Within two weeks’ time, two fire chiefs whose departments cover half of Brown County told meeting audiences that without more money, they’re in danger of closing.

Van Buren Volunteer Fire Department has been running on donations for nearly three years, since a contract dispute erupted between the fire department and its board and the Van Buren Township trustee and her board.

The department now has no steady stream of funding since the contract was severed in a settlement in July, Chief John Ward told a group of firefighters and property owners at his station Sept. 12. And since all but two of the fire department’s five board members have stepped down in the past two months, it’s also short of hands to make sandwiches and dinners for fundraisers.

“We took an oath to protect those that we would serve, and that’s what we’re going to do for as long as we can,” Ward said.

“If we get to a point where we have no choice but to shut down, that would be very unfortunate, but if you can’t pay the bills, you can’t pay the bills.”

Brown County (Nashville) Volunteer Fire Department Chief Nick Kelp was at that meeting, along with two of his volunteers. They wanted to hear how Van Buren’s challenges could impact them.

During town budget meetings at the end of August, Kelp told the Nashville Town Council that he needed more money, too.

“Bluntly, I need an increase to the contract amount or we’re going to fold, plain and simple,” he said.

Nashville Fire received more money from its fall fish sandwich sales last year than it did from its fire protection contract with the town, Kelp said.

The town has budgeted twice as much to fix sidewalks and nearly four times as much to clean restrooms as it has for fire protection next year.

Kelp estimated he needs $109,075 to run his station each year, even with all-volunteer labor.

He’s budgeted to get $12,000 from the town.

In-town calls account for about a third of all calls the downtown department is dispatched to, and he expects them to go up with two new tourist attractions in the works: the Maple Leaf Performing Arts Center and Big Woods Brewing Co.’s Hard Truth Hills expansion.

Nashville Fire also has a fire protection contract with the Washington Township trustee. It’s increasing to $43,500 next year from $40,000, Kelp said.

But together, the two contract sums do little to put a dent in ongoing expenses, such as truck maintenance, Kelp said. In the past year, one truck has caught on fire and a couple others have required expensive repairs.

A GoFundMe page the firefighters posted in July to pay for repairs brought in just $420 of its $100,000 goal.

The town council is working to find more funding for fire protection, but there is no cushion in the 2018 budget, town Clerk-Treasurer Brenda Young said.

She and Town Manager Scott Rudd said the next layer of possible cuts would affect groups like the Nashville Arts & Entertainment Commission, the tree board, the Main Street committee and the Nashville Development Review Commission — but no such cuts were made when the council discussed the budget again Sept. 14.

“We are generally for supporting the fire department,” said Nashville Town Council President “Buzz” King. “It’s just that we’re up against a rock, too. I wish we could do more.”

The town’s hired budget consultant told the council Aug. 30 that its assessed value and income tax collections would be going down for 2018, and that its public safety budget requests needed to be cut by as much as $20,000.

That included funding for the Nashville Police Department, which has been facing its own set of challenges.

The Nashville Police are constantly losing officers to departments with better pay and benefits; their vehicle fleet needs to be replaced; and more expenses are being shifted to the departments, such as officer training and uniforms, Chief Ben Seastrom said.

“The problem you guys are running into is you’re at your maximum (tax) levy, so in order for you to up it (the contract amount), you’d have to hack somebody else’s budget — which I don’t expect to happen — or figure out a way to form a new tax, i.e. a fire territory, a fire district, or I’m sure there’s probably another way,” Kelp told the town council.

“Honestly, I don’t know what that next step is,” Young said. “It’s something the council is going to have to really talk about, because obviously, there’s a need and I don’t know what the answer is.”

Firefighting manpower continues to be a challenge, too. Van Buren has an average of two volunteers available depending on the time of day; Nashville Fire is in a similar situation.

Kelp and his father, former Nashville Fire Chief “Dak” Kelp, have lobbied the town council for years about paying firefighters. But, again, where to get the money has been a so-far-insurmountable obstacle.

“I could sleep better at night if I had finances and staffing taken care of,” Nick Kelp said.

“I realize it’s not going to be overnight, but it needs to start now.”

Ward said he’s investigating several avenues of how to keep the Van Buren Fire station running. Annual bills total about $24,000, not counting fuel for trucks or repairs.

A new, separate volunteer fire department — Southern Brown — will start responding in Van Buren’s area Oct. 15, and starting in 2018, it will be getting all the fire protection tax money that Van Buren residents pay.

Residents at the Sept. 12 Van Buren Fire meeting suggested billing people for service or asking residents to “subscribe” to be served by Van Buren.

Ward’s ideas include applying for grants to turn Van Buren into a “special rescue” department, and/or setting up a different taxing structure that would benefit public safety agencies in general.

What that would look like, he isn’t sure, but something different needs to be done, he said.

“Firefighters, EMS, law enforcement, we all know the simple truth … nobody cares, until they dial 911 when they have an emergency. Then they want somebody to show up, and they damn well expect that the person who does show up knows what they’re doing. And we’re their hero for that brief moment, and the next day they’re mad at us because we put a rut in their yard.

“When do you get to a point to where you stop and say, ‘Hey we need these guys?’” he asked.

“Without these guys, what do you have?”

[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”About Brown County’s fire departments” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]

Brown County is served by volunteer firefighters only.

There are now seven departments based in the county:

• Cordry-Sweetwater and Hamblen Township in the northeast;
• Fruitdale and Jackson Township in the northwest;
• Brown County (Nashville) along the State Road 46 corridor, including Nashville and the northern part of Brown County State Park;
• Van Buren and Southern Brown in the south.

Cordry-Sweetwater is funded through a fire protection contract with the Hamblen Township trustee, fundraisers and donations.

Fire protection tax rate: 3.3 cents per $100 of assessed property value, or $33 a year on a $100,000 property.

The Fruitdale and Jackson Township departments, which are both in Jackson Township, receive contract money from the Jackson Township trustee, plus fundraisers and donations.

Fire protection tax rate: 4 cents per $100 of assessed property value, or $40 a year on a $100,000 property.

Hamblen Township Volunteer Fire Department is funded through the Hamblen Fire Protection District, established in 1997 by the Brown County Commissioners. Establishing a fire district allows the levying of a special tax on district landowners for fire protection.

Fire protection tax rate: 6.6 cents per $100 of assessed property value, or $66 a year on a $100,000 property.

Brown County (Nashville) receives contract money from the Nashville Town Council and Washington Township trustee, plus fundraisers and donations.

Fire protection tax rate: 4.1 cents per $100 (1.6 cents for Washington Township residents, 0 cents for in-town Nashville residents, though the town does charge 2.5 cents on income tax to go toward fire department capital expenses).

Southern Brown was incorporated in July by action of the Van Buren Township trustee and advisory board, after the board severed its fire protection contract with the Van Buren firefighters. The severance ended a years-long, taxpayer- and donation-funded court battle between the trustee’s office and Van Buren Fire over the fire protection contract and other disputes. Southern Brown is now the sole recipient of fire-related tax money from Van Buren Township landowners.

Fire protection tax rate: 3.4 cents per $100 of assessed property value, or $34 a year on a $100,000 property.

Van Buren is now funded by fundraisers and donations only. Its leadership is considering other avenues of funding, such as landowners “subscribing” to receive firefighting and first responder service from Van Buren; applying for grants; and/or becoming a “special rescue” department with cooperation from other specially trained rescuers around the county.

Jackson, Washington and Van Buren townships are legally part of the Brown County Fire Protection District. However, that fire district does not levy any fire tax on district landowners. In 2011, the county commissioners changed this fire district’s purpose to be about educating people on fire prevention. The district was the subject of an eight-year court battle between the commissioners and a group of county taxpayers, which ended in 2015 and put control of the district’s future back in the commissioners’ hands. The commissioners have taken no action since then.

[sc:pullout-text-end]