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Currituck Fire Agencies Seek Multi-year Contracts

Currituck County

CURRITUCK COUNTY - Currituck’s volunteer fire departments are hoping to get the county to agree to multi-year fire service agreements when members of the county’s fire advisory board meet with county commissioners tonight.

Fire chiefs from all six of the county’s volunteer fire departments have delayed signing new contracts with the county for next year because, in part, they’re hoping to get language inserted changing the agreements, which are currently signed annually, to multi-year pacts.

Hugh McCain, chairman of the Currituck County Fire and Emergency Services

Advisory Board, said it’s unlikely that next year’s agreement will be extended beyond one year. County fire officials are hoping that with commissioners’ agreement, multi-year pacts can start in 2010-11.

“It is our objective to get away from single-year contracts,” McCain said.

Advisory board members also hope to clear up questions they have about the fire budgets that are part of the recently approved county budget for next the fiscal year.

When commissioners adopted the county budget two weeks ago, they elected to divide the revenues expected from the fire tax — approximately $1.5 million — seven ways instead of six. The seventh share from the tax — about $220,000 — will go toward the future purchase of fire equipment. However, the decision also means that each of the six departments will receive $33,000 less in next year’s budget than they did in this year’s.

The decision apparently has stirred some controversy, as at least two fire chiefs have claimed they do not have enough money to pay their utility bills, and that the funding decrease will only make their situations worse.

County officials however, say their own financial records indicate the Lower Currituck and Crawford Volunteer fire departments have enough money to cover their bills.

“They have mentioned they’re having difficulty paying their bills, but our financial records show they have not drawn all their money” from the revenues from this year’s fire tax, County Manager Dan Scanlon said. “Our reports indicate they have county money to pay bills with.”

In response, McCain said there appears to be some miscommunication between the fire departments and the county. He said the fire departments have been dipping into their own funds since May to pay for electric, gas and insurance expenses.

There’s also been some controversy recently between the Fire and EMS Advisory Board and the county’s representative on the board, Commissioner Janet Taylor. The board in fact voted earlier this month to ask the Board of Commissioners to remove Taylor, a nonvoting member, from their board.

McCain said Taylor’s absences from several meetings have further contributed to the fire departments’ miscommunication with the county.

McCain has not yet made a formal request to Board of Commissioners Chairman Owen Etheridge to remove Taylor from the board.

For her part, Taylor said she’s perplexed why fire officials have been slow to sign next year’s fire contracts. She said language in the new contracts has not been altered from the previous agreement.

“The new contracts are exactly the same as their current contract,” Taylor said. “I’m not sure why they’ve decided to (delay).”

Taylor said she has not attended the past two meetings of the fire board because of the ongoing controversy. She believes taking part in the contract discussions as a fire board member would have posed a conflict of interest, she said.

Despite the controversies, both the county and fire officials anticipate reaching some agreement tonight.

“We anticipate a satisfactory outcome by Tuesday,” McCain said.

If the new contracts aren’t signed by Wednesday, the current contracts likely will be extended until new deals are signed.

If commissioners decide to give the $220,000 set aside for equipment purchases back to the six departments, the county won’t have to adjust next year’s budget, Scanlon said. The only effect will be the delay of equipment purchases by several years, he said.

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Source: dailyadvance.com

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Posted on Tue Jun 30 2009 at 13:24

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