Brookhaven and Lincoln County officials are pleasantly surprisedwith the first 24 hours of the annexation transition, saying thechangeover went without a hitch.

“It was real quiet,” said Brookhaven Police Chief Pap Henderson.”From the time we took over to this morning, we’ve taken sixcomplaints in the annexation area, which was just fine.”

Henderson said the police department has arranged its patrolzones to keep the response time to the areas that were once in thecounty down to a minimum.

“The way we have it set up makes it so there really isn’t goingto be much change at all in the response times,” he said. “We canstill easily respond and be there in just a matter of minutes.”

Henderson said that though the annexation’s first official dayfell on a Sunday, which is usually a quiet day anyway, hisdepartment is comfortable with its new setup.

“We haven’t really been tested yet, but we’re confident in ourability to handle the situation,” he said.

Lincoln County Sheriff Steve Rushing, who had pledged hissupport and that of his department through the transitional phaseof the annexation, said to his knowledge the day was as seamless asit could be.

“As far as I’m aware, it went smoothly,” he said. “On our sideit’s been really quiet, but that’s been good because it gives us anopportunity to get out in the rural areas of the county more.”

Meanwhile, Brookhaven Fire Chief Bob Watts said his men havebeen taking calls in what used to be the county since theannexation mandate came down week before last. Also, since FireStation 3 on Industrial Park Road has the Jaws of Life,firefighters have always responded to traumatic car accidentsthroughout the entire county.

“We started responding the first day the mayor called and saidit was ours. We’ve made a couple of runs in that area, and the Jawsruns we would have done out there anyway,” he said. “The only thingI anticipate is probably more runs and grass fires.”

Watts did say the department’s run numbers will be bigger by theend of the month, and that they have seen a slight increase inruns.

“Of course in the end there will be more house fires becauseit’s a bigger area,” he said. “At month’s end that’s going to bemore runs. But as far as opening day, there was no remarkablechange. That could be because we were responding all lastweek.”

The fact that they already did so much work in the county, Wattssaid, is the reason he feels his men haven’t yet felt the crunch ofthe annexation.

“I didn’t anticipate it would make a big difference right offthe bat,” he said.