MIDWAY — Given a warning to have a plan in place to provide fire protection quickly or risk losing certification, Midway City Council members voted Monday night to take 72 hours to weigh their options.
Officials from Liberty County presented again a plan for the county to cover fire services for the city. The city’s volunteer department is down to two firefighters and its two trucks, both owned by the county, are in need of repair. The county has been running calls in the city for several months from its Miller Park station.
Randy Toms, executive director of the Georgia Firefighter Standards and Training Council and a former mayor of the City of Warner Robins, told Midway City Council at their special called meeting Monday night they risk losing their certification.
“You are dangerously out of compliance,” Toms, who joined Monday’s city council meeting by phone, said. “The time of kicking the can down the road has to be at an end. I can’t in good conscience extend the time if there is not an agreement in sight.”
Tony Pritchett, chairman of the GFSTC, said Toms “has been more willing to give time and extend time than I would be.”
County proposes plan
Liberty County Fire Chief Brian Darby made his initial proposal to Midway in September with an original start date of January 1, 2025. That start date has been pushed back to April 1, 2025 but the details of the arrangement remain the same — dedicated paid firefighters to run calls in Midway, upgrading of the city’s equipment and repairs made to one of the two trucks. Though the two trucks bear Midway Fire Department stickers, they are county property, and Darby noted repairing the older of the two vehicles might not be worth it.
Under the county’s plan, there would be two firefighters per shift for the first two years, with adding a lieutenant per shift and in the fifth year, going to three firefighters and one lieutenant per shift.
The cost, including the salaries, benefits and the start-up costs, is a little over $5 million. Midway Council member Dr. Clemontine Washington indicated she was concerned about the cost and why the city would support a fire station not within its own limits.
“The dollar amount is astronomical for a town this size,” said Fairburn Fire Chief Cornelius Robinson, who has been working with the city on a plan to start its own department.
The county has laid out a five-year plan that calls for a lieutenant and three fire fighters per shift, and building a new county station south of Midway. Chief Darby said re-using the existing Midway fire station for county purposes would not help the ISO rating the county provides. However, if the city were to run its own department and rehab the station back to operating level, it would not detrimentally affect the ISO.
County Administrator Joey Brown pointed out that uncertainty over fire coverage is starting to affect homeowners and businesses in the city.
“I know the time limit is a concern,” he said. “Your businesses are suffering. Your homeowners are suffering right now.
“Homeowners are losing their insurance,” he added. “I don’t know what they’re going to do because mortgage companies won’t renew without insurance. We have fielded calls recently from businesses.”
But the city also is working on establishing its own department, which is down to two volunteers.
“We want to answer our calls,” Council member Stanley Brown said. “So the citizens know that we here on the elected board are doing what we need to be doing to see they are protected.”
Since Midway re-creating its own fire department won’t happen overnight, Toms had some pointed words for the delay.
“Lives are being put in danger, they’re being put in jeopardy,” Toms said.
Toms also told council members if they form a fire department that does not have its certification of compliance and it starts answering calls, they will be in violation of state law.
Joey Brown told council members the city approached the county about helping with fire protection.
“We didn’t come asking for the business,” he said. “You will make your decision. Make sure you make a decision so you can take care of your stuff. It makes no difference to me who is ringing the ball and who shows up to get my momma out of her car if it’s been wrecked. I just want somebody to come help.”
Joey Brown also said the city and county could look at agreements that might be shorter in length and require less money from Midway.
“Instead of a five-year agreement, let’s look at a three-year agreement that gets boots on the ground and gets the apparatus here,” he said. “We’re going to give you what a growing city deserves.”
GFSTC: Coverage needed in the interim
Toms warned council members that not accepting an arrangement with the county prior to April 1 puts their certification of compliance in jeopardy, as soon as this week.
“If you told me we’re ready to start up a new fire station tomorrow, I’d say good luck to you,” Toms said, “because it’s going to take a while. If you don’t enter some type of agreement now, it’s going to be a moot point anyway.
“It’s going to take you a while to get it done. And you have not been able to do it in the last three years or the last seven months. Before I put my signature on a certificate of compliance for any department, especially one I have been as patient with as Midway’s, it’s going to take a great deal of convincing that you guys are ready to start your department back.”
Without a plan in place, such as one with the county to provide fire protection, the GFSTC committee members could vote this week to revoke the Midway’s certificate, given the time it would take for the city to stand up its own department.
“We are prepared to call a meeting as soon as possible,” Pritchett said. “The members on our council are fire chiefs, city managers. They know the risk to the citizens. So there is no possibility of Midway being able to function legally as a fire department at that point. Without that certificate of compliance, you are breaking the law to have a fire department.”
Toms told council members they could still restart their own department, but they would have to go back through the certificate of compliance process.
“It’s an arduous process to become a certified fire department, and it should be,” he said.
Getting new firefighters hired and trained just for basic qualification could take months, Toms warned.
“I’ve been involved with Midway Fire Department since I came to this agency,” he said. “You are as not compliant as a fire department as anything I have ever seen. You don’t have firefighters. You don’t have fire trucks. You don’t have a fire station. You don’t have the coverage to give your citizens right now. You are in a serious state of non-compliance in every area possible.
“We are doing a disservice by continuing to kick this can down the road,” Toms continued. “Time is up. You are not in compliance. You can’t operate.”
Pritchett asked Chief Robinson if there was a substantive plan for the city’s own fire department.
“Absolutely,” he responded, “and something that will benefit the county as well.”
Robinson balked at the county’s five-year proposal that puts a station south of Midway.
“You definitely need some type of fire station in this town,” he said. “Not build it somewhere else and not run it out of Miller Park.”
Joey Brown said he wished there were not boundaries and service lines when it came to emergencies and public safety. He also asked how Midway planned to fund its fire protection.
“Is not cheap. It is the most expensive endeavor you will ever do,” he said. “I encourage you, that whatever you do, think about those partnerships. If there is one thing I wish, in emergency services, that local governments can break down those lines. We’ve got to get away from the barrier of ‘this is yours, this is mine.’ I want you to get the best protection you can get.”
Midway council members questioned why the GFSTC would consider pulling its credential now if they had been told such a move would not happen until April. Toms replied that the April deadline was put in place so they could finish an agreement with the county.
“We are going to meet on this and your compliance is going to get pulled,” he said. “This is just where we are with Midway right now. You’ve got a very viable option on the table. What is your other viable option to consider right now?
“Just because you’re working on a plan does not mean you are going to get your certification back.”
Pritchett also warned the Midway council members that there has to be some sort of agreement with a fire protection provider between now and the city getting its own department up and running again, if it chooses to do that.
“Just because you’re working on a plan does not mean you are going to get your certification back,” Toms said. “It’s probably not going to work. I’ve been accepting plans and I’ve been accepting promises for eight months. You’re going to have to show me an adequate station. You’re going to have to show me an adequate piece of apparatus. You’re going to have show me a sufficient number of firefighters with sufficient training. And you can’t do that tomorrow.”
