City eyeing expansion of police, fire jurisdictions

By Staff
Leada Gore, Hartselle Enquirer
Plans to change Hartselle’s planning boundaries may lead to expansion of its police and fire jurisdictions as well.
Hartselle’s Planning Commission and City Council met Monday night to work out plans on changing the planning jurisdiction and to clarify annexation goals. The city currently has a set planning jurisdiction that varies from zero to 1/2 mile outside the municipal limits. The matter came to a head recently when the commission recommended denying annexation outside the planning jurisdiction only to have the council OK the request.
For Council President Kenny Thompson, annexation is a simple matter, even if the property lies outside the planning jurisdiction.
The council is proposing changing its planning jurisdiction so that it would float three miles outside the city limits, allowing it to change with each annexation. This change would mirror a proposal by Mayor Dwight Tankersley to expand the existing fire and police jurisdiction to three miles outside the city limits.
State law requires cities the size of Hartselle that want to expand fire and police jurisdiction to do it to three miles outside the city limit.
The proposal would limit the fire department to calls related to fires and not medical-related calls.
Tankersley said the change would take a while, as several ordinances would have to be altered.
In the meantime, most council members said they were in favor of changing the planning jurisdiction to mirror the three-mile boundary. Most also said they were also in favor of being pro-annexation.