Judge thanks city for fire protection deal

Titus County Judge Brian Lee came to say thanks when the Mt. Pleasant City Council unanimously approved a 10-year agreement for the city to fight fires in the county. The deal opens at $1.3 million for the next two years. Beginning in year three, the city will write the budget and give the county 30 days to review it. The previous agreement, written in 2010, opened at $370,000 with an annual inflation adjustment. Repeatedly amended and extended for three consecutive years, that agreement came to just short of $1 million for the fiscal year that expired in September.

Following a meeting of a committee composed of county and city elected officials and fiscal administrators in August, Judge Lee favored approving the committee’s initially-proposed 5-year contract calling for an increase to $1.4 million for one year, followed by 2 percent increases over four years. Thereafter, that contract called for the county to pay 40 percent of the city budget. The current year’s budget is $3.4 million.

Commissioner Dana Applewhite objected during the committee meeting. Somewhere in there, the idea of the city providing one final year of service while the county revamped its fire protection plan bubbled up.

In September the county conditionally approved the city’s five year plan, pending review by County Attorney John Mark Cobern. But Cobern questioned the authority the contract gave the city to dictate budget terms to the county. 

In mid-October, Commissioner Jeff Parchman moved to rescind the September motion and see if they might hammer out a one-year deal while organizing a new county fire department and simultaneously giving “good faith” negotiations a final shot.

His motion got support from Commissioners Applewhite and John Fitch. Judge Lee doubted the likelihood of coming to terms during the two week window remaining in a second 30-day extension period running up until October 31. Commissioner Jimmy Parker wanted time to pray about it.

The case for the immediate $400,000 increase has for two years now been built around County Emergency Management Coordinator Larry McRae’s reports of the failings of the network of volunteer fire departments serving the county.

The city needed more money to cover the $288,000 budgeted to add three new firemen to the city department, a price including personal gear and benefit packages. Pay for county volunteers ranges from $6 to $10 per call.

County EMC McRae also serves as Chief of the Mt. Pleasant department. There were 30 firemen in the city department last fiscal year.

The framework for building a case for hiring 15 additional city firemen began with revision of an agreement the county requires its six volunteer departments to sign off on before being approved for $1,200 monthly in county funds. The revised agreement called for regular reports on required training, equipment standards and response to fire calls. Mr. McRae said about 30 of the 100 volunteers on department rolls meet the required 25 percent call response to maintain their standing. He said the falling numbers of local volunteers reflect a larger national trend.

While publicly lamenting the decreasing numbers of firefighters, two attempts have been made to close the department at Sugar Hill.

In the spring of 2020, it was Titus County Commissioner Dana Applewhite who intervened when the Sugar Hill department’s trucks and equipment vanished overnight, an event coinciding with the departure of former Sugar Hill Chief Jerry Clark.

In April, 2021, it was Commissioner Jeff Parchman who objected when Judge Brian Lee proposed “defunding” the Sugar Hill Volunteers after County Emergency Management Coordinator Larry McRae reported the volunteers were not meeting standards revised by the committee on which both he and the former Sugar Hill chief had served.

Commissioner Applewhite got involved when 30-year Sugar Hill volunteer and department treasurer Wes Vandeaver reported that the department equipment had vanished following a meeting at which he’d believed he voted to accept Chief Clark’s resignation, and only later learned that the motion was to disband the department.

With Commissioner Applewhite at the table, the tale of the Sugar Hill department surfaced in an open meeting after residents filled the courtroom for the next commissioner’s court. An 82-year-old life-long pastor and fire fighter, Wes Vandeaver spent the following months working to preserve the non-profit incorporation papers under which the county’s volunteer departments operate.

In advance of the court’s October 25, 2021 meeting, Mr. McRae spread word among commissioners of secretly-recorded video purporting to show the Sugar Hill volunteers pressure-testing fire hoses at pressures less than those called for in the revised agreement’s reporting protocol.

“What he didn’t tell us was that the issue was resolved by the time he was telling us about it,” said Commissioner John Fitch. “When it gets down to that level, it’s fishy.”

At the mid-October meeting where three votes carried Commissioner Parchman’s motion to reject the 5-year contract building up to the 40 percent flat rate, Cookville resident Holly M. Parker came to town to address the court.

Rather than leadership, she said “some members of this body have instead used emotional blackmail as the primary argument” justifying the increasing supplement to the city budget.

Wes Vandeaver, the octogenarian who fought to save the Sugar Hill department, had a heart attack and died on a $6 fire call.

After he died, his son came to address the court and said that the best hope for grooming a vibrant network of volunteers would be showing less contempt and more respect for them.

After the city approved compromises in the new 10-year contract, when Judge Lee came to thank the town council he said the matter had been a continual point of contention during his three terms.

Or longer, according to the May 14, 1964 Mt. Pleasant Daily Times report of the town council’s voting to “suspend” fire protection outside the city limits. Judge Lee said the contract fulfilled his hope of settling the issue before he left office.

Here are high points of the new 10-year contract. After the first two years at $1.3 million, going hand in hand with the county’s right to review the city fire budget starting in year three, the county may elect to cancel the agreement following a review period of up to 60 days if the budget is contested. If they can’t come to terms, the budget is increased a fixed 7.5 percent for one more year.

The city will have command authority over volunteers and county equipment.

The county and city will split the cost of any new equipment in the city budget; the city’s required to give the county a two-year heads up on major capital outlays.

Both parties “acknowledge” that while Mr. McRae presently holds consolidated authority over all volunteers, professional fire fighters, equipment and operations as both the city fire chief and the county’s EMC, “the selection of a County Emergency Management Coordinator is a matter within the discretion of the County.”

Should the city and county go their separate ways, they’ll negotiate a deal for any equipment acquired under the cost-splitting arrangement.