Fire Service Facing Controversy in Tontitown

Changes are coming for the Tontitown Area Fire Department, but disagreement on how those changes will be made have caused controversy.

Tontitown officials want a fire department as a branch of city government, said Mayor Jack Beckford.

“State law says the city has to have a fire department,” Beckford said. “We’d like to provide some accountability for the safety and welfare of our people.”

Arkansas Code 14-53-101 states a city council “shall establish” fire departments and provide them with proper engines and equipment. J.R. Carroll, city attorney, said he interpreted the law to say cities must have their own fire departments and equipment.

Paul Colvin, a member of the Fire Department board, said board members would support the city taking over the department in three to five years. Three to five years would allow for a smooth transition between the department and city.

The department began as a volunteer organization in the 1970s and still functions separate from the city, but is financially aided by the city.

“We are willing to work toward the city taking over in a few years,” Colvin said. “They wanted to do it in a couple of months.”

The Fire Department and the city haven’t been able to work out a contract for 2014. The Fire Department board has set March 1 deadline to complete the contract.

“That gave us a sense of urgency to form our own department,” said Alderman Clint Penzo, who headed the council’s negotiation with the board. “If they are going to do that, we need to have a city fire department ready.”

Carrying out the law was also a motivation, Penzo said.

The law may say cities must have their own department, but the practice is much different, said Jeff Hawkins, executive director of the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission.

“There are hundreds of cities all over Arkansas that have a service contract with a volunteer department to provide fire protection,” Hawkins said. “It’s never been tested in court, but who would contest it? All people want is good fire protection.”

Years ago, the Tontitown Fire Department collected membership fees from people wanting protection. The city started paying the department yearly to cover the memberships of residents. The contract was titled an inter-local agreement, but should have been a contract for service, Hawkins said.

The 2014 Tontitown budget includes $124,148 for Fire Department salaries and $50,000 for equipment. The equipment purchased was to be in the city’s name. The salary money would pay Rusty Hulce, the fire chief, and a few firefighters. Most of the department’s firefighters are volunteers who are only paid to respond to fires.

The contract offered by the city was for $50,000 with the paid firefighters and chief becoming city employees. As such, the fire chief could be hired and fired by the mayor, according to the contract. Hulce and the paid firefighters were offered jobs with the city, Penzo said.

The Fire Department board is hesitant to give the right to hire and fire to the city, said Arthur Penzo, a board member and former alderman. In a contract work session last month, Fire Department representatives expressed concerned about being able to with with future city officials.

Arthur Penzo is a cousin of Clint Penzo.

Beckford has fired two department heads in the last year: the police chief in July and the public works director in December. Beckford was appointed mayor a year ago, after Tommy Granata resigned.

The council considered several options at a meeting Tuesday, including forming its own department; removing the salary money from the contract; and creating a public safety department that would respond to police calls and fires. The council didn’t vote on any of the proposals, Beckford said.

Clint Penzo suggested at the work session the city could contract with other departments for fire projection until a new fire department was formed. Mike Irwin, Springdale fire chief, said he hadn’t been contacted about providing service to Tontitown.

Mike Oxford, chief of the Wheeler Volunteer Fire Department, said his firefighters respond to Tontitown calls when asked. Wheeler, like almost all of the adjacent fire departments, has an agreement with Tontitown to help when needed.

“It’s a sticky situation,” Oxford said. “Police officers are not going to be able to do a fireman’s job, even if they’ve had some classes. You need to have people with experience that know what they are doing.”

Oxford said the agreement is with the Tontitown volunteer department, not the city.

An ordinance to create a Tontitown city fire department was patterned after the West Fork Fire Department, said Clint Penzo. Mitch McCorkle, West Fork fire chief, said his department was split in two divisions. One is the city fire department and the other is a volunteer department that covers fires outside the city, he said.

Tontitown fire also covers an area outside the city, Colvin said.

Both West Fork divisions use the same firefighters and the same equipment. The city of West Fork financially supports the Fire Department but the majority of the money comes from the volunteer side, McCorkle said, mainly though grants.

West Fork has had its problems, Hawkins said. One mayor tried to fire McCorkle but the City Council wouldn’t support the move, he said. That mayor lost the next election. Recently, another mayor asked McCorkle to resign, but eventually quit instead.

The disagreement between the department and city is not good for the Tontitown area, Colvin said.

“I don’t know how we got this far apart,” Colvin said. “The divide is pretty deep on both sides.”

If department representatives and city officials can’t agree on a contract, the board could look at going back to paid memberships, Colvin said, which it still uses for the rural areas it serves. The board plans to extend the deadline for a month, Colvin said.

Discussion of a contract will continue, Beckford said.

“The Fire Department will continue to respond,” Beckford said. “We’ll keep moving on and trying to settle this.”