First responders should come before anything
The discussion among county officials concerning the funding for the purchase of the new fire truck for Medford Volunteer Fire Department continues, and has evolved into a heated dispute among county officials about the county’s funding priorities and what should be those priorities.
Anderson County Mayor Terry Frank sent an email to the county fire commission on July 19, two days after the Commission meeting, detailing her concerns with the funding situation and requesting to be on the fire commission agenda at their next meeting.
In the email, Frank said she was making the request so that she could “answer any and all questions or requests for information” to clarify some misconceptions that came up during commission.
Chiefly among Frank’s concerns was the misconception in which Frank alleged commissioners implied at the meeting that the reason the county could not afford the annual appropriation for the full cost of funding for a fire truck for Medford Volunteer Fire Department was because the money was given to ACEMS to help them out of a financial bind.
“Apparently there is belief that Commission was unable to get ‘back on track’ with an annual appropriation for the full cost of a fire truck because that money was given to EMS. This is not accurate,” stated Frank. “During a Cahaba review during 2015, EMS’s revenues were halted and severely impacted. At that time a transfer from the General Fund was made to EMS in the amount of $600,000. That 2015 transfer from the General Fund had nothing to do with funds allocated to the fire truck resolution,” she asserted.
Frank said that earlier this year, during a county budget committee meeting, at her request, Scott Gibson, the county’s financial advisor, suggested to county officials that the county “borrow funds to get the fire truck back on an annual appropriation” but that officials did not entertain Gibson’s suggestion.
However, she said, “Commission did borrow funds in the amount of $1.4 million — $500,000 being for a remodel of the General Sessions Court, $600,000 for a Senior Center building and $300,000 for other capital expenses.”
She warned officials in the email that she believed some Anderson County officials have purposely tried to “pit one first responder agency against others” for “political purposes.”
She further alleged that the employee health care clinic has been a funding priority this year by commission, and pointed out that the medical clinic — with annual expenses at “now nearly $600,000” — is causing an increase “in the annual appropriation in our county by well over $700,000.”
As a result of placing the funding priority in other areas of government, notably the medical clinic, “there are no funds left for a fire truck,” stated Frank.
Frank told fire commission members she intends at the next fire commission meeting to present some “positive, productive ideas” for getting the fire truck resolution “back on track.”
