The Demorest City Council met with Habersham County officials this evening to discuss a proposed merger of Demorest and county fire services. The meeting offered a general overview of the plan, which officials say is still in the works. It was the first time city and county officials met publicly to discuss the merger, despite conversations among themselves that have been ongoing since last year. If negotiations continue and the city and county do decide to merge, county officials don’t expect for the plan to come to fruition for several months to a year.
The fire station and personnel
The Demorest Fire Station would be a temporary home for the fire department if the county and city go forward with their merger. The county has plans and SPLOST dollars set aside for the construction of a new central bay fire station in Demorest near Demorest-Mt. Airy Highway within the next few years. That new station will come online when the Habersham County Emergency Station 21, Habersham Emergency Services’s med-only unit at Robertson Loop, closes. Those 7 individuals currently staffed at Station 21 will move to the new Demorest location.
This would increase 24/7 fire services staffing in Demorest, and many of the county’s fire personnel are EMT-trained paramedics. Demorest mayor Rick Austin expressed his concern over the jobs of the firefighters currently staffed at the Demorest Fire Department.
“I would want to guarantee a spot for each one of our employees,” Austin said. “The dealbreaker for me would be that any of our employees that are extraordinarily valued would not get a position.”
Habersham Emergency Services Director Chad Black clarified that there is “not anyone from the Demorest Fire Department” that he wouldn’t bring on board the county’s.
The firetruck
Demorest’s city council meetings have had no shortage of debate regarding the city’s plan to purchase a new firetruck with SPLOST funds, and for the county to take over Demorest’s fire services, that new firetruck is essential.
“We need a firetruck, a good, functioning firetruck in this area,” County Manager Phil Sutton said. “And that’s a contribution, in my mind, the city ought to be bringing to the table, […] whether they pay for it with SPLOST or they figure out a payment scheme that they would like to use.”
READ HERE: Demorest and Habersham Fire Service Merger Discussion Points
“We can’t be starting this fire service from scratch,” Sutton said. “We’re really entering into an area that the county doesn’t have responsibility for fire service in, Demorest or any other city, we have responsibility for fire service in the unincorporated county. We have many other services that we provide, but county-wide fire is not one of them. So we haven’t made the investment; we haven’t been responsible to make the investment. ”
The Demorest City Council will discuss their plans for the firetruck at their upcoming meeting on Apr. 6 after tabling it at their March meeting until they had met with county officials. Austin expressed concern at that meeting that the city may lose SPLOST dollars if they purchase the truck, only to turn it over to the county. Sutton tells Now Habersham that even if the city and county merge, the firetruck purchase would still serve the City of Demorest.
Habersham County Commission Chairman Dustin Mealor says the truck wouldn’t leave the Demorest. “It wouldn’t make sense for the truck to even leave this area either, especially since we have the new central bay station coming,” Mealor said. “Not only will they have the new truck that services them, but then they’re also going to have everything that we keep stored at that station to their service as well.”
Mealor and Sutton both describe the possible merger as a win for Demorest and Habersham, naming the city’s savings, which would slash their fire services budget in half (from $552,128 to $266,545), and the expanded coverage fire services could provide and the tools they have access to as the merger’s main selling points.
