After almost 60 years of independent service, members of Post Fire Department are hanging up their hats and joining Fort Oglethorpe.
Post will keep its incorporated name but no longer will provide active firefighter services to the community, officials say. That now will be handled by a city-run department.
“We decided to give up the firefighting part of it. We are now under the city for that,” said Post board member Gary McGhee. “But you don’t take a nearly 60-year business and just dissolve it overnight.”
Negotiations are wrapping up between Post board members and city officials, who entered an agreement to solve a contentious problem while continuing to provide fire services.
City officials said they could not afford to continue contracting fire protection with Post, a nonprofit group that has covered the city and part of the county since the 1950s.
Post funds have been dwindling for the last year after Fort Oglethorpe switched from paying for part-time firefighters to paying on a per-call basis.
Post board members asked the city and the county to increase funds, but had reached a stalemate until the members voted July 26 to join the city.
“One of my most proud moments was when it finally went to a vote and it was ‘yea,’ ‘yea’ … five different times and it was over,” McGhee said.
Post will merge its services into Fort Oglethorpe’s and the city manager will be in charge of the fire department, officials said. Post board members still will meet to discuss the organization’s financial assets, which will remain with Post, McGhee said.
City officials said they are relieved the merger is taking place, especially since Catoosa County is pulling its funds for the city fire department.
“We’ve reached a point where we can move forward and get rid of the hard feelings,” said Fort Oglethorpe Mayor Ronnie Cobb.
When officials saw Catoosa County’s budget for 2011, they realized the county no longer was providing $175,000 to the city’s fire department budget, Cobb said.
County Commissioner Ken Marks said the county will use the $175,000 budgeted to the city and the $216,000 budgeted to Post for the county’s new fire station.
The station is still being built, but is located near Post’s station in the Boynton community, about 1 1/2 miles outside Fort Oglethorpe city limits. The county had contracted Post to provide fire services to the area, but plans to terminate that contract.
Fire services in Fort Oglethorpe* $672,000: Fort Oglethorpe’s current budget for fire services* $772,000: Budget after Post is absorbed into the city* $175,000: Amount Catoosa County saves in budgetSource: Fort Oglethorpe, Catoosa County
County commissioners tabled a decision Wednesday to terminate the contract and hope to make a decision by next month’s commission meeting.
WHAT’S NEXT
Post and city officials say the merger is good for the community.
“It was a good fit, when you share the same buildings, when you share the same chief,” McGhee said. “We knew each other inside and out.”
The Post will lease its assets, including its building and equipment, for $1 a year to the city, he said.
City officials have agreed to budget about $775,000 to fire services and plan to hire most of the part-time Post employees, said Fort Oglethorpe City Manager Ron Goulart.
An additional $100,000 was added to the city fire department’s budget from a contingency budget to keep two of the three Post stations open with two part-time employees operating 24 hours a day, Goulart said.
The city may close one of the three stations and work with Catoosa once the new county station is operating, he said.
“We have a very good working relationship with the county,” Goulart said. “We help them (and) they help us.”