“We can’t keep doing things the way we’ve been doing them.”

Those words from Woodburn Volunteer Fire Department Chief Bob Skipper could serve as a summary of the study of Warren County’s nine volunteer fire departments recently completed by the MissionCIT consulting firm.

Commissioned by Warren Fiscal Court at a cost of $48,300, the study confirmed that changes are needed for departments squeezed by a fast-growing workload, static funding and a diminishing pool of volunteers.

In fact, the study’s executive summary identifies four key focus areas needed to improve the county VFDs:

•Improve funding

•Improve service delivery

•Reduce system fragmentation

•Improve the health, safety and wellness for fire department personnel and the public

MissionCIT’s 187-page report details dozens of recommendations within those four focus areas and warns: “Some (recommendations) have significant cost increases.”

Funding has been a key issue all along for the VFDs, established in 1972 and funded largely through fire dues that have been part of county tax bills since 2004.

Currently, the annual fire dues are $50 for households and $70 for businesses. Those dues generated $1,308,755 to be spread across nine VFDs in 2023, and fiscal court provided another $316,500.

That funding can increase as the county adds residences and businesses, but it still falls far short of the Bowling Green Fire Department’s annual budget of more than $21 million.

“The current dues structure is not really supporting what the departments need,” Skipper said. “The price of equipment has skyrocketed.”

Not surprisingly, MissionCIT zeroed in on funding in its report.

The conclusions section of the report bears that out with this statement: “The costs to operate the fire departments, purchase supplies and make fire station repairs have continued to increase without a corresponding increase in funding. The current funding levels only maintain the status quo, without improvements in service delivery.”

The status quo is far from adequate at a time when demands on the fire departments manned by volunteers are increasing rapidly in one of Kentucky’s fastest-growing counties.

In its report, MissionCIT said the number of service calls handled by the county’s VFDs increased by 43% from 2021 to 2023.

Skipper confirms the increase in demand. According to statistics cited in the MissionCIT report, the Woodburn VFD responded to 667 emergency calls last year, a far cry from the volumes the department handled when Skipper joined it 35 years ago.

“I’ve been chief about 20 years,” he said, “and we have doubled the number of (annual) runs in that time.”

In total, the county’s nine VFDs responded to 4,891 calls in 2023, up from 4,672 the previous year.

Compounding the strain from the rising call volume is the increasing difficulty in finding volunteer firefighters. According to the MissionCIT report, volunteer membership has decreased since 2021 for six of the nine VFDs. 

Jason Duckett, chief of the Gott VFD, said last year when fiscal court was looking into hiring a consultant: “We have people who do want to volunteer, but they can’t volunteer that much time to cover that many runs.”

What’s the solution? MissionCIT proposes strategies to boost funding and move the VFDs to more of a semiprofessional model.

Among the recommendations:

•Changing the funding model from fire dues to an insurance premium tax

•Billing for non-EMS incidents 

•Establishing a capital fund to pay for fire station improvements and equipment

•Hiring a full-time county fire coordinator to manage the system with the volunteer chiefs

•Hiring a full-time volunteer recruitment coordinator and a full-time fire marshal

•Hiring full-time firefighters to staff four strategic fire stations during daytime hours to provide a minimum level of response when the majority of volunteer personnel are least available  

The most palatable of the recommendations for now is the hiring of a county fire coordinator. Fiscal court has advertised the position, listing a salary of $75,000 per year, and is taking applications through Aug. 15.

“We put it (fire coordinator) in this year’s budget,” said Warren County Judge-Executive Doug Gorman. “That position will work with the volunteer fire departments and report to me about walking through the steps that are needed.”

Gorman said fiscal court is not obligated to implement “any or all” of MissionCIT’s recommendations.

“We can pick and choose (from the recommendations),” he said. “The fire coordinator will work alongside the volunteer fire chiefs. We’ve had no discussions on funding. I’m hoping the fire coordinator position can work through that.”

Whatever funding model is chosen and whatever full-time positions are created, Gorman said the goal will be to meet the needs of the VFDs.

“Our volunteer fire departments have been instrumental in the growth of the county,” he said. “We’ve had volunteers for more than 50 years serving the community.

“We’ll have to look at all the things they need – new equipment and so many things. It’s up to us to go item by item and see how we can best meet the needs.”