already is considering a consolidation of its water and sewer department with Cherokee County Water and Sewerage Authority, and talks of merging the fire department begs the question, “what do we need a city for?” Rush added. “We have nothing to offer anybody.”

But Post 2 Commissioner Jim Hubbard, who is a volunteer firefighter and was one of the founders of the county’s Hickory Flat station, wholeheartedly disagreed.

“I think it’s a very good idea,” he said. “It’s always better to have it under one umbrella — the people know each other, they know the training levels and so forth.”

Although Canton’s ISO rating is one point better than the county’s, Hubbard said the county is hoping its rating will come down to a 4 when the report comes back.

“It has been working very well (with the two fire agencies right now) because of the automatic aid, which is the agreement whereby the closest fire truck is dispatched regardless of whether it’s in the city or out of the city and whether the call is in the city or out of the city,” he said. “It makes the response almost seamless.”

Hubbard said the county offers training for firefighters to become emergency medical technicians, but Canton Fire does not.

In addressing the staffing with a merger, he said some adjustments could be made to improve response times.

“Because of staffing, one of the suggestions was that the ladder truck could move up to the airport station, which is just north of Canton,” he said. “A crew would be available instead of having to call in people to respond, so it would make the response time even less downtown.”

Cooper said field personnel from Canton Fire would roll into the county’s organization, becoming county employees.

He said the county is in the process of drafting an agreement, which will most likely be completed in a week or two and will then be forwarded on to the city for review.

“Then we can begin more serious discussion,” Cooper said.