Photo

Click on photo to enlarge

Jessica Nelms

Rick McLaughlin, left, and David Owens of Station 21 inspect equipment and hoses Wednesday, July 1, 2009 at the West Union Fire Department. Station 21 personnel perform a variety of duties, from assisting at rescue and fire calls to performing station checks across the county.

WALHALLA — Oconee County councilman and safety committee chairman Wayne McCall believes the county’s once-maligned Emergency Services and rural fire system is in need of less dramatic overhaul than he previously thought.

In March, at the height of the debate over Emergency Services (OCES), Station 21 and the future of the rural fire system, McCall said “drastic changes” were needed, and speculation swirled over OCES Director Rodney Burdette’s future role in a possible reorganization.

It was a kinder, gentler McCall who was contacted on the subject this week.

“He’s not 100 percent right, I’m not 100 percent right,” McCall said. “But Rodney Burdette wasn’t the problem. We’re working together and we’re trying to work things out. We’ve established a very positive working relationship. When somebody shows you that maybe you weren’t always right, you admit it.”

McCall said changes to Emergency Services are imminent, but acknowledged that those changes are on the backburner, saying the county first must deal with a stagnant economy and other issues before tangling with any more fire protection talk.

“Right now we’re waiting on all the mutual aid agreements to be finalized, and we’ve sent out a questionnaire to the rural fire chiefs,” McCall said of a survey asking chiefs to provide input regarding possible changes to the fire protection structure.

“But we’ve been tied up with economic crises in this county, and we’re preoccupied with that right now. The main thing we’re worried about is jobs in Oconee County.”

Burdette said Station 21, which had become the collective poster child for OCES’s critics because of purported inefficiency, is no longer immediately dispatched to fire calls. Instead, the county department is dispatched for backup only upon request.

But, Station 21 personnel still keep plenty busy.

“Instead of being part of initial response, they request us. That way we can concentrate our efforts,” Burdette said. “But the focus is pretty much the same as it’s always been. We average about two station checks a day, where Station 21 checks equipment and runs tests for them. That’s in between any assists we run for fire and rescue or special rescue, anything we do.”

Besides the three municipal fire departments of Walhalla, Westminster and Seneca that cover their respective cities and portions of the unincorporated surrounding areas, Oconee County is covered by 17 rural departments funded by the county through a 2.9 mill levy against all non-municipal property. Those funds are distributed on a quarterly basis.

McCall has said besides Station 21’s slightly altered implementation, the operational aspect of the fire protection and emergency services structure remains the same.

The fire chiefs’ questionnaire responses varied greatly, McCall added, making it difficult to determine any general consensus from the rural fire community. Past comments from those chiefs indicate they do not want to directly dictate the future structure in the first place.

When the Oconee County Fire Chiefs Association was tasked in March with providing suggestions for overhauling the current system, association President Chris Smith of Westminster and the majority of those in attendance at their monthly meeting said they didn’t believe it was their place to do so.

”I don’t think that should be for us to discuss,” Smith said in March.

South Union Chief Michael Mason echoed more the same night.

“I would like the opportunity for the chiefs to look at a plan before putting it into place. That didn’t happen two years ago with emergency services,” Mason said. “But as far as coming up with a plan, I didn’t hear anybody last night willing to say ‘this is the way it ought to be.’”

Burdette believes the current structure can still achieve the intended goal of lowering ISO ratings, thereby reducing insurance rates for Oconee County residents, but that is not his first priority.

“It can still assist in doing that. We’re going to make it as efficient as possible. The first focus is obviously the safety of the public and the firefighters. ISO ratings would be an extra benefit for the people in the community,” Burdette said.

McCall acknowledged that with the response from fire chiefs across the county, there is no clear direction for reorganization, but added that he believes tweaking the current system could result in lower ISO ratings.

“With a little reorganization it will (lower ISO),” McCall said. “Just remember ISO is a tricky animal.”

McCall said the possibility of the Oconee County Airport expanding will most likely mean further involvement in county-run fire protection, possibly further utilizing Station 21.

“We may have to have a full-time fire department down there towards the airport. Full-time, 24/7,” McCall said.

There is a strong possibility of Corinth-Shiloh taking an active role in providing for the expanding airport, he added.

The county councilman reiterated his point, however, that his primary focus is on the county’s economic future, emphasizing keeping taxes and spending low.

“Every time you say ‘I’d like to have this, I’d like to have that,’ you have to remember services cost money. Money we do not have,” McCall said. “People come down here and say they want something like it was in New Jersey. If you look at the taxes up north, we cannot afford taxes like they have up there.”