County government is firing away on its plans to overhaul Warren County’s volunteer fire departments as magistrates Thursday unanimously approved plans to consolidate the nine VFDs into the new Warren County Fire Department, something that will ultimately lead to a continuous part-time fire personnel presence across the county.

“We have, for over 50 years, relied on a solely volunteer system to take care of Warren County,” Judge-Executive Doug Gorman said after the meeting. “We’re the largest county in Kentucky by far that is volunteer-based. This is a transition that has been a long time waiting.”

Reworking the volunteer fire departments has been a focus for county government for some time. Last year, the Warren Fiscal Court solicited a study of the county’s VFD’s from fire-consultants MissionCIT, a study that resulted in hiring fire coordinator Bill Rector.

Rector told the Daily News earlier this month that the plan is to have around 20 part-time firefighters stationed “at strategically located places” around the county during daytime hours Monday through Friday.

“That’s a big deal, because right now, our most recognized staffing challenge is during the day, (when) a lot of the volunteers have jobs elsewhere,” Rector said previously.

Magistrates on June 13 approved a laundry list of equipment purchases for new part-time personnel, from helmets and other personal protective equipment to four defibrillators. On Thursday, magistrates took additional steps, including approving a “chain of command” for the department.

Four million dollars has been set aside for the project in the county’s FY2026 budget. Gorman said this will cover “equipment, personnel, training, everything.”

“This is all preparation for August 4, when the county has, for the first time ever, paid firefighters taking care of the citizens of Warren County during the day,” Gorman said. “It’s an exciting day for us.”

Gorman said the county has a model in place to meet coverage needs for the month of August as the ball gets rolling.

Rector said Thursday the August rollout of the plan will see nine firefighters stationed at the Richardsville and Gott VFDs.

Part-time personnel will be hired based off of other commitments and sign-ups will be done based on availability. Weekends will remain on a volunteer basis under the plan.

To cover increased costs associated with the upgrades, magistrates approved in March an ordinance that would place a license fee on insurance companies operating in the county. The fee could generate as much as $4.5 million per year in revenue.

Currently, all of the county’s volunteer departments get money through annual dues.  This provided over $1.3 million in funding for the nine VFDs in 2023, the Daily News reported previously.

Rector said earlier this month that while conversations about “sunsetting” the dues structure have happened, it would likely be unwise to do so at this point.

“The way the insurance premium fee works is that we will not know the projected income from that until a year after that fee is initiated,” he said then, adding that the fee kicked in on July 1 this year.

Fiscal Court will convene again Aug. 14.