Monongalia County Commission President Ed Hawkins said he took exception to comments made by Morgantown Deputy Mayor Rachel Fetty during a recent city budget workshop.
During a conversation about whether the city should raise fire fees by 23% to offset the loss of a federal grant funding 12 city firefighter positions, Fetty expressed her frustration about being forced to make such a decision — particularly after the city faced so much pushback in its effort to annex a number of developed areas that encircle the city.
That led to a comparison between the city and its career fire department and the county, which has 12 volunteer departments.
“You know what, those folks should be ashamed. The county should have never lowered its levy. They should be doing a better job and providing better services for their volunteer fire departments because what they’re doing to those guys is shameful and they should be embarrassed,” she said. “I’m not embarrassed. I feel like we’re working and working and working for our fire department.”
Hawkins said he’s worked to improve the relationship between the commission and the volunteer departments since joining the commission.
“I have personally served as the liaison commissioner for the fire departments for five years and three months. During that time it’s been my privilege to address the situations that arose in our fire departments,” Hawkins said. “We, as a commission, feel that if there’s a problem they need to address, they’re always free to come forward to us.”
The county provided each department $24,000 in the 2016 fiscal year paid out of it’s coal severance fund. When the commission announced it was going to have to scale back funding to a number of agencies due to dramatic cuts in the amount of coal severance revenue coming in, the volunteer departments put together a successful levy for the May 2016 primary ballot.
Through that levy, each department receives $50,000. The rest of their funding is generated by the volunteers.
“This budget for the fire department is around $6 million this year. It was over $5 million last year, but the levy for the volunteer fire departments is $600,000 a year,” Fetty said.
“So when someone pins me against a wall and says ‘I don’t need your stinking professional fire department. I’m doing fine with my volunteer fire department,’ I felt
irate. I felt concerned because we have thousands of people in urban housing developments in the county, and they’re right next to us in my neighborhood, in all of our neighborhoods.”
Monongalia County Volunteer Firefighters Association President Bob Brookover said he didn’t take particular offense to Fetty’s comments, though he noted volunteer firefighters are mandated to have essentially the same training as paid
firefighters.
“Today, your volunteers are trained right at the level with your paid firemen,” Brookover said. “The volunteers we have in our county right now are highly trained people.”
While he notes the relationship between the departments and the commission has been strained at times over the years, he said the departments are well represented by Hawkins.
Brookover also said the city might be relying on volunteers if it allows a reduction in its fire staffing.
“If they cut manpower, I would venture to say [Morgantown Fire Chief] Mark Caravasos may have to depend on volunteers at some times because he’s going to be shorthanded,” Brookover said. “Mark knows anytime he needs a volunteer department, they’re going to be there.”
Caravasos said the city has mutual aid agreements with some of the volunteer departments that border the city and most recently assisted with large fires in Westover and on the Mileground.
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