TONTITOWN -- City firefighters will no longer have jobs or volunteer positions in the city today as the volunteer fire department takes over, Mayor Paul Colvin said Tuesday.
"We are just trying to look at every option to hopefully not cost us as much and to provide us with even better, quality service," Colvin said.
The city and the Tontitown Area Fire Department entered into a contract in March allowing the volunteer department to take over the Fire Department, including staffing and operating equipment. The cost to the city is about $175,000 and should save the city money, Alderwoman Rhonda Doudna said.
"I'm not kidding you, we are broke," Doudna said.
The 2015 budget for the Fire Department was $420,000 in January and offered 24-hour, seven-days-a-week service. Colvin said the city cannot afford 24-hour service and said none of the suggestions to keep the department city-run would take the city back to 24-hours. The money isn't there, Doudna and Colvin said.
Under the new contract, fire service for Tontitown covers two paid firefighters with one firefighter shift from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and one firefighter shift to begin any time from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and continue for a 12-hour shift Monday through Saturday. Other staffing requirements will use volunteers, Alderman Tommy Granata said previously.
City firefighters presented alternatives with a reduced budget and similar services, but after months of discussion, the City Council decided March 3 to hire out the service.
The city used the volunteer department for fire protection from 1979 until 2014, when the City Council approved creating its own department. Several aldermen said they wanted to see the volunteer service back.
"The right thing to do was to bring back the TAFD (because of) cost," Doudna said.
The city is facing money woes and is making cuts, city officials said. A new budget meant to reduce spending is in the works, Colvin said.
Since the City Council approved the contract, firefighters and others have been working to transition from a city-run department to one operated by the volunteer department.
Joey McCormick, who has been acting as police chief, recently cleaned and moved equipment for a possible second substation, Colvin said. Firefighters and others planned to go to the city department today to take inventory of the fire equipment, Colvin said.
"We don't perceive any problems," said Rusty Hulse, chief of the volunteer department. "We're just anxious to get back to doing our jobs and protecting the citizens like we always do."
Despite the contract's finalization, the controversy surrounding how the city should offer residents fire protection hasn't died down. A group of residents gathered signatures last month asking to take the issue to a public vote, said Joe Edgmon, alderman.
The idea of the referendum is to halt dissolving the department, Edgmon said. Doudna said the city still has a fire department -- it will just be run by the volunteer department.
Edgmon said he has 172 signatures verified by Tontitown employees. The petition must have 150 signatures turned in by April 10 to hold a special election on the same date as one planned in West Fork, said Becky Lewallen, county clerk.
On Tuesday afternoon, Egdmon was waiting for Rhonda Ardemagni, the newly appointed deputy recorder, to certify the list of names, so he could submit the list to the Lewallen. Doudna said she expected Ardemagni to finish last night.
The referendum calls for a vote to change the Fire Department back to being run by the city, Edgmon said. Once signatures are certified, Edgmon hopes to stop the layoffs and keep the equipment from moving out of the city's hands, he said.
Edgmon estimated the city Fire Department had about 30 part-time, full-time and volunteer employees Tuesday. Only one city firefighter applied to work for the volunteer department, Hulse said.
Doudna said the petition is unlikely to change anything, and she wants the referendum reviewed by the Arkansas Municipal League. Cities have the right to contract services, she said.
"(The referendum) does absolutely nothing other than change the wording, and we are still going to have a contract," Doudna said.
NW News on 04/01/2015