The Brown County (Nashville) Volunteer Fire Department is facing more costs now that it has an aerial ladder truck — about $10,000 per year more. That’s what Chief Micah Fox estimates it will cost to recertify the truck and its parts every year.

The contract that the Nashville Town Council is proposing is the same as last year: $12,000.

The fire department might have an extra $10,000 per year in the cumulative fund the town builds up for it through property taxes, but that’s not certain yet. And town officials didn’t know right away at their Dec. 15 meeting if that money would be there each year.

“We’ll really have to look at it,” said town Clerk-Treasurer Brenda Young. “It all comes down to the same discussion we’ve been having about how we’re going to fund everything with the fire department.”

More than a year ago, the fire department asked the town council to find a way to pay firefighters to staff the Nashville station. That conversation has been brought up repeatedly over the years.

The department has nine volunteers now — up from six in February — but one is on active duty military leave and another is eight months pregnant, Fox said.

“We’ve been saying that we’ve got an issue for quite a while and it’s not getting any better. We’ll gain a couple of members, they’ll stay for a couple months and then they’re gone,” he said.

Since the department stopped making medical runs in April, their calls for service have been cut by half, which has helped reduce burnout in volunteers, he said. However, it’s also meant more calls coming to the other volunteer fire stations, which dispatchers call for help instead of Nashville.

Town council member Arthur Omberg, who had promised to communicate with the firefighters about their needs months ago, asked Fox to pick a date to meet in December to continue that discussion.

Over the summer, the town council and the Washington Township Advisory Board both agreed to pursue forming a fire territory. But to do that, they would need to go before the Brown County Commissioners and request they cut Washington Township out of the Brown County Fire Protection District — an inactive entity.

Forming a new fire territory consisting of Nashville and Washington Township would allow the levying of new property taxes on residents for fire protection.

No date has been set for the groups to approach the commissioners.

Nashville Town Manager Scott Rudd told Fox that finding more money for the fire department — such as to pay for the annual truck certification — could be one of the goals the town discusses with its financial consultant.

Town road paving bid awarded with state grant money

The Nashville Town Council has chosen Milestone to do more than $291,000 worth of paving on town roads in 2017.

That company’s bid was the lowest by at least $100,000.

Roads to be paved in town next year include all of Hawthorne Drive, East Washington Street, Ridgeway Drive and Treetop Lane; and parts of Willow Street, West Chestnut Street, Salt Creek Road, Old School Way, West and East Gould streets, West Lake Drive, South Drive, West and East Main streets, West and East Mound streets, Buck Stogsdill Way, Park Lane, Tuckaway Ridge Drive, Tuckaway Ridge Lane, Tuckaway Ridge Road, Greasy Creek Road, Coffey Hill Road, Locust Lane and Wells Drive.

Two roads that were on the original bid list — the westernmost end of Gould Street and the town’s half of the Snyder Road hill — are off the list for now, said Town Utility Coordinator Sean Cassiday. That portion of Gould was in better shape than originally thought, and the town wants to wait until the county can do its half of Snyder hill before they do anything with theirs, he said.

He said the contractor will have until July to get the work done.