“Laws have changed, rules have changed, and obviously the world has changed, and some of the disasters we’re seeing,” Kevin Vogelpohl told LINK nky before the Oct. 7 Florence City Council caucus meeting. “This is going to take a lot of the red tape out of it.”
Vogelpohl, Boone County Emergency Management Director, was in Florence to brief the council on a new Kentucky Statewide Mutual Aid Agreement.
The agreement, drafted by the Kentucky Emergency Management and signed in July, is a voluntary program that provides mutual assistance in the event of an emergency.
“It exists to provide a way for government entities that opt into this, which is what we would be doing to provide mutual aid in the event of a disaster or request mutual aid in the event of a disaster,” Vogelpohl told council members.
“If we have a massive fire and we need a brigade of engines and ladder trucks to come up here, we can put a request in and the city of Lexington,” Vogelpohl said. Lexington, in turn, could respond immediately under the rules laid out in the new agreement, and help would arrive within hours instead of days.
Vogelpohl told council members that he had spoken with Florence Fire/EMS Chief Rodney Wren ahead of the meeting. “We both deployed to some of the disasters across the state in the last couple of years. And when you need resources, having to figure these things out on the fly while you’re there really takes up a lot of valuable time,” Vogelpohl said.
The agreement covers all city services if they’re needed, from police, fire and EMS to public works employees and it only covers requests made by other Kentucky municipalities.
“When you have an agreement like this in place, it really does reduce the amount of time where a simple phone call, calling and saying, we’re activating this thing, and can you have people on the road in four hours,” Vogelpohl said in an interview.
There is no added cost to Florence taxpayers. “The cost is you’re paying for your normal wages and the different things that you would have for the people when they deploy if they go someplace,” Vogelpohl said.
If Florence receives a request for assistance and is unable to honor it due to local demands or needs, there are no penalties. “There’s no harm, no foul. Nobody looks at you bad. It’s completely understood,” Vogelpohl explained.
