SMITH COUNTY (KYTX) -- Volunteer fire departments are facing an uncertain future after Smith County Emergency Services District board members decided not to renew the contracts those departments are under.
The ESD board is responsible for doling out tax dollars to keep individual departments up and running.
The current contract has been in place since the ESD was originally founded five years ago, and Keith Tate with Flint-Gresham's volunteer fire department says the ESD's decision to make changes was a given.
"This was not a surprise," Tate said. "We've known since January, or maybe even before that, that the contract was going to be re-negotiated."
The contract covers 11 Smith County fire departments. ESD President Mitch Henderson told CBS 19 the goal of these negotiations is to make each department more financially accountable. Henderson issued a statement saying:
"This is a work in progress, as that committee of chiefs are having the documents reviewed by their legal counsel and then by all VFD dept chiefs. It is expected that further changes will be asked for, back and forth."
Specifics like the ones they're working on now just didn't come up when the newly formed ESD put pen to paper five years ago.
"There's very little governance in the contract providing for taxpayer money accountability," Tate said.
Some departments are worried the new contracts will be too restrictive, and so focused on the bottom line that they won't be able to get basic equipment when they need it.
"We want to be able to operate efficiently but it takes certain equipment to do it," Smith County Volunteer Firemen's Association Vice President Johnny Brown said.
Brown said it's already tough jumping through the hoops to run a fire department.
"[The ESD board] still has a right to either say 'yeah we'll pay it' or 'no we'll deny it,'" Brown said.
The 90-day notice that the ESD gave these departments lines up with the end of this fiscal year and the start of the next one in October. The ESD has said if they can't come to an agreement, they do have the option of extending the current contract on a month-to-month basis. That means no one's in danger of going without fire service.
