Sales tax helps area fire units, but chiefs question county decision-making

Carter County fire departments are much better prepared today than they were in 2006 when months of raging wildfires stretched volunteer firefighters and their equipment almost to the breaking point.

Thanks to revenue from a five-year, quarter-cent sales tax passed by the voters on July 25, 2006, firefighters are much better outfitted than they have ever been, and several departments have already received new fire trucks to replace at least a few of the battered, aging vehicles in their firehouses.

“I think the public will reap the benefit of the new equipment and better trained firefighters,” Dickson Fire Chief Troy Duke said.

County commissioners Dale Ott, Kevin Robinson and Bill McLaughlin delivered the first sales tax-funded fire truck to the Fox/Graham Volunteer Fire Department on May 12.

Although the new grass rig was the county’s largest single-item, sales tax-funded expenditure to date — $35,414 — it wasn’t the first time the commissioners actually spent some of the tax money.

The sales tax became effective on Jan.1, 2007, but it took some time before the commissioners actually got any money to spend. The tax was expected to generate an estimated $1.5 million per year. The county has received more than $1,182,000 so far in 2008.

As a first priority, the commissioners voted to buy complete sets of bunker and wildland protective clothing, including boots, helmets and gloves, for those departments with the most pressing needs. That spending decision was consistent with the Carter County Fire Chiefs Association’s goal of making certain the county’s volunteer firefighters were adequately protected before money was spent on fire trucks and equipment.

Since May, the commissioners have delivered three more trucks ­— new 4,000-gallon tankers for the Woodford and Healdton departments and a brush truck to the Criner Hills department. Future expenditures will include a ladder truck for the Ardmore Fire Department, a brush truck for Woodford and fire engines for the Fox/Graham, Dillard, Gene Autry and Springer departments.

The commissioners have the final say in how the revenue is spent, but all decisions are based upon input from the fire chiefs association and the independent three-member fire department sales tax advisory board.

While all the fire chiefs agree that the sales tax has been and will continue to be beneficial for county residents, not all of them are happy that the commissioners have the power to overrule their recommendations. The rift became public when the commissioners rejected the chiefs’ request to have input into color scheme selected for the new county fire trucks.

“We don’t want the people to think that we aren’t grateful,” Ratliff City Fire Chief Richie Wright said. “We appreciate the new equipment. But the tax was passed for the fire departments. They wanted us to have the equipment we need, not for the commissioners to decide what we need.”

Robinson said it was the commissioners’ responsibility to see that county funds are properly spent.

“They have zero authority to spend one dime of county money,” he said.

Although the fire chiefs association serves in an advisory capacity, their input is crucial to the process, Robinson said, and that the association is responsible for telling the commissioners the order in which needs are to be addressed.

“I want them to prioritize the pecking order,” he said. “(The program) has got to be run through the county. The county commissioners can’t give away our fiduciary responsibility. We are ultimately responsible.”