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Our partnerships provide cost-effective opportunities and add value for those we serve. Each improves efficiency and helps us accomplish more than we might on our own.
Merriam Partnership
Merriam Partnership
2025 marked the completion of our first 10 year contract to provide fire and emergency medical services to the City of Merriam, Kansas. This partnership with our northern neighbors has proven to be mutually beneficial and is a model example of responsible government. Our contract saves both cities money and improves the level of service for both jurisdictions. This partnership has proven so valuable that our cities came together in 2025 to craft and approve a new 20 year agreement for the Overland Park Fire Department to service the City of Merriam, Kansas.
Merriam Turns 75!
Merriam Turns 75!
2025 also marked Merriam's 75th year as a city. We helped celebrate this milestone by participating in their city-wide birthday celebration. In recognition of our ongoing partnership and our commitment to a future together, we produced this "Partnership Story" video. It highlights Merriam's beginnings and evolution as well as the origins of our partnership and hopes for the future.
JCCFD #1 Partnership
JCCFD #1 Partnership
In 2021, Overland Park Fire merged with a portion of Johnson County Fire District #2 (JCFD #2). Twenty-one of the district's employees became members of our department and we took on roughly half of their service area. Additionally, we contracted with JCFD #2 for aid agreements outside of our boundaries, including portions of southern Johnson County and northern Miami County. In 2025, JCFD #2 merged with Johnson County Fire District #1 (JCFD #1). Through this merger, JCFD #2 will cease to exist. This will necessitate amending our contract to reflect the newly formed Johnson County Consolidated Fire District #1 (JCCFD #1).
This relationship benefits both departments and the people residing in these contract areas by providing the most cost-effective means of servicing these jurisdictions.
BVSD Partnership
Our Training Division partners with the Blue Valley School District to design curriculum and provide instruction for the Blue Valley Fire Science program. It's one of the district's Career Ready Programs that aims to produce employment-ready first responders right out of high school.
In 2025 the first two program graduates hired by the OPFD completed their probationary year and received their badges and helmet shields. Our hope is that Ben Seitz and Gage Spachman are indicators of the fruit this relationship will bear going forward.
Watch our "First BVFS Graduates Hired" video to learn more
Agency Partnerships
The Overland Park Fire Department partners with regional emergency response agencies through a comprehensive mutual and automatic aid agreement and active membership in the Johnson County Fire and Emergency Services Chiefs Association. This framework enables Overland Park and neighboring jurisdictions to share critical personnel, apparatus, and specialized resources across jurisdictional boundaries. To ensure coordinated and rapid responses, agencies are dispatched by the centralized Johnson County Emergency Communications Center. This gets the closest available units to your incident, regardless of city borders. Furthermore, interoperability and safety on the fireground are enhanced because all participating departments adopt uniform operational standards, including the National Incident Management System (NIMS), standardized apparatus numbering, joint training exercises, and a shared countywide personnel accountability system.
The bottom line is that these partnerships ensure you get the right resources as quickly as possible when you call 9-1-1.
We're always looking for amazing people to join our team and help serve our mission. If you want to know more about employment opportunities with the Overland Park Fire Department, visit us at JoinOPFD .
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