The Guilford County Board of Commissioners is considering moving the lines of two fire districts in the county and the commissioners want to know how people feel about the change.
To that end, the Board of Commissioners is conducting a public hearing on Thursday, June 3 at 5:30 p.m. in the commissioners’ meeting room on the second floor of the Old Guilford County Court House at 301 W. Market St. in Greensboro. It appears that regular people are being invited to attend this public hearing and actually speak in person to the Board of Commissioners.
The purpose of the hearing is to “consider an adjustment of the boundaries of the Colfax Fire Service District Overlay and the No. 18 (Deep River) Fire Service District Overlay.”
Guilford County Emergency Services Director Jim Albright wrote in an email that the change would mean that some properties that are now in the Colfax Fire Service District would be moved into the No.18 (Deep River) District.
Albright stated that the High Point Fire Department has been serving an area in the north side of High Point since 2005 – even though the area remained in the Colfax Fire District.
“We are correcting that,” he wrote. “These parcels will move from the Colfax Fire District to the Deep River Fire District (that is totally served by the High Point Fire Department under contract with Guilford County). Deep River ceased operations in 2004.”
Albright added that these types of adjustments have been made over the years for other fire districts.
The public is invited to attend the hearing and offer comments regarding the proposed adjustment. The report spurring the action, including a map showing the current and proposed boundaries of the service districts, is available for inspection in the Clerk to the Board’s office in Suite 203-C of the old courthouse where the commissioners meetings are held.
Guilford County Commissioner Alan Perdue, a former Guilford County emergency services director, said these types of adjustments have been made in the past to shift fire service delivery.
“That can be based on distance from a station and insurance rating requirements,” Perdue said. “An example would be an area outside of a five mile boundary of one station but within that distance of another.”
Perdue stated that he believes it’s been quite a while since the county made any changes of this sort.
