VFDs scratch for funds

Believe money received from Marion County ‘inadequate’

By Paul Fallon

FAIRMONT — Often, local fire departments in the county assist one another during emergency calls.

During one recent call, Bunner Ridge’s firefighters assisted the Winfield Volunteer Fire Department. The members of the Bunner Ridge VFD drove their truck off the ridge for the call, but once the call was handled, the volunteers had a hard time getting their truck back to its station.

“We had to take up a collection from our own guys so we could put gas in the truck to get back up on the hill,” said Roger Channell, chief of the Bunner Ridge department and president of the Marion County Fire Association.

All across the country, fire departments respond to a wide spectrum of calls. However, the departments are having a hard time finding funding.

Firefighters are called for situations ranging from automobile accidents to fires, from hazardous material spills to water rescues. Volunteer agencies also make up the bulk of departments around the Mountain State.

In Marion County, there are a total of 13 volunteer departments comprised of about 250 members.

These departments receive funding from a variety of sources, ranging from state allotments to local bake sales. County commissions around the state also provide funding to their volunteer departments. However, the Marion County departments receive less funding than departments in any of the surrounding counties.

During past years, the commissioners have only given about $1,000 to $1,200 per year to the volunteer departments. This year, the commissioners provided an additional $5,000 to each of the 13 departments around the county, bringing the total contribution to around $6,000.

This additional funding was to be used to purchase high-band pagers for the departments. However, Channell along with several of his fellow firefighters have said that the approximately $1,200 provided to the departments on a yearly basis does not cut the mustard.

“That amount is inadequate,” Channell said. “We need a lot more than that from the county.”

Doug Mongold, president of the West Virginia Fire Association, agrees with Channell’s assessment. Mongold, who is also the fire chief of a department in Hardy County, said local commissioners there provide $5,000 apiece from the county.

“They’re (Marion VFDs) not getting anywhere near enough,” he said.

Marion County Commission President Alan Parks said the reason other counties, such as Monongalia and Harrison, provide more money to their volunteer departments than Marion is because those counties have a larger budget or a countywide levy.

Monongalia County has a $31 million in its general fund and $4.7 million in its coal severance fund. In contrast, Marion County has $9.5 million in its general fund and $1.3 million in its coal severance fund. Harrison County supports its fire departments through a countywide vital-service levy.

However, Preston County, which has $5.2 million in its general fund and approximately $135,000 in its coal severance fund, provides $3,000 to each of the 12 volunteer departments in the county, according to Dianna Hartman, administrative secretary for the Preston County Commission. Other than this year, which includes the additional $5,000 contributions, that is more than twice the amount provided to the Marion VFDs.

Parks said that he was not against providing more funding to the local volunteer departments. However, he said he would like to see more financial accountability at the departmental level.

Commissioner Wayne Stutler said he and the other commissioners were seriously looking at increasing the county’s contributions to the volunteer departments to use for capital projects. These projects would include buying new equipment, but not for operating expenses.

“We’re looking at all of their (VFDs) funding needs,” Stutler said.

Commissioner Randy Elliott said he strongly supports increasing the county’s funding to volunteer departments. He said that the approximately $6,500 given to the departments this year was not nearly enough.

“And that’s more than we’ve ever given them,” he said.

Elliott said he would like to see the county’s contribution increase to somewhere around $10,000 per department annually. He added that county departments struggle to find funding as expenses such as the cost of gasoline increase.

“And insurance costs are really high, too,” Elliott said.

Channell said that his department paid more than $11,000 last year in just insurance premiums alone. He added that his fuel costs ran around $5,000 as well.

“And we still have to pay all our utility bills and maintenance costs, plus the cost of equipping the firefighters,” he said.

Mongold estimates that it costs around $1,500 to $2,000 to equip a firefighter with the basic gear. He added that depending on the frequency of use, a firefighter will normally get about five years out of basic gear. Volunteer fire departments must also pay for training members. Classes can sometimes cost as much as $600, said Tom Miller, a member of the state fire association and Sissonville volunteer firefighter.

“And the classes are offered in different parts of the state,” Mongold said. “So firefighters have to come up with the money to pay for their travel expenses when they go to the class.”

The volunteer fire departments around the state receive funds from sources other than the county. An insurance surcharge in the state is split between all volunteer fire departments in West Virginia, Mongold said, which is about a $40,000 contribution to each department.

A 1 percent surcharge is tacked on insurance premiums in the state. Twenty-five percent of that surcharge is used by the state to fund volunteer fire departments. Another half percent insurance surcharge is also used to fund the departments around the state, said Sam Love, a lobbyist representing the state fire association.

“But considering that costs are rising on everything, that money doesn’t go very far,” he added.

Volunteers make up the backbone of fire protection not only in the state, but in the country as well. Of the more than 1.1 million firefighters in the nation, 822,950 are volunteers. According to Mongold, volunteers sacrifice their time and sometimes even their lives in order to serve their neighborhoods and their counties.

“It takes a lot to be a volunteer fireman,” Elliott said. “They do a lot for the community.”

E-mail Paul Fallon at pfallon@timeswv.com.