While Carroll County has seen its fair share of challenges with local volunteer EMS operations and adequate coverage, with the county even becoming involved at times, the county has not experienced anything like what’s happening across the border in Virginia.
There, Surry County officials are re-organizing the county’s 17 fire districts into a single county-wide operation. What wasn’t discussed by county officials, at least not publicly, during the public hearings and votes on that measure was more recent action — Surry County closing two fire departments entirely, rather than contracting with them to continue operating within the county’s new single district plan.
Even Officials in Mount Airy have said the decision could affect its own operations, since the city depends on mutual aid agreements with both Bannertown and Franklin fire departments, the two targeted by the county for closure…