With the Laurel Fork Volunteer Fire Department ready to install new officers next month, officials with the department are excited about its direction despite a recent hiccup with past tax filings.

Butch Coleman, President of the fire department’s Executive Board, confirmed that the department’s account was recently temporarily frozen by the Internal Revenue Service because of an issue with non-profit tax filings in 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2007. But thanks to the research and hard work of treasurer Janet Tate, he said the problem is being corrected and the department’s account is in good standing again.

“We do the giveaway, a $10,000 raffle each year, and the IRS requires us to do a filing within 30 days of the giveaway. I believe what was happening was our former treasurer (Tammy McAlexander) was sending a form, but to the wrong location,” Coleman said. “Janet and I were able to make sure our accounts were not frozen and wouldn’t be. There was not necessarily any wrongdoing on the part of the former treasurer, it was just an administrative error of the tax filings going to the wrong place, a processing center rather than a collection center.”

Because of those tax filings, Laurel Fork Volunteer Fire Department could face a filing penalty of up to six years worth of interest. Coleman said Tate has done a tremendous job of researching and working with the IRS to see what those liabilities would be. In total, the department is looking at about $2,900, but Coleman hopes that number can be reduced.

“After Christmas we are going to draft a letter and ask the IRS to forgive some of the portion of that and abate some of that portion so we can be good stewards of the county. Our accounts are not frozen. Janet called me two to three weeks ago and said she had been in touch with the IRS and they were going to freeze an account at the bank and levy a charge at the bank because we haven’t responded to their instructions, but we took quick and prompt action,” Coleman said. “We have confidence in knowing we are okay, but it took Janet some time to research the issue with the IRS and to look at their instructions for non-profit filings. We have talked to the county administration about these issues and this was part of our investigation that we had some administrative issues to take care of.”

McAlexander and her husband, Benton, the former fire chief of Laurel Fork Fire Department, were suspended from the operation of county emergency services equipment and from being on the premises of county emergency services property in May. The suspension came despite a Virginia State Police investigation that found no wrongdoing against the couple. Benton McAlexander told The Carroll News he was resigning in August, but no resignation was ever turned into the county or the fire department, County Administrator Gary Larrowe said.

Larrowe also said the county did not know about the past IRS issues until it was recently informed, but that the county has been pleased with the direction of the Laurel Fork Fire Department.

“The county did not know about the IRS issues. I think this is just indicative of the problematic issues that have been faced by the department,” Larrowe said. “We are very pleased that the Laurel Fork Fire Department administration is taking care of the matters as they need to at this point. We’re very pleased with the adminstration and the cooperation between the county and fire department that is happening now. The lines of cummunication have been opened and the amazing amount of cooperation has helped us to address these issues.”

Coleman said the department’s executive board prefers to focus on its future in moving forward. He said the department ratified a resolution recently passed by the county regarding qualifiers and disqualifiers for emergency services and fire departments. With newly elected officers set to take office next month, the department is determined to provide the best possible service to the citizens of Laurel Fork and Carroll County.

“The board members are asking them all to be focused on 2010 and asking them to move in a forward direction and not be hung up on this or that,” Coleman said. “We had a couple of resignations over former issues, but I think those can be healthy for the department. We all reach that point in time where it is time to move on.”

Aside from Coleman, who was re-elected as President of the Executive Board, Chad Dalton has been elected to serve as the Executive Board’s Vice President. Karen Widner has been elected secretary, while Tate has been elected to continue to serve as treasurer. Doug Lyons was re-elected as Fire Chief, while Dale Edmonds is the assistant chief. Other officers include First Captain Chad Dalton, Second Captain David Parlier, Lieutenant Matt Holland, Chaplain Jason Nester, and Assistant Chaplain Stevie Bobbitt. Blaine Barnard has been elected as the department’s community liaison with Laurel Fork Community, Inc. The department currently has 21 active members, several lifetime members and several more organizational members.

Aside from responding to fires and traffic accidents in the district and throughout the county, Coleman said the department stays busy and does its best to provide to the community in a variety of ways.

“We just participated to support the Carroll Christmas Fund by helping deliver to families in our area that received food boxes and gift bags. We delivered Sunday and Monday to about 12 families in our area, despite the weather, and we truly enjoyed doing that,” Coleman said. “We are also going to do a Firefighter One class that we hope to get underway in February, a class we will have taught to members of our department to start gearing up with some training here. We have worked very well with Hillsville (Fire Department) and get support from Meadows of Dan and Cana (fire departments) and we want to be a good partner with those and other agencies such as Carroll EMS. We think we have good working relationships with them.”

Coleman said Laurel Fork has been blessed to have other fire departments and agencies support it to take care of life and property. He said the department responded to two traffic fatalities from December 14-21 and assisted Hillsville’s Fire Department with a house fire on Silverleaf Road in Dugspur during that time.

“We are not an agency that runs 300 to 400 calls a year like Hillsville, but when we do you can’t get lost in that call count. Every call counts and we have been very appreciative of the other departments helping us out when we need them, and we are willing to help them as much as we can as well.”

As for the future, Coleman said the fire department’s executive board has discussed seeking a professional accounting firm to make sure the department is cooperating well with the county and to make sure nothing is overlooked or misappropriated.

“None of us in that department are CPAs or well versed on IRS requirements — we are getting there. But in the future, that would allow us to call the CPA and tell them to send the county our financials,” Coleman said. “We have a lot to look forward to in 2010, having the dedication of people who sacrifice time with their families and their employers to protect and serve the citizens of Carroll County. That is what our focus is and should be. We’re cooperating with the county and we are trying to be very accountable in terms of preserving the public interest of what our missions are.”