Starting Friday, fire departments in Navarro County are warning residents they may be unable to respond the next time disaster strikes. It comes amid a contract dispute with the county and its volunteer fire departments leaving just one of two dozen agencies obligated to help the next time someone calls 911. Allie Spillyards explains.
In a firehouse, patience isn't just a virtue, it's a state of being, waiting for the next call to come in.
But in Navarro County, patience is growing thin.
“The commissioners have had ample opportunity, ample time to get the contract done,” said Vice President of the Navarro County Volunteer Fire Association Aaron Hogue.
It's been two months since the contract between the county and its 23 volunteer fire departments expired, leaving them without the $800 they can receive each month.
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“There’s no money for them to run. They can't put fuel in their trucks to go out and fight fires, to go out and help people who are sick,” said Hogue.
“I’m sure the citizens are going to be less than real happy with the situation, but there's nothing that we can do about that,” said County Judge HM Davenport.
After the Commissioner’s Court decided to take a closer look at the contract it renews annually, Davenport said they presented a new version to the Association and then another, both of which were rejected.
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An attorney is now helping the court work on a third, as both sides try to find common ground in a dispute over who's liable should things go wrong.
“There’s nothing keeping them from responding to calls. OK. This only stops the money that we send to volunteer fire departments to help them on their fuel and equipment updates and so on,” he said.
But fire chiefs Norman Lay and Jerry Newsom said it's not that simple.
“We’re very thin. We've gotten down to about $500 in our account. And if we fuel up all of our trucks at once, we're out of money. Yesterday we had to sell a suburban that was our command vehicle just to make it the next couple of months,” said Lay.
Without an agreement soon, Lay said his department in Chatfield could fold.
Newsom's department will continue to respond to calls in the city of Angus. Still, he fears what will happen if they no longer assist Corsicana, the county's only paid department, in other parts of the county.
“We get a call, it's not because they want to invite us over for Christmas dinner. It's because they need us for some reason whether it's medical, fire, whatever it might be. And you know, it hurts to think that they're not going to have that service provided to them,” said Newsom.
In a letter earlier this month, the Association warned the Commissioner’s Court that service provided to Navarro County citizens may be interrupted if a contract was not finalized by Nov. 30 stating, “We all understand the liability, and we feel there’s too much of a liability for us to respond to calls without a contract. We are trying to protect ourselves from a potential lawsuit as well.”
Davenport said he’s hopeful there will be an agreement in the next couple of weeks.
