Council to vote on fire coverage aid for Goodyear

The City Council will consider a proposal at its meeting Tuesday night for the Maricopa Fire Department to provide service to a section of largely rural land within Goodyear’s city limits.

Goodyear – which annexed a large section of the Sonoran Valley including the community of Mobile a few years ago – requested the agreement since nearly all of its infrastructure is too far from the region to provide adequate public safety coverage. Under the deal, Goodyear would pay $72,867 annually, as well as $50,000 to help pay for the relocation of a Maricopa fire station west of the city’s core. The Maricopa Fire Department would then be responsible for providing emergency service to the area of Goodyear south of Komatke Road.

Maricopa Assistant Fire Chief Wade Brannon said the agreement would benefit both cities since moving a station to the western section of Maricopa’s newly annexed land would improve the fire department’s geographic coverage for the city. He added that area of Goodyear received 48 calls last year, and in order to ensure Maricopa Fire Department wouldn’t be stretched too thin with the additional responsibilities, the agreement has a clause where Goodyear would pay the city $1,000 per every call over 365 dispatches in a year.

“What the agreement does is allow Goodyear and Maricopa to improve service to a sparsely populated area cost-effectively,” he said.

During a presentation before the council two weeks ago, Councilmen Ed Farrell asked Brannon how the level of service in Maricopa would be affected when the fire department was responding to a call in Goodyear. Brannon said the majority of the dispatches to the area were single-engine calls, and the mutual aid agreements Maricopa has with the Ak-Chin and Gila River Indian Communities, as well as several Valley cities, would ensure the city would have sufficient coverage for emergencies.

The Goodyear City Council approved on its end of the agreement last week.

The fire station that would be moved, located at Bowlin and White and Parker roads, is a temporary site that was originally intended to move south of the railroad tracks. When asked how potentially moving the station west instead of south would affect city residents, Brannon said the original plan was to increase response time for new housing developments that have since been scrapped, most notably the 6,000-home Avalea community.

“Even though (the western portion of Maricopa and the Goodyear area) is sparsely populated, it’s more populated than the area south of the tracks,” he said.

The council is also scheduled to vote on amending the city code on purchasing (see related story).

To view the council agenda, click here.

If you go

What: Maricopa City Council
When: Tuesday, April 21. Study session – 6 p.m.; Regular session – 7 p.m.
Where: Global Water Center, 22590 N. Powers Parkway