Agenda - 01-24-2013-13 (5) - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

7 Fire District which includes about 6 residences on Winter Road and Meadow Lane adjacent to Merritt's Pasture on NC 54 By -pass. Orange County has contracted with North Chatham VFD to cover the southeastern portion of the County for decades. Part of the area was also historically covered by Carrboro Fire Department. When Chapel Hill annexed Southern Village in 2000 it divided the fire districts and created pockets of coverage including the areas of Bayberry, Azalea and Chimeneas. North Chatham provides an Insurance Services Organization (ISO) rated coverage of 6 (on a scale of 1 -10) but this only applies within six miles of the jurisdictions nearest fire station. In the case of the Azalea, Bayberry and Chimeneas neighborhood, they are beyond the six mile limit from North Chatham station #2 and thusly are rated an ISO -10 which is equivalent to no coverage. Chapel Hill fire protection is rated at an ISO -3 and the approximate distance for the farthest part of the neighborhood is less than 3 miles. Chapel Hill and North Chatham VFD both participate in a County -wide mutual aid agreement whereby neighboring fire departments assist each other in major incidents or on fringe jurisdiction incidents where the neighboring department is as close as or closer than the department having jurisdiction. This neighborhood in discussion is such an area and Chapel Hill has provided automatic mutual aid to North Chatham in this area for over 10 years. Being residential, this is not a high service demand area. In FY 2011 -12, the Chapel Hill Fire Department has only responded into this neighborhood twice; and for a period of the last 5 years has only recorded sixteen incidents requiring fire response. The Chapel Hill Police also have a mutual aid agreement with the Orange County Sheriff for this area and for a period of the last 24 months have recorded nineteen responses to incidents in this area. On May 10, 2012, Orange County hosted an information meeting for the public to discuss rising concerns about insurance rates in the neighborhoods of Azalea, Bayberry and Chimeneas. The meeting was facilitated by Assistant County Manager Michael Talbert. A couple of County Commissioners were present as were North Chatham Fire Chief John Strowd and Chapel Hill Fire Chief Dan Jones. Approximately 30 residents of the neighborhood in question attended and took turns telling about their insurance rate increases or in some cases, cancellations. Mr. Talbert explained the potential options including change of fire districts, voluntary annexation into the Town of Chapel Hill, building a closer North Chatham VFD station or no action at all. Most of the residents present were opposed to annexation and in favor of a change of fire districts. Chief Strowd explained that building another fire station was not financially feasible and everyone agreed that doing nothing was not an option. Residents also expressed a desire to change the ISO distance rules but it was explained that those were controlled by the State Legislature and could not be done locally. After a series of back and forth discussions this past summer between Mr. Talbert and the Fire Chiefs, Mr. Talbert appeared before the Chapel Hill Town Council on December 3, 2012 to request consideration for the Town of Chapel Hill to enter an agreement with Orange County to provide fire protection to the neighborhood identified as including Azalea, Beechridge, Grey