Dominating the May 13 meeting, the Macon County Board of Commissioners pushed for talks between the Burningtown Iotla Fire & Rescue Department and Cowee Fire & Rescue Department on a potential merger.
Burningtown Fire and Rescue Board Chairman Mike Yacks (pictured above) was on the hot seat for much of the new business agenda, as deficiencies since July 2024 were disclosed. Commissioners unanimously called for a potential merger between the two fire departments in order to ensure public safety.
After a lengthy back and forth, the board requested that Burningtown and Cowee commence talks immediately and report back to the board on their progress at its Thursday, May 22, work meeting.
Yacks said the issues first arose during a “9S inspection” by the state, which found quarterly reports were not being filed and membership status had fallen below the state requirement of 19 members.
A 9S inspection is conducted by the Office of State Fire Marshal to rate a department’s ability to provide fire prevention and suppression services within its jurisdiction according to state guidelines.
“We [Burningtown] were put on probation, and subsequently, Cowee Fire & Rescue has assisted in the calls that we have been making since then,” explained Yacks. He added that some internal changes, including turnover of command staff and the full-time facilities manager, had driven the deficiencies.
By Dec. 28 of last year, Burningtown Chief Joshua Blanton had updated the quarterly reports and the membership roster had risen to 19 members.
“We’ve been working hard on that,” said Yacks, who lamented attrition rates of older members and a lack of interest by younger community members to serve on the volunteer force. “We’re open to combining efforts with an adjoining department if need be.”
The roster now has 22 members, plus three or four junior members.
Concerns addressed
Commissioner John Shearl, a retired firefighter from the Highlands force, led much of the pointed questioning.
“As a board of commissioners, we are hiring you guys as subcontractors to provide service to members of your district. Any type of failure by you or your department puts us all on the hook. No one is looking at these inspections as trying to give Burningtown Fire Department a hard time or anything like that. We have to know these services the taxpayers are paying for are being provided.”
Shearl then called on Fire Marshal Jimmy Teem to provide an update to the board. Teem handed out reports to the board and confirmed, “We started an inspection in July. Burningtown had fallen below the minimum requirement of 19 members with 36 hours of training. Also, we had a couple of the first-out engines that did not pass the pump test. We resolved that by taking those offline and putting those in as tankers and using tankers as engines; they all passed pump tests,” explained Teem.
Cowee began responding to Burningtown’s fire calls initially in December and was added to medical calls thereafter, but no compensation has been provided to that force for the multi-month effort to shore up Burningtown.
Teem said one medical call in January was deemed a non-response, and one structure fire in February was improperly responded to by Burningtown. In April, the fire marshal discovered quarterly reports were again not being submitted to the state and 38 incident reports were incomplete. Likewise, another medical call was missed in April.
Ken McCaskill, who serves on the Burningtown volunteer force, was in the audience and asked to respond to some of the communications issues that firefighters had faced. “The radio system is lousy… bunches of money spent on the VIPER [interoperable communications] system. There are still places you can’t communicate,” he expressed. “You’re feeling we’re not supporting our community, but we are. We’re good people.”
Commissioner Danny Antoine asked, “Why haven’t these quarterly fire reports been submitted to the state?”
“Bluntly, we had kind of a mess internally,” responded Yacks. “A lot of things were left undone… Normally, fire reports are done online after a call.”
After repeated questions by Chair Josh Young and Antoine, Yacks said the [Burningtown] chief was the ultimate authority on signing off on reports. Yacks admitted even he had just completed some outstanding reports earlier that morning. When asked by Commissioner Barry Breeden what sources the firefighters implement to complete reports, Yacks said mental notes and updated questions to dispatchers and others were used in the days or weeks after an incident occurred.
Call to join forces
In considering what many were deeming an inevitable merger, Shearl noted, “It seems like it would be a win for both departments and your district … to join forces. Your sole purpose is to protect lives and property. I hope you guys can have an open conversation between the two departments and come up with some agreement.”
He further noted that he would prefer to keep government entities out of the departments’ negotiations.
County Manager Warren Cabe reminded Yacks that there would be a number of contractual issues to address and recommended the departments agree to a very specific timeframe to conduct a merger.
On questions of liability as queried by Commissioner Gary Shields, Cabe said, “It would be shared.”
In fact, there would be implied responsibility to the county if something were to occur after the county had been made aware of deficiencies, especially with concerns about Macon County’s “geographically challenged” terrain, which requires primary and secondary communications methods to reach first responders.
In seeking a distinct time period for a merger, Antoine asked, “The first concern is the citizens’ safety. Are there going to be any missed calls?”
“There should be no reason for a missed call,” responded Yacks.
Cowee Chief Dustin Pendergrass said he would be able bring a large force, including 10 certified firefighters, 12 paramedics, and 32 EMTs, to the table to help with a merger between Cowee and Burningtown, emphasizing it would not be a takeover.
“We’re talking about one tax rate,” he said. “Theirs is .782; our is .780. So, I would want a budget in place before July 1,” pertaining to the annual budgetary calendar cycle.
Speaking for the board, Shearl pushed for a quick response from the departments, stating, “This is critical. This is urgent.”