VFDs consolidating

Clay County's four fire departments will soon merge into one. Clay County Fire and Rescue will absorb the volunteer fire departments in Warne, Brasstown and Shooting Creek, officials announced during the Clay County Commission meeting on Thursday, Feb. 4 at the Clay County Government Center.

All four local fire chiefs took turns addressing aspects of the merger, which they described as a largely procedural move designed to help satisfy state requirements and aid recruitment and retention. "Really, to look forward to the future the next 10 years, five years, with the growth that we're seeing, this is our solution to that problem," Warne Volunteer Fire Department Chief Henry Angelopulos said.

Angelopulos said the move has been planned and discussed for years as call volume has gone up. There will be no change in service districts or service in general, apart from expansion of certain services and discontinuation of redundant ones. Employees and resources will remain where they are. "Currently, we act as a functionally consolidated department," Angelopulos said.

"All four departments have an automatic aid agreement, so if there is a fire on Shooting Creek, all four departments are already paged for that.There's really going to be no change in our operations." The move is expected to be completed by Monday, March 1.

Current contracts for each fire department will continue until Thursday, July 1. At that point, a new contract will be presented to the board of commissioners. "One of the problems we ran into in Shooting Creek in the state inspection was, you should have 15 trained members with 32 hours of training," said Pete Trocchia, fire chief at Shooting Creek Volunteer Fire Department.

"Shooting Creek fell short of that, hence we were put on probation by the state with a deadline of Sunday, March 14. Hopefully, with it being done by that deadline, it won't affect any of the homeowners or their insurance rates in that area, so that's why we're trying to get it by March 1." Clay County Fire and Rescue Chief, Brian Anderson, said Trocchia, Angelopulos and Paulette Tonielli, chief of the Brasstown Volunteer Fire Department, will transition onto the board of directors of Clay County Fire and Rescue.

Trocchia and Angelopulos will also remain on the operations side by taking battalion positions in the east and west. Tonielli noted that part of Brasstown's district includes a portion of Cherokee County, which is also in favor of the move. "We'll have more personnel and equipment to give them aid and they'll be able to come further into Clay County," she said. "All in all, this looks like it's going to be a benefit for both counties and certainly for all departments."

All four stations will feature the same uniforms, while the stations being absorbed will undergo a slight name adjustment. Brasstown, for example, will be called Clay County Fire & Rescue: Brasstown Station 14. "One of the other benefits from this is that Clay County Fire & Rescue is at advanced EMT level of EMS response, so they carry the Epenefrain, the advanced drugs and life support," Angelopulos said. "So now, that will expand, the whole county will be that way."

The commission meeting also featured the introduction of new Clay County 911 Director, Kevin Sellers, who began the role on Monday, Jan. 11. Sellers has 28 years of experience in 911 communications and 911 addressing. He is a graduate of Southwestern Community College and has spent much of his career in Jackson and Macon Counties. The board of commissioners voted to increase shortterm rental fees of campground sites to $30 per day for sites with a lake view, replacing the previous $22 fee and $35 for lake front sites, up from the previous $25.

The fees are subject to a 15 percent discount for county employees. Commissioner Clay Logan recommended splitting the fee increase into two stages over the next two years, but the motion was approved 4-0 with Logan abstaining from the vote. Jeannine Lawrence spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting and asked the board to work toward maintaining the availability of short-term rentals in the Gibson Cove campground.

She said the majority of rental sites in the campground have recently progressed to being designated seasonal rentals and that the limited number of short-term rentals remaining have not been ideal sites. "Peak months basically turn our county-funded park into an exclusive park for a handful of people who are being subsidized by Clay County taxpayers," Lawrence said. "Seasonal sites, after discount for full payment up front according to the county website last fall, to live for seven months of the year on our beautiful Lake Chatuge, were to be doled out for the unbelievable amount of $400 lake view and $450 lake front,or roughly $13.33 or $15 per month based on a 30-day month. Please keep our newly-renovated Gibson Cove campground available to rent on a short-term basis."

Board Chairman Rob Peck said he did not believe it is the board's desire to eliminate short-term rentals in Gibson Cove and that the fee increase was designed to ensure the county can continue to meet its operating costs. "I will say, we've put more than half a million dollars into the campgrounds over the last two to three seasons," Peck said. "It's money well invested knowing and understanding that while we don't expect to immediately recoup that capital improvement money, we do want to make sure we're meeting our operational costs from year to year."