The Habersham County Commission approved moving forward with a proposed fire consolidation study during Monday’s meeting. The proposed study was tabled during last month’s meeting due to concerns about the $55,000 price tag.
Retreat
During last week’s commission retreat, Southeastern Fire Consulting Company, LLC (SEFCCO) representative Thad Dixon addressed the commission about the service the consulting firm will provide.
Dixon explained that the base cost for the study for the county is $30,000. The additional cost of $25,000 is to include the five municipalities into the study at $5,000 each, for a total cost of $55,000. He told the commission that the amount would be broken out in 12 monthly installments of $4,583.33. Breaking the payments out will give those involved in the study the ability to see progress during the process.
The study will not only evaluate the six fire departments. It will evaluate the water systems throughout the county as it relates to fire service. It will also evaluate emergency response information, which will include radio communications.
Fire Chief and Emergency Services Director Jeff Adams asked the commission if they had any questions about the proposed study.
Previous consolidation attempt
Commissioner Dustin Mealor asked Adams how many cities were in attendance at the retreat? Adams and members of the commission responded that they only saw Demorest in attendance.
Mealor reflected on the last time the subject was approached with Demorest. “The year I was chairman, we approached Demorest and it just fell through,” he said. “We didn’t communicate or something broke down there.”
He explained that he wanted the other cities to know that the county was coming to the table and wanted them to be onboard.
Commissioner Bruce Harkness weighed in on the discussion. Harkness said that he was on the Demorest City Council at the time that occurred and the wording of the presentation was the issue. “At the time it was trying to be sold to the city that they needed to adopt a tax area and raise taxes to fund this,” he said. “What should have been said was look, you’re paying $250,000 a year for your fire station, you combine with the county, it’s going to save you that much money, your citizens aren’t going to be paying anything.”
Harkness added that when it was brought up about the special tax district, it scared everybody about more taxes. “In the future we need to have a better discussion on how we’re going to present it,” he said. “I know five cities are interested.”
One misconception that the commission had was that the cities would receive an ISO study. Adams clarified that the county would receive the ISO study not the cities. The cities’ involvement in the consolidation study is to determine how those services would mesh with the county.
Spending
Commission Chairman Jimmy Tench weighed in on the discussion. “Mr. Adams, we have spent $1.3 million on a ladder truck. At the retreat, you were talking about your fire stations,” he said. “I don’t see where we could do this fire consolidation that we got stuff we are going to have to do ourselves.” Tench said that he would not vote for the fire consolidation study.
Interim County Manager Tim Sims reminded the commission that the consultant would bill on a monthly basis. The county could back out of the agreement at any time with a 30 day notice.
Harkness asked if the consultant would provide information incrementally or would he do the study and give one final report. Adams explained that as the consultant gathers information, it will be available to the county. One of the big parts of the study will be the county service. Adams told the commissioners that one of the cities has requested to be part of the study early on due to their issues.
Special tax district
Commissioner Ty Akins asked Adams, “If we got to the point where we decided to do this (consolidate) mutually, with a city, we would have to create a special tax district?” Sims replied “yes.” He explained further. “If the other cities do it, we wouldn’t have to do that because we would be doing it county-wide.”
Sims gave the example that if one city’s fire department did consolidate, then the county would have to create two taxing districts, one for incorporated fire service and one for unincorporated fire service. He said it would be similar to how citizens are taxed for Emergency Medical Services.
Harkness made the motion to approve the consolidation study for fire service. Commissioner Kelly Woodall seconded the motion with Mealor affirming the vote. Tench and Akins were the dissenting votes for the consolidation study.
After the meeting, Akins explained his opposition to the study. “It’s a little bit more than I thought we were going to spend. We thought it might be around $20.000, maybe $30,000, and it turns out it’s up to $55,000,” he said. “I just wasn’t 100% sure that that was going to be a good investment of county funds after learning more about it.”
