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Hoover council OKs Fire Department statewide mutual aid in emergencies

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Photo by Jon Anderson

The Hoover City Council this week approved a new agreement that will allow the Hoover Fire Department to participate in a consortium of fire departments across the state that aid one another in times of need.

The Hoover Fire Department already is part of an automatic aid agreement through the state that allows Hoover’s hazardous materials team and technical rescue team to provide aid across the state in times of emergency, such as tornadoes, hurricanes or other weather events. Hoover can be reimbursed for expenses through that program, Chief Clay Bentley said.

However, sometimes Hoover and other fire departments are called to provide other types of aid to one another during emergencies, such as helping answer fire calls, Bentley said. There was no formal agreement for such instances, but the Alabama Association of Fire Chiefs has come up with one, and the Hoover Fire Department wants to be part of it, the chief said.

There usually is no cost reimbursement for these types of arrangements, and Hoover likely would be providing help more often than receiving it, Bentley said.

The City Council also this week approved updated mutual aid agreements with the Cahaba Valley, North Shelby, Pelham, Rocky Ridge and Vestavia Hills fire departments. One of the changes is that these new agreements specify that departments can loan or borrow fire vehicles and equipment as needed, Bentley said.

Hoover next will be updating its mutual aid agreements with the Birmingham and Helena fire departments, he said.

Hoover’s accreditation agency recommended that the city’s mutual aid agreements should be updated more frequently, so the new agreements call for updates to occur every three years, he said.

The City Council also authorized the Fire Department to provide two additional instructors (part-time) to the Fire Services Academy at the Riverchase Career Connection Center, doubling the number of instructors assigned to that academy, Bentley said.

The new part-time instructors mainly will serve as mentors and teachers for senior-level students who already have completed the initial firefighter program in the academy, the chief said. The goal is to teach additional classes to those students, but those classes would need to be approved through the Alabama Fire College, he said.

The majority of the pay for the instructors would be reimbursed by the Hoover Board of Education, but the city would be responsible for paying about $6 per hour for the compensation, Bentley said.

LITIGATION PAYMENT QUESTIONS

In other business Monday, the Hoover City Council delayed voting on a budget amendment that would have provided $6 million for repaving and reconfiguring the parking lot at the Hoover Metropolitan Stadium and about $146,000 for the Risk Management Department. Councilman Casey Middlebrooks asked that consideration of the budget amendment be continued because the $146,000 for risk management was a new addition to the budget amendment since the council work session last week and no one had communicated what the money would cover.

City Attorney Phillip Corley said the money was needed in relation to litigation in which the city is involved but said he did not want to discuss details of the litigation in public. He offered to talk with the council in a private executive session, but the council continued the matter instead.

The City Council also:

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