The Vance County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously yesterday during their regular monthly meeting to merge the Kerr Lake Volunteer Fire Department (KLVFD) with the Vance County Fire Department (VCFD).
The VCFD is the county’s professional fire service.
According to Vance County Fire Chief Harold Henrich, the merger was first considered in 2007. Since then, meetings have occurred to work out the details.
The resulting department will be a combination of a paid fire department and a volunteer fire department. According to Henrich, the arrangement will benefit all of Vance County’s communities with increased equipment, manpower, and response.
The Kerr Lake facility on Satterwhite Point Road will continue operation as a substation of the VCFD.
The merger will make it easier for the VCFD to maintain four fire fighters per truck as required by state law.
The former KLVFD received $48,000 in funding from the county annually. Under the new arrangement, the VCFD will run Kerr Lake’s facility as a substation for $30,000 per year. The $18,000 difference will be distributed equally among the remaining Vance County volunteer fire departments. This will restore funding to the remaining volunteer departments to levels equivalent to before the KLVFD was formed.
The KLVFD had 23 volunteers. Henrich will work to increase that number to 30. The roles of those volunteers include fire fighter, vehicle drivers, emergency medical service, and traffic control.
Commissioner Scott Hughes asked if the merger would lead to the relocation of the Kerr Lake fire station. Henrich replied that a new station was probably “five years down the road”.
The county fire chief said that the major goal of the merger was to lower fire insurance ratings in the next twelve to eighteen months.
In order to maintain the ability for fund-raise, the former KLVFD is in the process of reorganizing itself as a non-profit support group that will continue to raise funds that can be put towards fire-fighting uses.
Before the votes to dissolve KLVFD and merge it to the VCFD were taken, Commissioner Deborah Brown exhorted Henrich to be diverse his his recruiting efforts. She also stated that she appreciated the fact that Henrich had “buy-in” from all of the volunteer fire chiefs.
The dissolution of the KLVFD and the merger are contingent upon a satisfactory audit of the volunteer fire company’s finances. The idea of an audit was introduced by member Dan Brummitt.