SEGUIN, Texas — A volunteer fire department in Texas will be dissolved in the next two months and absorbed into surrounding volunteer fire departments.
The Seguin Gazette reported the Guadalupe County Commissioners Court unanimously voted to cancel its contract with the County Line Volunteer Fire Department after the organization failed to rectify several ongoing problems.
“This issue was first brought up in December 2015 when Mr. (David) Padula (former Guadalupe County Fire Marshal) looked at the contracts, and noticed that County Line Volunteer Fire Department was not meeting the requirements,” said interim Guadalupe County Fire Marshal Patrick Pinder.
As the probe continued, more issues within the department came to light.
“While we were conducting this investigation into the matters of the contract, we were made aware of some internal issues that the department was having,” said Pinder. “There was a member of the department that was dissatisfied with the lack of leadership within the department and how the issue was being handled. A member of the department asked us to look into the financial situation that the department was having.”
Additionally, the fire department failed to file taxes for 2014 and 2015 and had failed to register as a first responder agency since 2009. The department was also lacking training records.
“The department is required to provide training. We have not received any from that fire department. We don’t know how many hours those members are training, when they are training, or how they are training. They are required to have 20 hours of continuing education. We don’t have proof of that. Those are all things that are in the contract that are required,” said Pinder.
Initially, the fire marshal sought to resolve the issues. As the investigation continued, it became clear that things were not improving at the department and on Feb. 9, County Line Fire Chief Tom Day resigned.
Once the department is dissolved, the coverage area and fire equipment will be split between two nearby volunteer fire departments.
Residents voiced concern that the termination of the department would mean longer response times or lack of coverage.
Judge Kyle Kutscher said the fire marshal and the two fire departments have been working to ensure there will be no gaps in emergency response coverage.
“I want to make it clear to the public in that area that there will be a fire department that comes when you call and need somebody. Since this is new, we don’t know the specifics of it yet, but again we want to use those two months to help facilitate how it could work out the best,” said Kutscher.