The souring economy is affecting everyone--including volunteer firefighters.
While addressing the Board of Supervisors yesterday on behalf of the Culpeper County Fire and Rescue Association, Anthony Clatterbuck called the lack of available county funding "a financial cancer" that continues to grow in step with escalating expenses.
"If things continue at this level, it is going to choke us," the volunteer fireman declared.
Clatterbuck had come to lobby for an additional appropriation of $146,000--which he got--to help the county's 10 volunteer fire departments pay their growing operating expenses.
The fireman said that the Fire and Rescue Association had misunderstood the county's edict for flat funding in the current budget and spent money that it later discovered would not be reimbursed.
"It is pretty evident that we need the money," Clatterbuck said, pointing to figures on a spreadsheet. "By the end of the third quarter, we had already spent more than the county's yearly allocation."
And he added, "We are very vigilant and very cautious with the county's money."
The Fire and Rescue Association had requested that the county reimburse fire companies 67 cents for every operating dollar spent, but the county's budget for the current fiscal year provided only 53 cents per $1. That difference came to $146,000 over a nine-month period.
While supporting the Fire and Rescue request, Supervisor Tom Underwood was careful to call the added appropriation--which will come from the county's general fund--a "supplemental" amount that is not part of the association's actual budget.
Underwood said that he understood that the county's fire and rescue departments would still come up about $250,000 short for the 2008 calendar year and wondered where those funds were coming from.
Clatterbuck said the fire companies would have to make up that deficit on their own.
He added that the shortfalls were just for operating expenses.
"In the last two years, we have spent more than $6 million of capital projects," Clatterbuck said. Noting that some fire trucks have gone up from $150,000 to $450,000 in price, he added, "In the next few years, we need to spend another $12 million" to keep equipment up to date.
When Clatterbuck told the board that he expects the Fire and Rescue Association to request a substantial increase in county funding for the fiscal year that begins July 1, Underwood replied, "I don't know how we can give you more next year."
Clatterbuck suggested that the county's fire-and-rescue tax might be increased to help meet budget needs.
Right now, fire-and-rescue services receive 4 of the 61 cents per $100 of assessed value from the real estate tax. Noting the sad state of the economy, supervisors have vowed not to raise taxes next year.
Clatterbuck countered by saying that it would cost the county between $12 million and $16 million to convert to a paid fire department.
In a second attempt to assist emergency personnel, the supervisors reinstated a policy to provide death benefits for volunteers at a cost to the county of about $14,000 annually.
Donnie Johnston:
Email: djohnston@freelancestar.com