Opinion ID: 2495667
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 22

Heading: Plan of the City to provide first response fire protection and adequacy of existing fire protection

Text: ¶ 53. The chancellor found that Horn Lake had a plan to provide first response fire protection for the proposed annexation area; however, that obligation lies solely with the Walls Fire Protection District, which was established by the DeSoto County Board of Supervisors in 1986. Further, that fire protection district was created pursuant to Mississippi Code Section 19-5-175, which reads, in pertinent part, that [a]s long as any such district continues to furnish any of the services which it was authorized to furnish in and by the resolution by which it was created, it shall be the sole public corporation empowered to furnish such services within such district. Miss.Code Ann. § 19-5-175 (Rev.2003). ¶ 54. Horn Lake argues that it has a fire rating, pursuant to the Mississippi Rating Bureau, of Class 6, as opposed to the Class 8 rating of the proposed annexation area. However, Larry Carr of the Mississippi Ratings Bureau testified that the Horn Lake fire services were on the downside of a Class 6 and near a Class 7. Further, Carr opined that the deficiency points making Horn Lake close to becoming a Class 7 were a result of Horn Lake's acquisition of land in its 2002 annexation. Further, the chancellor noted that Horn Lake did not produce evidence of its attempts to stem this downward slide of classification. ¶ 55. The chancellor did not state whether this subfactor weighed for or against the reasonableness of annexation by the City of Horn Lake, which was not error, as the reasonableness of annexation is determined by the totality of the circumstances. In re Enlargement and Extension of the Corporate Limits of the City of Madison, 983 So.2d at 1042.