RINGGOLD, Ga. — Catoosa County Fire-Rescue will provide fire protection services to all unincorporated areas of the county and to Ringgold under a service plan county commissioners unanimously approved Tuesday.
Fort Oglethorpe residents will continue to receive fire protection from the Fort Oglethorpe Fire & Rescue department.
Under the arrangement, Ringgold would pay the county by turning over the annual insurance premium tax proceeds it receives from the state, County Attorney Clifton “Skip” Patty said.
He has been led to believe the Ringgold City Council will be willing to approve such an arrangement in exchange for fire protection services, Mr. Patty said.
The commmission’s action is the latest chapter in a drawn-out debate over fire protection in the county.
Merger talks began last summer in an effort to streamline fire protection instead of having three departments in Catoosa County — the county’s, Fort Oglethorpe’s and Post Volunteer Fire and Rescue.
Fort Oglethorpe Mayor Ronnie Cobb said residents in his city will continue to be well protected by the city’s department.
“We have no alternatives,” he said. “We submitted two proposals to the county that included maintaining coverage in the Insurance Services Office 3 rated area, and the county rejected those.”
Mr. Cobb described the discussion as “one-sided,” though, with nothing he would call serious negotiations by county officials.
He said Fort Oglethorpe has budgeted about $700,000 this year for fire services, and how much, if any, additional funding may be needed has not been determined.
Ringgold does not have its own department, but the Catoosa Fire-Rescue Station No. 1 is inside the city.
Ringgold receives about $125,000 per year from Georgia for its portion of the insurance premium tax that the state returns to local governments, based on how much insurance is sold in their jurisdictions.
Under Tuesday’s arrangement, Ringgold would turn over to the county part of its premium tax revenue for this year, and the entire amount in following years.
Bruce Ballew, chief of the Fort Oglethorpe and Post Volunteer fire departments, was at the County Commission meeting Tuesday.
“I will not comment on the issue now, but there will be something coming out at the end of this week,” he said. “The Post Volunteer board of directors and city will need to get together and determine how and in what direction to proceed.”
Post has two fire halls outside the Fort Oglethorpe limits, and the city department has one fire hall. In the past the county had contracts with Post and with Fort Oglethorpe to protect some unincorporated areas.
The strategy outlined Tuesday, if approved, will end county payments totaling about $400,000 a year to the Fort Oglethorpe and Post Volunteer departments.
