Home in Henderson spoke with Vance County Board of Commissioners candidate Scott Hughes at his home yesterday on a number of issues with a specific focus on his views regarding the Vance County Fire Department.
Hughes’ platform regarding fire department restructuring may be viewed here.
Home in Henderson: What do you perceive as the problems with the Vance County Fire Department at the present time?
Hughes: Coverage. I’ll show you what I mean. You have Station Three, Golden Belt, Bear Pond, Watkins, Townsville, Kittrell, Epson, Drewry. All of Vance County’s money, for the most part, goes to Station Three Golden Belt. They have the only paid staff of all the departments in the county.
Dispatch for January through March, Townsville had a response time of 6:49 [six minutes forty-nine seconds], Bear Pond 5:22, Cokesbury 6:02. These are Monday through Friday, eight to five. This is from the time they get the call until the firetrucks go out.
Home in Henderson: These are the averages?
Hughes: These are the longest. It’s not fair for everyone outside of the Golden Belt to have a response time that long. The response time should be 30 to 60 seconds from the time dispatch calls to the time the firetruck checks in route. So much can happen in just a few minutes when it come to a fire.
The response times are so high Mondays through Fridays eight to five because everybody is at work. They don’t have anyone to man the volunteer fire departments. I’ll give you an example. I’m a Watkins fireman. I’m not very active now, but if I get a call, I have to drive by the scene to go get a firetruck and come back.
The change they need is at least two paid people from eight to five Monday through Friday like Louisburg and Oxford do to drive the trucks to the scene and have the volunteers meet them at the scene.
The Golden Belt, because they’re running fire and EMS empties out with the ambulances. They just added three more people per shift to ten, which means they can run four on a firetruck and three ambulances. What happens if they get that fourth ambulance call, which happens frequently? If we have four EMTs on the firetruck who refuse to take the call, they’re liable. If they go out on the ambulance call and a fire call comes in, they’re liable and they’re violating state rules and regulations.
They need to split the fire and EMS. Ideally, if they split the fire and EMS, and if they staff two paid fireman at the volunteer companies, at least Monday through Friday eight to five, I think it would be better. The only way you’d be not liable is if you have four firefighters who are not EMS trained.
Station Three is in the wrong location now. It leaves a lot of the area uncovered up north. I’ll give you an example: Kerr Lake Country Club. If they had a structure fire up there, Station Three is going to be closest, but if they’re out on ambulance calls, or if the lake comes up like it does in springtime, Townsville, Hicksboro, and Drewry is going to have a hard time coming in there.
The Golden Belt Fire Department should be on Satterwhite Point Road or 158, somewhere accessible, like Middleburg or around Chex Truck Stop.
Home in Henderson: That anticipates our next question of how would you fix the problem?
Hughes: Hire a county fire marshall. Talking with A.C. Daniels of the State Fire Marshall’s Office, when he did the city inspections that allowed them to go to a Class 4, he noticed a lot of county equipment on city trucks. When I worked there, I know for a fact there was a lot of county equipment used by the city. The way I see it, when the county buys equipment, it’s for the county fire trucks, not to be used in the city.
I think the county wastes a lot of money not just in the cost of equipment but in a high administration fee. I think the county should have a fire marshall that oversees all the fire operations for all the departments in the county. The county fire marshall sets the standards as far as the qualifications to work for the county fire department, but each fire department is responsible for hiring the people that they choose to hire. It’s a lot like Wake County.
Home in Henderson: How are you going to pay for it?
Hughes: If the county-wide water system comes through, and the county fire departments get up to par, the county could go to a Class 6 fire protection rating. This would save homeowners $300 per $100,000 of valuation annually on fire insurance, and could make up the difference in tax.
I’ve seen this because I’ve worked for the fire department. I’ve been a volunteer fireman in Vance County since 1994. I worked for Vance County from 1994 until 2002, either part-time or full-time. Talked to the State Fire Marshall’s Office and Wake County Fire Marshall’s Office trying to get ideas. It’s not something that’s unrealistic. It’s something that’s being done all around us. We need to catch up with other counties. It’s just like zoning. We need to catch up with other counties.
Home in Henderson: Let’s talk a little bit about zoning. Zoning’s a really hot topic right now in the county. Why were you initially anti-zoning?
Hughes: When I filed in February, I really didn’t know all about what zoning was. I had some individuals come up and ask me about it, and I said I was neutral. They taught me the negatives about zoning, and I thought it left the door open to corruption and mismanagement.
I kept on reading about zoning, listened to people talk, and I’ve actually gone door-to-door in my area and asked people what they thought about zoning. I haven’t had people say anything negative about it.
I started thinking about how any governmental program can be corrupt and mismanaged if not handled properly. If it’s handled right, the benefits outweigh the negative. I had to think about that real hard.
I knew that if I was put on the council I would vote for it. I didn’t want anyone to think I was trying to deceive them, so I decided to take a risk and see what happens and change my position. It was a mistake on my part to take a position too quickly before learning enough about it.
Home in Henderson: Is the fire department still the major part of your platform?
Hughes: The fire department is still the major part of the task I was going to take on, simply because that’s been the major part of my career. I don’t think the response time is fair. My ex-wife and children live on Old Watkins Road. If their house catches on fire Monday through Friday between eight and five and somebody’s in the house, the house will be engulfed before somebody gets there. It shouldn’t be that way because she lives two miles away from a fire department.
Home in Henderson: Do you think the position change will hurt your campaign?
Hughes: I think it will help. I’ve always tried to tell people I won’t be stubborn. I try to learn from people. I think changing my position on such a hot topic in the middle of a campaign shows that I’m not stubborn, that I will actually listen to people.
The overwhelming majority of people have been for it [the position change].
Home in Henderson: There are going to be people who say, “Well, of course the constituency inside the city is going to be for zoning, because they live in the city, and the city’s zoned.” They’re going to say that it doesn’t really reflect the unzoned part of the county. What would be your response to that?
Hughes: I would be interested to see what would happen if the citizens got to vote for zoning. I think it would surprise a lot of the anti-zoning people, because I think county-wide would be supportive of zoning. I think that everywhere you look, growth is beyond the city limits now in every county. We need to be ready for growth in Vance County beyond the city limits of Henderson.
Geographically, we’re just a stone’s throw from RTP, Durham, Raleigh. We have Interstates, US 1, 85, 158. The truth is, Durham County and Wake County are growing. They’re moving up north. We have to be ready for people coming up here, because they’re going to.
Home in Henderson Your opponent in this election, Tommy Hester, is on a pro-zoning platform as well. What do you see as the difference between you and Mr. Hester?
Hughes: Zoning is one issue. I can bring experience as a county employee. I’ve seen things as an employee of the fire department, EMS, Sheriff’s Office that, in my opinion, the commissioners don’t have a clue.
I have a lot of good ideas as far as trying to work with mentally handicapped people, parenting class, I’ve talking to DSS, that I just haven’t seen him [Hester] display. I don’t want to go through the campaign saying what he hasn’t done, I want to say what I can do. I just haven’t been impressed these four years.
All of the commissioners are never visible. You only see them in a disaster, or some type of special event, or when it’s time for them to get re-elected, especially Tommy Hester, and I want to be different. I want to be out soliciting opinions. I want to be open to talk to any county resident. I’ll be happy to keep my phone number and address out for anyone to contact me.
Home in Henderson: How about this library funding issue? Where do you fall on that?
Hughes: I think it’s the county’s responsibility, but the city should subsidize, too. I think the new library was an excellent idea, but they should not have moved in until they could fund the same hours as the old library. Sunday was significant. They should have included the county as well. They should have taken more time.
Hughes’ general platform may be viewed here.