Mayor’s Message – Pleasanton




 

 

Greetings from the Mayor’s office: This week, I come to you with exciting news. For the first time in the history of this city, we are going to implement a full time paid Fire Department. This is something we have been working on for the past year or so and it has finally happened. We will be able to cover this city and surrounding areas with 24-hour coverage with faster response time. This decision was made with the safety of our residents in mind and opens the door to a possible better fire rating for this city which means this city’s “stock” goes up as far as obtaining grants and possible lower insurance premiums. All of our paid firemen will be housed, during their shifts, at the Fire Station on Airport Road. This will give the PFD a total of eight fulltime fire fighters.

This city has always mostly operated with a volunteer force. Due to the dwindling numbers of volunteers and those responding to calls, we felt this is the best way to bring our Fire Department up to date. Our volunteers have done a wonderful job and they will certainly still be welcomed, and we encourage them to keep serving the city in this capacity. But each volunteer must sign a contract with the city. This will help protect the city from liability and ensure each volunteer is certified and also requires them to complete required training hours. We will continue to utilize the mutual aid agreements currently in place responding outside the city limits when called on by other departments. We are now able to hire at least four new firemen for the 24-hour coverage and this will be done without raising city taxes. My thanks for the good planning on the part of our City Manager Johnny Huizar, Financial Director Kristi Bandy and our new Fire Chief Mario Escobedo. Until next week, best regards.

TRAVIS HALL is the Mayor of Pleasanton. You may email him at mayor@pleasantontx.gov.

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