Volunteer Fire Department turns down offer of pay

The Decus Volunteer fire department has turned down the offer of being paid for their service. City officials were willing to pay for both time at fire calls and for time at Monday night meetings/training. But the volunteers said “No Thanks”.

The city of almost 15,000 is serviced by a Volunteer Department that currently has 48 members on their roster. The department charter allows for 60 members maximum.

According to the fire chief. “Ten years ago we had a waiting list to get on the department. Time was he had a full roster with between 5 and 10 people waiting to join. But the last few years we seem to be maintaining 45-50 members.”

The city board is worried. “If they can’t keep the roster filled we could be in trouble. We feel by offering pay people in town might have more interest in joining.”

Decus’s fire chief sees it in a different light. “yeah pay will get more people interested. But what is it they are interested in, being a firefighter or getting some extra cash? No I would take 40 people dedicated to the fire department over 60 people who are just looking for money any day.”

Citizens are torn on the topic. Some feel that paying the FD is important. Others feel taxes are too high so keeping the volunteers unpaid should help keep taxes down.

In the end it was the members of the fire department that made the decision. They cast ballots to vote for pay. When the ballots were opened everyone was found to be a vote for volunteering.

“I am so proud of my firefighters. This department has a 150 year tradition of being 100% volunteer. For our members that tradition is much more important than getting thirty pieces of silver every month.”