The Carroll County Board of Supervisors approved a fire fee ordinance Oct. 13 that will allow the county to generate a revenue stream to help support its three fire departments.

The ordinance, which passed unanimously, will allow the county to collect fees from each fire call made by the Hillsville Volunteer Fire Department as well as Cana and Laurel Fork fire departments. The fire fee structure will be $500 for a vehicle fire, $1,000 for a residential structure fire and $1,000 for a commercial structure fire. Vegetation fires will be charged at $100 for the first acre and $100 per each additional acre. False alarm fees will be imposed for three false alarms in a six-month period at $300 per call.

The board first discussed fire fees at its September meeting but tabled the matter after several questions arose from that conversation. Speaking on behalf of Hillsville Volunteer Fire Department, Chief Mike Musser stated at the September meeting that his department was not in favor of fire fees if they would drive up insurance premiums for citizens. Several questions arose about the fire fees and the soft-billing associated with them at the September meeting.

Pine Creek District Supervisor Wes Hurst revisited the topic of fire fees back at the October meeting. He said the board doesn’t want to put extra fees on any of its citizens. After doing some number crunching, he said HVFD makes on average a little over one call per day. Cana Fire Department averages almost one call per day and Laurel Fork Fire Department runs about 80 calls annually.

“Where we have the majority of our expense at, a lot of calls are out-of-state travelers,” Hurst said. “When you look at all of our expenses we are curtailing, and how a lot of these are paid for and allotted by insurance companies and those don’t affect anyone’s billing for us to keep providing adequate fire trucks and all apparatuses needed to help our citizens in the community to have good equipment to protect their property, I think it is the best interests of the citizens of our county to go ahead forward. I would make that motion.”

Laurel Fork District Supervisor Andy Jackson seconded the motion. Fancy Gap District Supervisor Manus McMillian noted that he and Jackson are both on the Carroll County Emergency Services Board. The two have done a lot of research on the matter, McMillian said.

“There is money out there that is just going down the pipe. We are missing it and you don’t want to appear to be the vulture in somebody’s misfortune,” McMillian said. “Unlike rescue squads that has cash flow, our fire departments are kind of behind the 8-ball. They don’t have the resources that a lot of the other departments have. There are a lot of things the citizens probably don’t know, like (fire department ratings for insurance purposes). There a lot of different things that come into play here and they really need for this to pass.”

Jackson said when the emergency services board first began talking about fire fees, there was great concern on whether such an ordinance would put a great burden on the citizens.

“But since it is going to be soft-billing, insurance companies are set up in policies to pay. It is not like we are going to be penalizing people here if people lose their home. It is not a $1,000 bill to pay out of their pocket. That is not the way it is intended and won’t be as far as I am concerned,” Jackson said. “As Mr. McMillian stated, with the cost of equipment being so great, we needed to come up with some extra funds to fund them. This was a good way we come up with to do it without putting an extra fire tax like some communities put a fire tax on everybody to add to the tax. That is one thing we wanted to stay away from. So we feel like it is one of the most fair things we can do to help alleviate this money situation.”

Supervisor Sam Dickson asked if the Carroll County Emergency Services Board requesting approval of the fire fee ordinance.

“Yes, they are in total agreement,” Jackson said. “It has been voted on twice.”

“We assure you that these are allowable fees,” McMillian added.