MORGANTOWN — Delegate Joe Statler, R-Monongalia, said a trio of bills passed during the recent special session of the West Virginia Legislature are “a good step forward” in supporting the state’s EMS and volunteer fire agencies.
He’s hopeful it will be the first of many.
“I, at least, am not satisfied with the legislation that we got. I think it was a good step forward. It’s something we told them we were going to work on, and we did get that out of special session, but I want some type of permanent fix out there to look at some of the funding issues,” Statler told the Monongalia County Commission earlier this month.
The bills in question — Senate bills 1021, 1022 and 1023 — will direct a total of $12 million to emergency services through three separate channels. All three are part of the state’s base budget going forward, meaning it would take legislative action to pull those dollars back.
The largest allocation will supplement the existing Fire Protection Fund with an additional $6 million.
Statler said there are approximately 428 VFDs in the state. If each of those departments are in good standing to request Fire Protection Fund dollars, the annual allocation for each would jump from approximately $47,000 to approximately $61,000.
But those dollars come with additional oversight.
“Before they can file to get that money, they must give a two-year look back upon all receipts and expenditures,” Statler said. “The way the law stands now, they only have to give information on that particular fund. That’s not the way it is going forward.”
He said all volunteer fire departments must have their financial information available through fiscal transparency website wvcheckbook.gov by January 2026 to be eligible for funds beyond that point.
The remaining $6 million will be divided into two pots.
One will split $3 million among all 55 counties based on population through the newly created All County Fire Protection Fund.
The second, known as the County Fire Protection Fund, will split $3 million among the counties that have a fire levy (like Monongalia) or a county fire fee in place, based on population. The goal, Statler explained, is to incentivize counties to get proactive in supporting vital emergency services.
Both of those funds will flow through county commissions for distribution. The only restriction is that the money must be used for fire or EMS services.
As for how much will actually end up here, Statler said his rough, early calculations put the number coming to Monongalia County around $220,000.
The additional dollars could prove timely as representatives of the Star City VFD, the busiest of Monongalia County’s 12 volunteer departments, recently told the county commission the department is on the verge of closure due to its financial situation.
Statler, a mainstay on the WV House of Delegates Committee on Fire Departments and Emergency Medical Services, has been sounding the alarm over the state of the state’s emergency responders for years.
He told the county commission that in addition to Star City, he’s aware of nine other EMS or volunteer fire companies across the state on the verge of collapse.
“We’re just scratching the surface. Money is just part of the problem,” Statler said “I want to take a surgical view of it and see what it is we really need to do. Money is part of it, but there are other things we have to do, including figure out how volunteer services are going to operate.”
