September 2nd, 2020 by WCBC Radio
County officials are still attempting to finalize a date for a meeting of all involved parties to address growing concerns over the future of fire and rescue squads. Volunteers and other representatives from various departments packed the regular meeting of the Allegany County Commissioners last week voicing frustration over budget and manpower issues for area first responders. Much of the disagreement involves the percentage split that is shared between county EMS responders and the fire and rescue squads. With the budget for emergency services skyrocketing in recent years, the commissioners agreed to create a workgroup to discuss the issues and try to reach a compromise. With many of those on hand expressing concern that there is an effort underway to force many of the units to close, Commissioner Creade Brodie Jr. offered assurances that that is not the case…
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September 02, 2020 at 10:08 am, LRH said:
OK, honest questions here….to me we are possibly mingling two issues,,,,how bad is the “volunteer” staffing shortage across the county? If it a matter of staffing, how or why is how much money the County provides helping the local Volunteers deal with staffing? If the County is paying to staff the Volunteer houses than why shouldn’t the County have control over how the funds are spent? If the discussion and concern over funding share is for equipment and keeping the lights on at the fire houses, that is a different topic. (unless of course there are not enough “volunteers” to effectively answer calls or even see that the lights on the fire house are still in fact turned on)
September 02, 2020 at 3:36 pm, Informed Disent said:
Maybe a full audit is in order? I know that many people assigned to the County are driving take home vehicles, high dollar ones and I have to ask why? Some are office staff who have no “first responder” duties, yet there they are driving vehicles from home to work and on their daily activities. There is also an ongoing dispute about radio systems and reporting programs within the law enforcement community that no one has spoken to as of yet. There is much going on under the covers that might be costing the county a fair amount of money.