TONTITOWN — Representatives of the city of Tontitown and the Tontitown Area Volunteer Fire Department are looking for a way to establish detente in the cold war between the organizations.
“We’ve got our missile silos pointed at each other,” said J.R. Carroll, city attorney. “We don’t need to do that.”
Representatives of the city and the Fire Department met Monday to work on a fire service contract. The City Council approved a 2014 budget appropriating $120,000 to the department for salaries and $50,000 for capital expenses, such as equipment.
Fast Fact
Incorporated Communities
The State of Arkansas recognizes its incorporated communities in three separate categories: cities of the first class, cities of the second class and towns. These categories are mostly determined by the population of the communities and the size of the city or town government. According to the Arkansas Municipal League, there are 500 incorporated cities and towns in Arkansas as of December 2013. These consist of 119 first-class cities, 199 second-class cities, and 182 towns.
Source: The Encyclopedia Of Arkansas History And Culture
Plans are under way for the city to eventually take over the department. State law requires cities of the first and second class to have their own fire departments, but the requirement is only enforced in cities of the first class. Tontitown is a second class city, but officials expect to move to first class following the next census.
The relationship between the two groups became strained during earlier meetings.
Department representatives threatened to end service to the city, according to Alderman Clint Penzo, and the city tried to wrest control of the fire chief from the fire board, according to Paul Colvin, Fire Department board member.
The city has paid the department through a contract to respond to fires and emergency medical calls in the past. A contract for 2014 has not been signed, and Fire Department board members threatened to end service if a contract was not in place by March 1, Penzo said.
The service would end as the situation is now, Colvin said. The department, without money from a contract, would have to return to a membership-based service, he said. The department, legally, would not have to respond to medical calls, he said, although they would have to respond to fire calls.
The city wants to turn the fire chief and other paid department workers into city employees, Colvin said. That would give the mayor the ability to hire and fire the chief, Colvin said.
If a chief was fired, he could go to the City Council to appeal, Penzo said.
The city has been subsidizing the cost of providing fire service to the area covered by the department outside the city, Penzo said. The city would pay more than the contract if it paid a full membership price for each building, Colvin said.
The problem has been the volatility of the council and mayor in the past, said Jason Steele, board president.
“We don’t want the next council or the next mayor to screw it up,” Steele said.
The major difference between the sides is philosophical, said Jim Crouch, attorney for the Fire Department.
“What I hear, as an outsider who doesn’t live in Tontitown, is that you are not that far apart,” Crouch said. “This can be worked out.”
Crouch and Carroll said they will go over a service contract and try to work out the differences. The council’s next meeting is Feb. 4 and the Fire Department board could call a special meeting to take action, if needed, Colvin said.