By Chase Cook
The Capital
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Residents near the Annapolis Neck fire station will notice ambulances saying “City of Annapolis” instead of “Anne Arundel County” thanks to a new civic partnership.
Annapolis and county first responders will be sharing space at the fire station on Bay Ridge Road, a move fire officials say makes both departments more efficient.
The deal will send eight Annapolis Fire Department personnel to the county fire station, where they will operate an ambulance. Those city employees will handle medical calls from that station, freeing up eight Anne Arundel County Fire Department employees to bolster other stations around the county.
Annapolis Fire Chief David Stokes said his fire department will benefit as it collects fees from the calls, and he anticipated city response times would be faster.
“There are many buzzwords to describe this: It’s innovative, it’s out-of-the-box, it’s a game changer, it’s a visionary move and my all-time favorite — it’s a major paradigm shift,” Stokes said at the press conference. “But the reality is it is nothing more than a good old-fashioned common-sense approach to improve our emergency response capabilities.”
The Annapolis Neck Station takes about 1,700 medical calls a year, with about 1,000 of those in the city, officials said.
The county first responders will likely be moved and split between the Woodland Beach and the Riviera Beach stations, although Anne Arundel County Fire Chief Allan Graves said those decisions were tentative.
Officials said they were hoping to see reduced response times because more staff at county stations means those areas can handle increased calls. The city benefits because its stations sometimes help the county when its first responders are on a call.
The deal is set for one year and can be extended.
“By all accounts, this is a win-win,” Graves said.
Thursday’s announcement continues the partnership between the city and county, spearheaded by Mayor Mike Pantelides and County Executive Steve Schuh. Both the mayor and the county executive have said the partnership is a new way of the two governments working together and improving relations between the two bodies.
Previous announcements included the hiring of an economic development officer, who has shared office space between the city and county. Officials touted her role as bridging the gap between the two governments and bringing more business to both.
In other news, the county put $250,000 more into the city’s bus programs — now $385,000 a year. An estimated 28 percent of the riders are county residents, and 40 percent of the system is in the county, according to county data.
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