Fire District, Fire Department go head-to-head

A proposed agreement between the Thermopolis Volunteer Fire Department and the Hot Springs County Rural Fire District has become a hot issue between the two entities.

The fire district collects a mill levy through the county each year and is in charge of disbursing those funds to the fire department. That disbursement, $80,713 for the year, is given to the department in four quarterly payments.

On July 18, three days before the quarterly payment was to be made, the district brought a written agreement to fire chief Mark Collins, insisting he sign the agreement before any disbursement of funds would be made.

Collins brought the agreement to the members of the fire department who unanimously voted against signing the document.

The last written agreement between the district and the department expired in 2002 and the two entities have been working by “gentleman’s agreement” for the last 13 years.

One issue the department has with the agreement is that it was done in secrecy. According to department officers, at no time was the department made aware an agreement was being drafted until they were presented with it and told to sign it and that the quarterly payment to the department would be withheld until it was signed.

“We are not being treated as partners,” county attorney and volunteer firefighter Jerry Williams said at the department’s officers meeting Sunday night. “This is not the way to negotiate a contract.”

The department uses the funds for equipment, fuel for the fire trucks and other necessary, fire related items. Without the money from the district, the department will not be able to put fuel in the trucks or pay their bills.

The department receives $45,500 from the Town of Thermopolis, $4,500 from the Town of Kirby and $3,515 from the Town of East Thermopolis for fire protection in those towns, but that $53,500 won’t last long.

“We’re not asking for anything we haven’t asked for in the past,” chief Collins said. “Actually, we’ve asked for less funding than we did last year. We’re only asking for about $700 more than our budget from 2001.”

The district currently has $1,320,197 in their coffers with an expected mill levy amounting to $746,000 coming in soon.

Another issue with the agreement is verbiage, specifically as it refers to the use of equipment.

The district owns all of the fire trucks used by the department. In the proposed agreement, the trucks are to be used for fire related purposes only.

While that means they may use the trucks to fight fires, it eliminates trucks from parades, prevents them from being at the football field to cheer on the Bobcats, keeps them from standing by at the demolition derby and stops them from giving rides to the children during their open house or during Fire Prevention Week.

The fire district consists of three publicly elected members who meet once a month. They are chairman Phil Scheel, Wedge Taylor and Ray Baird.

A fire department representative attends each of those district meetings, however, the department officers say no district member attends the fire department’s meetings. None of the district board members are firefighters.

“They just see the bills,” Collins said. “They have no idea what the day to day operations are of the department. They don’t know what’s going on up here, what trucks are being worked on, nothing.”

So what happens when the money runs out?

“If we have to use our own credit cards to put fuel in these trucks, we will,” Collins said. “We’re volunteers. We don’t get paid for this, but we’re not going to let our friends and neighbors suffer.”

“We did it on our own before the district,” Williams said. “We did fundraisers and everything else we could to keep things going.”

If Thermopolis and Hot Springs County were to have to rely on a paid fire department rather than volunteers, it would cost in the neighborhood of $2 million per year.

Joint meeting

Things came to a head at a joint meeting between the district and the department on Tuesday night.

District chair Phil Scheel said the district had come to the decision that a written contract needed to be made between the two entities to outline the specific duties on each side.

Collins asked why the district had not come to the department in the first place in order to discuss a viable contract, to negotiate, rather than drafting an agreement and dropping it on the department for agreement.

“We feel like you’ve compromised your integrity,” Collins said. “We’re very disappointed in the way this was handled.”

Scheel said the district had been discussing personal firefighter’s property being stored on land at the fire department and were concerned about the liability aspect of it and had contacted the insurance carrier regarding, specifically, trailers parked on the property.

He indicated the insurance carrier had said it wasn’t a good practice, prompting the district to write up the contract with a clause that would prevent the trailers being parked there in the future.

“We feel personal property isn’t part of the firefighter’s job and the insurance pool wouldn’t cover any injuries because of it,” Scheel said.

Firefighter John Fish, who has over 24 years on the department, pointed out that the land the fire hall sits on was given to the district by the fire department.

“Your job is to provide funding,” Fish said. “You were elected to fund us. That’s it.”

Several of the firefighters voiced their opinion that the district was “nit picking,” worried more about a few trailers parked on the property than fighting fires and the safety of the firefighters.

One of several local citizens in attendance at the meeting, Paul Galovich, felt the liability issue brought up by the district was ridiculous.

“I admire this department,” Galovich said. “They’ve worked without a contract for years because they are committed, because they have integrity. A handshake and a smile was good enough for them.

“I really don’t see the need to police them. That’s just an excuse. This level of commitment is hard to find in volunteers.”

Collins said parking the campers at the firehall was something allowed the members of the department for years as kind of a perk of volunteering.

“What’s next,” Collins asked. “This is something that should have been brought to us and worked on together.”

Williams agreed, adding the men felt the district was trying to take control of things that the firefighters have been doing for each other for years, long before the district was formed.

“This is offensive to every one of us,” Williams said.

Another bone of contention was the use of a building behind the fire hall, on the western edge of the property, for things not fire related. One instance that was brought up was the use of the building to weld a set of stairs for one of the firemen.

Williams pointed out the building in question was not built by the district.

The funding for the building came from several years of firefighters helping out on federal fires in the state.

At federal fires, after the first eight hours, firefighters are paid to battle the flames.

Williams said every single firefighter that fought on a federal fire donated their checks to the department to build the small building.

“They donated that money so we would have a separate building to build fire trucks in,” Williams said. “Having that building, building our own trucks, has saved this county literally thousands of dollars and now you have issue with someone spending 15 minutes to help out a fellow firefighter?”

Local landowner Ken Smith chided the district board for not negotiating first.

“The liability issue is so minimal,” Smith said. “I’ve read this contract and there are a lot of things in here that benefit the district but certainly don’t benefit these men.

“It’s your job, as our elected servants, to see these guys are taken care of.”

Smith said he is proud of the hours the volunteers put in for the safety of the community, and when he has visitors come in from out of town he loves bringing them up to the firehall for tours.

“You have some incredible people here,” he said.

Williams asked if the district had looked into an insurance rider that would cover liability for the trailers being parked there, saying the whole issue could possibly be solved with a simple $100 rider to the current insurance policy.

The board said they had not considered that, but would look into it.

“Its obvious we’ve had a big breakdown in communication here,” Scheel said. “I feel a responsibility to spend the taxpayer’s money correctly. I will, however, take responsibility as my tact in handling this was sub-par.”

Without signing the contract, the district did disburse the first quarterly payment to the department in the form of a check.

Both parties have agreed to sit down and hash things out, possibly doing a simple letter of agreement rather than a full-blown contract.