While Post Volunteer Fire Department officials continue to plead for answers from Catoosa County about merging their fire services, the department's board members are proposing a merger with Fort Oglethorpe instead.
"We can't get anybody to agree," said Post board member Robbie Tester. "It's going to cost money to stay in business, and somebody's going to have to pay for it."
Post runs Fort Oglethorpe's small paid fire department and its own force, which in the last nine months has switched to mostly paid employees. The department also protects some county areas under contract.
With funds dwindling, Post and Fort Oglethorpe officials have been in discussions with Catoosa County to merge fire departments.
But with no response from the county, Mr. Tester said the Post board has proposed that the Post and Fort Oglethorpe departments combine their resources.
In September, Post board members sent a request for more information on how Catoosa officials would merge departments and where the money would come from for expenses, Mr. Tester said.
After confronting county officials at a March commissioners' meeting, no one got any answers, he said.
Catoosa officials say they still plan to merge the fire departments, and officials will talk about how to respond to the Post's request at tonight's commission meeting.
"We plan to respond as quickly as we can, but we need to make sure we're doing what's right for the entire county," said Catoosa Commission Chairman Keith Greene.
Mr. Tester said the board tried to get on tonight's agenda and now plans to go anyway to ask for an update.
To help with the Post's immediate financial problems, Fort Oglethorpe officials extended a 90-day emergency relief plan in May to fund Post services for another month.
The city has paid a $31,667 bill to Post, and Fort Oglethorpe Mayor Ronnie Cobb said the expense is draining a fund budgeted for all city departments in case of an emergency.
"We're spending someone else's money to do this," Mr. Cobb said. "But right now, it's the only way we can (afford fire services.)"
The city needs to find a solution to the growing problem but has to consider losing funds, he said. If the Post department combined with the city, the department could lose its funding for its fire department from the county.
Currently, Catoosa pays $175,000 annually to the city's fire department and $216,000 to the Post department for contracted services, said Catoosa Chief Financial Officer Carl Henson.
If the Post were to combine with the city and no longer provide fire service to county areas, the department would lose that funding, he said.
But combining these services still hinges on whether the county plans to merge its department with Post, officials said.
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