The Post Volunteer Fire Department now has a standing invitation to become part of Fort Oglethorpe Fire & Rescue but Post leaders have neither refused nor accepted it.

Mayor Judd Burkhart proposed the move after Marlin Thompson, the chairman of the Post’s board of directors, came before the council on Monday to dispel rumors about the proposed consolidation with Catoosa County Fire & Rescue.

“Post Volunteer at this point hasn’t agreed to consolidation,” he said. “We have agreed to discuss the future which may or may not include consolidation.”

The Post, which is an independent nonprofit organization, has historically been attached to Fort Oglethorpe’s fire department, but there is no written agreement between the two entities – a problem Post leaders urged city officials to correct as soon as possible. Fort Oglethorpe’s seven hired fire employees supplement the 80-volunteer Post department by a verbal agreement that has stood since the Post’s inception in 1951. One chief, Bruce Ballew, heads both departments and his salary comes out of the city’s budget.

Fort Oglethorpe has historically maintained the vehicles.

County officials have discussed consolidation as a means of saving money and providing better service, something Burkhart said wouldn’t happen under the proposed plans. Burkhart said the city stands behind its firefighters at both the Post and in Fort Oglethorpe and had no plans to meet without representatives from all parties involved.

“We’re not going to let them take you over,” he said of the county. “We’re 100 percent behind you guys.”

Despite rumors to the contrary, the Post board would need to vote for consolidation to happen with either the county or Fort Oglethorpe, Thompson said. He said the board will vote according to the wishes of all the members and it has yet to make a decision.

“We don’t expect to make any decisions until the county brings everybody together to discuss everything,” he said. “They can’t just come in and take us over unless we’re willing to do so…We’re in a good position to negotiate with whoever we need to.”

Burkhart suggested meeting privately with fire officials and one or two council members and the city manager to discuss options.

Catoosa County commissioners at a recent retreat near Cartersville discussed hiring more full-time firefighters and said they planned to consolidate the county with the Post. Commissioner Bobby Winters, the only county representative at Fort Oglethorpe’s meeting, said the rumors have gotten out of hand since the news of consolidation talks broke last week.

“Our meeting was about how many new firemen we could hire,” he said. “We went down there to discuss our budgets, wasn’t nothing about hurting the fire departments or anything like that.”

The Post does have an agreement with the county to provide fire service outside Fort Oglethorpe’s city limits when needed. The Post and Fort Oglethorpe, which answer calls in the city and west Catoosa County, received $175,000 for Fort Oglethorpe and $216,000 for Post Volunteer Fire Department from the county in the last budget year.

Fort Oglethorpe included a request to the county for an additional $145,000 for Fort Oglethorpe Fire & Rescue that added to a request from the Post asking for $492,000 more in the upcoming budget, officials said.

Thompson said the additional money would pay for eight full-time firefighters.

He said there have been about three meetings over the last nine months on the possibility of consolidation. He described the discussions as “light conversations” and stressed that no decisions have been made.

Thompson said the next Post board meeting is Wednesday, July 11, but it is unlikely the board will make any major changes then.



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Who owns what
Fort Oglethorpe Fire and Rescue: Property and building at Station 1 on Forrest Road, property at Station 10 on Mack Smith Road, staff vehicles, one engine, one tanker truck and one air-light unit.

Post Volunteer Fire Department: 90 percent of vehicles and equipment, building at Station 10 on Mack Smith Road, building and property at Station 8 in Boynton.


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