Cities and counties throughout Northern Kentucky and the commonwealth are seeking to formalize mutual aid agreements, which will allow them to better share resources in the event of disasters and emergencies.
Edgewood, for instance, signed the statewide agreement on Aug. 4. Independence passed a resolution last week joining the agreement, as well. Park Hills, meanwhile, passed a municipal order recognizing the agreement on Monday, and the Kenton County Fiscal Court is set to vote on a similar resolution on Tuesday.
“I think that a lot of the natural disasters that have happened within the state for the last three or four years – there have been a lot of communities that have helped Eastern Kentucky and helped other areas, and I think this is just a way to more formalize that arrangement,” said Independence City Attorney Jack Gatlin at the Independence City Council meeting last week. Gatlin also serves as the city attorney for Erlanger and Taylor Mill.
Steve Hensley, the director of the Kenton County branch of the Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, affirmed the agreement had come about due to the large number of disasters in recent years and the requests for federal help in their wake.
“It’s another tool to enhance our preparedness level for large scale events,” Hensley told LINK nky.
In the context of cities and city departments, mutual aid refers to the sharing of people and resources in the event of both disasters and in more everyday work, such as policing and firefighting. Mutual aid between cities and counties is common practice in Northern Kentucky – the police departments of Newport and Covington, for instance, frequently share personnel for policing situations.
Additionally, police, fire and other EMS departments around Kentucky will often voluntarily send contingents of personnel and equipment to help out each other in the event a natural disaster. For example, Independence has sent officers to Eastern Kentucky to help out during the floods that have occurred several times over the past few years.
More recently, a 22-person team from several local departments, including Covington FD, Campbell Fire/Rescue, Fort Mitchell Fire Department and Hebron Fire Protection District, was deployed earlier this summer to help in relief efforts after tornadoes ripped through Pulaski and Laurel Counties.
Kentucky Emergency Management and several counties first signed the statewide agreement on July 30 in Frankfort. Officially called the Statewide Emergency Management Mutual Aid and Assistance Agreement, various institutions have been working on the agreement since 2020, according to the Kentucky League of Cities.
“We’ve all seen how devastating disasters can be — now, cities have a clear framework to get the help they need when every minute counts,” said Kentucky League of Executive Director and CEO J.D. Chaney in a press release the day after the initial signing of the agreement.
Hensley said similar agreements had been in place in the past, but given the large number of disasters in recent years, the agreement was resurrected.
In addition to formalizing procedures around planning, equipment and supplies, the agreement also aims to help local agencies curb costs. Usually, a jurisdiction requesting help from another agency is responsible for covering the costs of the helping agency. Under the new agreement, a recipient agency is able to request reimbursement from FEMA for services provided.
“They buy you peace of mind,” Hopkins County Judge/Executive Jack Whitfield told Kentucky Emergency Management after the agreement was first signed in July. “I know that if we needed to, I can send every road crew I have to Pulaski County, without bankrupting my own county to do it.”
The agreement will likely come before other jurisdictions in Northern Kentucky in the coming weeks.
Read the full agreement below.
