The Hebron Fire Department and Greendale Fire Department have a longstanding working relationship that transcends geographical borders.
Greendale is a city in Dearborn County, Indiana – directly across the Ohio River from Boone County. Due to their close proximity, the Hebron and Greendale fire departments have helped respond to calls in their corresponding jurisdictions and vice versa. The covered areas are from the Petersburg Road exit off I-275 in Boone County to the Lawrenceburg exit in Indiana.
The Boone County Fiscal Court heard a presentation during its Tuesday morning meeting where the Hebron Fire Chief Tony Scheben stressed the importance of maintaining their relationship with Greendale due to the increased number of runs across state lines in recent years.
“In the past few years, our runs into our district and deeper into Indiana have increased,” Scheben told the court.
To help with the increased runs into Indiana, the Hebron and Greendale fire departments decided to utilize an interstate management mutual aid and assistance agreement, also called the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, between Kentucky and Indiana. Essentially, the agreement enables states to share resources during disasters.
The agreement complements the federal disaster response system, providing timely relief to states that request assistance from other member states. For the agreement to be enacted, it requires approval from legislative bodies and oversight boards in both states.
“It has to be approved by our board and by their oversight board,” Scheben explained. “Then, Indiana law has requirements for who approves it. From there, Kentucky law has requirements that it’s approved by our local fiscal court.”
Due to the longstanding agreement between the two agencies, a formal action item was not necessary for general fiscal court business. Instead, because of the statute, Scheben’s presentation for the court satisfied the requirement, explained Boone County Administrator Matthew Webster.
“That statute has the local board approve it and then it states it must be delivered to the fiscal court,” Webster said.
Since Scheben mentioned that the Hebron Fire Department’s runs into the state of Indiana had increased, Commissioner Chet Hand asked if the Greendale Fire Department was providing a similar level of support back to Hebron.
“Is it the other way around as well? Are they providing similar support the other direction?” asked Hand.
Scheben responded with “yes” and touted the constructive working relationship he has with Greendale Fire Chief Shannon Craig. When the Greendale Fire Department helps respond to a call in Kentucky, it’s typically in the Petersburg area, Scheben said.
Hand then asked if the Hebron Fire Department had to specifically request help from the Greendale Fire Department on a per-call basis. Scheben said they do not. Instead, both departments have integrated each other’s radios into their communications system.
“They actually have our active 911 and vice versa and we went ahead and were able to program some of their radios to be able to come onto our communication system,” he said.
