Covina : Separate Fire Plan Studied
The City Council, which has been debating its continued participation in the fire department it shares with West Covina, will consider withdrawing from the agency at its Sept. 19 meeting.
City Manager John R. Thomson has been asked to prepare by the September meeting an estimate of the cost of the city forming its own department. At that time the council may end its two-year participation in the San Gabriel Valley Fire Authority.
The action followed a report from a Covina citizen’s committee on Tuesday that criticized the service the smaller city is receiving.
“The tone of the report was critical of the merger,” said Councilman Thomas O’Leary, who with Mayor Robert Low and Councilman Gary Coffey has been skeptical of Covina’s continued participation.
O’Leary says he expects a full discussion of the committee’s report and what it would cost Covina to form its own fire department. O’Leary and Coffey were elected in April and joined Low in saying the city should reexamine its participation in the authority.
The issue has already caused friction between the cities. In June, West Covina City Manager Herman R. Fast recommended that his city pull out of the authority, citing the lack of cooperation between the cities. The West Covina council deferred action on the recommendation.
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