Nassau County’s three towns are now united in their efforts to provide fast, efficient emergency services.
The towns of Hempstead, North Hempstead and Oyster Bay have entered into an intermunicipal agreement to share such services.
The cooperative pact between the towns was approved unanimously by the Hempstead Town Board on Dec. 11.
At a “supervisor symposium” in Oyster Bay in April, Hempstead Town Supervisor Laura Gillen said that North Hempstead Town Supervisor Judi Bosworth, Oyster Bay Town Supervisor Joseph Saladino and she met and discussed how they could work together to provide better services and save taxpayers money. Gillen said that is where the idea of the emergency services pact formed.
The eight-page agreement details the sharing of emergency public works services. The arrangement will stay in place until two of the three towns exit the pact, or the fifth anniversary of its signing by two of the three towns, whichever is sooner.
Each town will “share and make available so much of its own resources, services and personnel … as it deems available, necessary, or desirable to assist” the other municipalities, the pact says.
The agreement also acknowledges that the sharing of town emergency resources will serve as a supplement and not a replacement.
Irregular weather patterns affect the north and south shore of the county differently, Gillen said, and this pact will make sure that all three towns are better equipped to handle situations when the need arises.
