SPEARFISH, S.D. — Firefighters with the Spearfish Volunteer Fire Department spoke out about the department’s decision to dissolve by Jan. 31 after the vote was announced Tuesday.
The Black Hills Pioneer reported that officials with the department decided to disband the 134-year-old organization due to a number of issues, including an inability to fill leadership positions, years of steadily diminishing volunteer participation and degraded personal feelings toward departmental relations with the city.
An informal vote was taken regarding who among the current department would join the new fire department. Nine said ‘no,’ 10 said ‘yes,’ and 12 were unsure, saying their decision was dependent on what form the new firefighting entity takes.
Assistant Chief Don Salazar, who has been with the department for six years, said he voted for the dissolution due to concerns for the viability of an effective department in the face of declining volunteerism.
“There was nobody to step up and lead the department into the future the way it needed to be ran,” Chief Salazar told the paper. “There are certain positions that we have to have in place for the organization to actually work. It’s a time-consuming job in any position, whether it’s a leadership role, an executive board role — anything. You can plan on an extra 20 to 30 hours a week on top of your full-time job.”
Salazar does not plan to volunteer with the next firefighting entity, as he already planned to retire this year.
“I still love to fight fire, but my heart’s not in it 100 percent anymore,” he said. “You can’t be in it half, you’ve got to be 100 percent or nothing.”
Tosh Johnson, who has volunteered with the department for the past five years and currently serves as vice president of the organization, declined to say whether he voted for or against the dissolution.
“Everything combined builds up and in time it becomes too much,” Johnson said. “We all have a lot of other things we can make priorities in our lives. We didn’t feel the support necessary from the city in more than just financial ways; that makes it really tough on a volunteer organization.
“We’re here because we want to be, not because we have to be. It seems like there was a lot of miscommunication between ourselves and city; there could be a lot of finger pointing that went both ways on that.”
Doug Custis, a retired Spearfish volunteer firefighter, former chief, and father of current Chief Taylor Custis, said he feels city officials “are directly to blame for the current state of affairs regarding the fire department.”
“They, for whatever reason, decided to attack a fully functional and successful group and now are going to have face the full effect of their poor decision,” he said.
Delmar “Woody” Brownell, who volunteered with the department for 42 years, said he was hurt to hear that the department decided to disband.
“I think it’s a combination deal of department problems and a big part of city problems and the lack of volunteers in all ranges of volunteerism anymore,” he said. “I wish they (SVFD and the city of Spearfish) could’ve sat down and talked things out a little bit more. I hate to say it, but both sides were a little bull-headed.”
In the department’s open letter announcing the decision to disband, SVFD representatives related degraded relations with the city to a lack of support for a Feb. 2 request to include Spearfish in a proposed fire protection district and the city’s April drafting of ordinance 1212, which sought to amend and update city code regarding the fire department, according to the report.
The ordinance included a provision to create a paid fire chief position on city payroll.
SVFD representatives said the city drafted ordinance 1212 without prior communication with the department, adding, “the ordinance appeared to greatly affect much of the SVFD operations and led to major concerns among SVFD members.”
The city tabled discussion on ordinance 1212 in May due to SVFD objections and brought in Jim Hood, a former fire chief and prior city attorney, to mediate talks between city and fire department representatives on future funding options.
On Sept. 21, the Spearfish City Council added $160,000 to the fire department’s operational budget for 2016 to make up for funds previously collected through a fund drive that the department voted to discontinue this spring in order to focus on training.
On Sept. 24, SVFD representatives met with city officials to inform them that department members voted by ballot to dissolve the department, 24-11, with two members abstaining to vote.