The city of Greensburg and Honda Manufacturing of Indiana entered into a partnership to help promote public safety both in the community and at the new Honda plant during a special meeting of the Board of Works earlier this week.

The agreement specifically outlined an effort to allow the city to hire six additional firefighters in order to fully staff the new Honda plant.

“We’ve worked closely with Honda to create a valuable relationship,” Mayor Gary Herbert said. “This plan will allow us to meet Honda’s needs while at the same time maintaining the excellent level of service our citizens have come to expect from the Greensburg Fire Department.”

Fire Chief Scott Chasteen and the city were approached by Honda, where the corporation introduced the concept of a contract between the city and the manufacturer.

“The concept we’re using is from the Honda plant in Alabama,” Chasteen said.

The parties involved liked how that system worked there, and liked the professionalism. Seeing how well it worked in Alabama, the powers that be at Honda decided to use the same concept.

Chasteen was even asked to travel to the plant in Alabama, to see how the program worked and to get ideas for the plan in Greensburg.

“With the contract signed, the Alabama plant will be sending people up to help us,” he added.

Chasteen was glad the program had been developed somewhere before coming to the city.

“We don’t have to reinvent the wheel,” he said.

Before the contract was accepted, Herbert and Chasteen wanted to make sure the city was protected on all fronts. The different between this contract and the other contracts Honda has been entering into is that, instead of supplying parts or things, the contract would be providing a service.

“We had to go back and forth until we got it right,” Chasteen noted, referencing the team effort it took to get the contract off the ground.

“Honda was very willing to deal with whatever situation came up,” Herbert added. “They’ve been very good to deal with.”

The city has never put personnel in a facility the way they will be with Honda.

“Nothing like this has ever been done in Greensburg,” Herbert said. “And there will be no cost to the city at all. They pay every dime for the firemen.”