Exactly how many city and county employees does it take to buy a fire truck, and how long should it take?

Those questions spring to mind with regularity these days as the City of Natchez and Adams County work out a rather expensive part of the joint city-county fire protection agreement.

The agreement includes city fire crews responding to fires outside the city limits in exchange for the county paying a large annual fee to the city to help offset the costs.

Elected officials from both sides have bickered about the agreement for years and years. In short, the city doesn’t think it’s paid enough and the county thinks it’s paid too much.

As part of the last version of the agreement the two entities adopted, the county is required to purchase a new fire truck for the city.

The city will, in turn, provide the county one of the city’s aging trucks which cannot be used in the city due to the truck’s age and the city’s good fire rating, but would be perfectly serviceable for the county.

Purchasing the truck has proven to be a comedy of errors. First the county said it planned to obtain a grant to fund the truck, but that fell through, causing more delays.

At the moment the city fire chief and the county purchasing clerk seem to be confusing one another on the specs the new truck needs.

Can the two groups meet soon and simply get on the same page and get the truck purchased soon?

Communication is at the root of this problem and should be an easy fix; a little effort is all that’s required.