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WINTON – A proposed change in the contract between Hertford County local government and eight local volunteer fire departments has the latter seeing “red.”

That contract, which is good for three years and comes up for renewal next month, calls for a reduction in the per call money that eight of the nine fire departments in the county receive in addition to their annual allocation. The only fire department that doesn’t quality for county funds is Station 1 (town of Ahoskie). That’s because they operate with a paid staff and only answer calls inside the town’s corporate limits.

The other eight departments – Ahoskie Rural, Como, Harrellsville, Millennium, Murfreesboro, St. John, Union, and Winton – each receive an annual allocation of $40,817.75 plus $250 each time they respond to a call for service.

The proposed new contract doesn’t change the annual allocation, but does impact the per call money. If approved, the eight volunteer departments would receive $250 per call for the first three calls to the same tax parcel per quarter. If a fourth call or subsequent calls are made to that same address, the responding fire department would receive only $100.

Officials with those eight departments are in opposition to the proposed change and several voice their concerns during the public comments portion of this past Monday’s regularly scheduled meeting of the Hertford County Board of Commissioners.

Craig Dennis, member of the Murfreesboro Town Council where he serves as the Fire Commissioner, voiced his support for the Murfreesboro Fire Department as well as the county’s other volunteer firefighters.

“Our volunteer fire members spend countless hours to keep our citizens safe as well as those living outside our town’s limits,” Dennis said. “We have one of the busiest fire departments in the county. They are constantly leaving their homes, their families, and their jobs when their pager goes off. They put themselves in harm’s way to protect our citizens. In my opinion, the funding for these departments should be increased per call and not capped at a lesser amount.”

Harrison Revelle, Chief of the Murfreesboro Volunteer Fire Department, presented the commissioners with a letter citing his concerns. He said the per call funding was established in the 1980s to help offset operating costs for the fire departments that rural citizens. The current amount ($250) has not been adjusted for inflation and increased operating expenses.

“Based upon increases in cost and call volume, a recommended budget amount of approximately $80,000 [per call funding] was presented by the Emergency Management Department, and rather this line item was cut and approved at $75,000,” Harrison read from his letter.

He said based on the 2023-24 fiscal budget, this would reduce revenues for rural fire service of approximately $6,000 per year for the Murfreesboro Fire Department alone.

Revelle went on to point out that his department responded to 229 calls for service in 2023, of which 122 calls were in the county. Of those county calls, 48 were to Chowan University White’s Crossing, a cluster of student-occupied apartments.

“Since 2012, our average call volume has increased nearly 10 percent per year,” Revelle noted.

He added that the contract, as currently written, does not pay per call money to any of the volunteer departments when they answer calls within their respective corporate limits. Likewise, it does not pay per call when one fire department responds for mutual aid service to another department when that service call is inside corporate limits.

“All of these fire departments present this evening are continuously operating on a shoe string budget and, quite frankly, barely surviving as it stands,” Revelle stressed. Murfreesboro currently has two fire trucks out of service for major mechanical repairs due to their age.

Volunteerism, meanwhile, is a thing of the past,” Revelle continued. “Without the volunteers, giving of themselves and their time it would be impossible to ensure the safety of the citizens and their property of this county. On behalf of the Murfreesboro Volunteer Fire Department and the citizens in which we serve, we urge this board to consider what they elect to spend the hard-earned dollars of these citizens towards.”

Robert Ward, Chief of the Winton Volunteer Fire Department, noted that fire response is a spontaneous action, not something that can be predicted or budgeted.

“I know there has to a budget financially, but no one knows what will happen on a daily basis,” he said. “We may get one call; we may get 300, you never know. We’ve been to this building (county courthouse) three times in one week. Putting a cap on it is detrimental because you don’t know what is going to happen.

“Our costs are going higher. Lowering the amount we get per call will hurt. Hope ya’ll can come to an agreement with us,” Ward added.

Brad Morris spoke on behalf of the Hertford County Firefighters Association.

“With inflation and rising operational costs, it’s time that we look at getting a little increase rather than a decrease in the per call funding,” Morris remarked. “The department this decrease affects the most is Murfreesboro, which will affect their budget about $5,000 or $6,000 per year.”

Morris also addressed the high volume of calls that the Murfreesboro firefighters answer at White’s Crossing.

“Maybe it’s time that we start looking at what can we do to try to combat these nuisance alarm calls,” he suggested. “Perhaps the county can look at imposing a nuisance alarm ordinance.”

Morris pointed out the skyrocketing costs that fire departments face: basic turnout gear is $12,000 to $15,000 per person; a basic fire truck is $500,000 upwards to $800,000 while a ladder truck is priced at $2 million. Then there are the other costs, to include but not limited to fire hoses, ladders, crowbars, pagers/radios, air packs, insurance, gas/diesel, and vehicle maintenance/repairs.

“We try our best to maintain good ISO ratings [from the state] that helps keep homeowners insurance rates down for our citizens,” Morris stressed. “If we don’t have the funding we need, we can’t maintain the equipment we need that helps maintain our ISO rating. All of our departments across this county maintain a 5 or 6 ISO rating, which is great for a rural area. When we lose funding, we lose a source to maintain our equipment and then our ISO rating goes to a 9, which drastically increases the cost of homeowners insurance for our citizens.

“This is not a good idea to reduce our per call money. The cost of operating a truck and the equipment and firefighters riding on it doesn’t change just because we’ve been to the same address three or more times,” Morris concluded.

Jerry Hunnicutt, Chief of the Harrellsville Volunteer Fire Department, asked the commissioners to consider allowing a representative of a local fire department to sit in on the county’s budget discussions for fire protection.

“We would like a voice in our budget; please consult with us,” he suggested. “It would greatly help the smaller departments, like us, St. John, Como, and Millennium. And we do medical fire response as well, for which we receive no additional funding.

“And because all of the fire departments in our county do such a great job with the ISO ratings, it saves our citizens on their [homeowner] insurance bills. I had one homeowner in our district that saved over $300 per year,” Hunnicutt added.

Speaking on behalf of the commissioners, chairman Andre Lassiter thanked the firefighters for all they do and said that the board would take their comments under advisement.

“We hear your voices; we hear you loud and clear,” Lassiter said.

Speaking one-on-one with the R-C News-Herald following the meeting, Revelle said he fears that if the change to the per call money stands as currently proposed, he believes most of the fire departments will not sign the new contract.

“I’m hoping we can reach an agreement on the contract with the county,” he said. “If we can’t, you mean to tell me that the county can spend $30,000 on a fireworks show [July 4^th] that shoots off at the same time as the one in Ahoskie? We’re arguing over $5,000 [difference in the current contract compared to the new proposal]. That’s less than one one-hundredth of one percent of the total county budget that has brought this whole thing up. Why would you cut a necessity and spent it on a luxury?”

Revelle noted that selling barbecue and chicken plates during annual fundraisers is not going to make up what the local fire departments stand to lose. And the biggest loser, he stressed, will be county residents.

“If these fire departments do not operate, it affects every county citizen, not just for fire protection, but their homeowners insurance will go through the roof,” he concluded.