There are many faces to the governing body of Roxboro and Person County. Working together, these two entities become one cooperative spirit wherever possible to make things more efficient and effective for taxpayers. Residents can count on the communication lines remaining open between the city and the county. The partnership works because, depending on the project or issue, the city or the county has to take the lead and the other has to be a supporter. This helps maintain a balance of power and insures that what is accomplished is best for the entire community.
The primary services provided by Roxboro city are water, sewer, solid waste, code enforcement, fire and police protection, street and light maintenance, and planning and zoning. The primary services provided by Person County are public education funding, health and social services, ambulance, emergency management, 911 Commission, building and environmental health inspections, parks and recreation, library, airport, tax assessments, register of deeds, public transit system, recycling program, IT and GIS functions, children’s programming and funding of the Senior Center.
Community safety is of overall importance to both the city and the county. One example of departments working together is the Roxboro Fire Department’s assistance to Person County’s volunteer fire departments on an as-needed basis. The county’s fire service depends heavily on volunteers and sometimes needs additional firefighters and equipment. In those cases, the city’s full-time department comes in to help the county’s volunteers. The Emergency-911 Dispatch, a jointly managed operation, dispatches both the city’s law enforcement and fire teams as well as the county sheriff and rescue squads.
The community’s Confined Space Rescue team, required by OSHA, has been a tremendous help to the community’s existing industries. Local industries contributed the financial resources to purchase the necessary equipment and the fire departments went through confined space training to meet the federal government’s requirements. This is another example of the city and county pulling together to jointly find a creative solution rather than requiring individual companies to invest thousands of dollars in equipment. All the citizens in the community benefit from the fire department personnel having this training and expertise.
