Insufficient fuel: Demorest Fire at risk

Demorest Fire Department’s future ignited heightened tensions between city council members during their regular meeting July 1.

Over the past nine months, the Demorest Fire Department has been discussed in meetings due to the shortage of full-time firefighters and an opera- tional ladder truck, which could result in a city rating of ISO 10 if an inspection were to occur in the near future.

The rating has consequences for Demorest residents, as homeowners’ insurance costs would see a drastic increase and insurance companies could drop policies altogether if the rating remains a 10.

“This is a discussion we started in September of last year after we started our budget process, and with that, when I received the first bud- get from the chief, that was included in here as a refer- ence, that was for $2 million,” City Manager Mark M usselwhite said.

The $2 million r e C O mm e n d e d b u d g e t that was presented covered the costs for a new ladder truck, three more full-time firefighters and a pumper truck. Throughout last year’s budget process, a second budget of just over $1 million was presented, and a final Fiscal Year 2025 fire department budget of just under $800,000 was approved. However, the approved budget did not resolve the issues with the broken ladder truck or address the requirement to hire three additional full-time firefighters, as mandated by ISO standards.

Currently, the city does not have a way to service the debt on a ladder truck purchase or hire three more firefighters to cover three shifts.

Demorest City Councilman Jimmy Davis wore a Demorest Fire Department T-shirt to the meeting in support of doing whatever it takes to keep the fire department around.

“This has been going on for years. I’ve been hollering about this for years. We need a plan to turn this department around, because so far, the only plan we have is to dump it off on Cornelia,” he said. “There’s different ways to handle this.”

History and numbers Every day, the Demorest Fire Department responds to an average of 2.33 calls for medical, fire, and other emergencies, and also assists with mutual aid calls alongside Habersham County Emergency Services and the Clarkesville Fire Department.

According to Demorest Fire Chief David Scheurer, the city’s ladder truck has had troubles due to wiring and mechanical issues, as well as failing independent inspections, for five years. The truck requires approximately $150,000 worth of wiring repairs. According to Schuerer, the triiok recently ndorone two months of work to get running, but failed inspection for this year. However, the inspection is up to date.

The city needs three more full-time firefighters, one for each shift, to avoid an ISO 10 rating altogether and remain at an ISO 8, according to Scheurer.

The total cost for the firefighters, including benefits and one part-time firefighter to cover missed shifts, would be approximately $220,000 per year.

“The first thing we need to accomplish, to avoid an ISO 10, is we need to hire additional firefighters. Four is the number, I include myself as one of those four ... So we would need three frefighters,” Schuerer said.

Demorest residents spoke out in the meeting about the potential for grants, including the FEMA grant that pays for the salary of a firefighter and gradually allows the city to absorb the costs over a five-year period. Residents questioned city officials on why, if the problem had been ongoing for so long, officials had not notified the city’s grant writer to prioritize grants for fire departments.

“When were these grants planned? Got the grant, move the ladder truck in, issues with it, so it sounds like someone’s passing the muck. I’m really looking at you, Jimmy, because you keep saying Looking for a job? it’s been kicked down the road, so why didn’t you go and make mention of a grant when these grants were being talked about?” Marie Evans asked. “w hat I’m looking at is we could have had a grant already in the works for it, and we’re talking about millage rate that the citizens are going to have to foot the bill for.”

Schuerer also expressed that the city does not need a ladder truck, that a pumper truck to meet the gallons per minute (GPM) requirements for the structure sizes the city covers, and a service truck with ladders would cover the ISO requirements.

“This did not happen overnight. It’s been years. And, it’s not going to be fixed overnight. What I’m saying is we need to turn this city in a different direction and start working on these issues. We need to start funding this. We could start with a truck, a rescue truck would cover it,” Davis said.

Musselwhite said the city could not afford a rescue truck at the moment.

“I can’t fund $1.5 (million) for a new ladder truck. I can’t fund the funds for a new rescue truck,” Musselwhite said. “I don’t have the cash flow to make a couple of $100,000 payments a year.”

Although the City of Demorest has allocated $700,000 for its public safety Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) budget, including $500,000 for the fire department, the availability of these funds will not address the issues in the meantime.

“Show me a funding mechanism. We’re going to vote in November to renew a SPLOST, but if it’s approved, it doesn’t start until April l of 2027. We have to commit to the various projects in the month of July, right now, for those funds, but you can’t start accessing those funds until April l of 2027,” Musselwhite said. “If I go out and buy a firetruck, how am I going to pay for it?” According to City Attorney Thomas Mitchell, if the city were to consolidate its fire services and could prove to the state that it would be fiscally impossible to allocate the $500,000 to other public safety needs, it could reallocate those funds after going through the necessary procedures.

Options presented During the work session, Musselwhite presented Demorest residents with various options to ad- dress the problem.

Option A: Ignore the problem and kick the can down the road, potentially leading to an ISO 10 rating, which could cause insurance rates to skyrocket or prompt insurance companies to drop homeowners’ insurance.

Option B: Raise the millage rate to accommodate a more than $1 million fire truck debt, potentially doubling or tripling the millage rate.

In the June meeting, Musselwhite presented Demorest residents with three options for millage rate increases that could service the debt of the ladder truck. The document provided estimates on the current millage rate of 7.160, which would bringin approximately $475,000 in revenues, as well as higher millage rates like 14.60, 18.34 and 22.08, capping out at $1 million in increased revenue from the current rate for the highest millage rate that triples what residents are currently paying.

Throughout the discussion, city council members and residents agreed that they did not want their taxes to increase yet again, with the topic of the spectrum of fixed incomes being a highlight of the conversation.

“I’m on a fixed income just like everybody else,” Councilman Davis said in an interview after the work session. “Nobody wants their taxes to go up, but if we want a fire department, we’ve got to pay for it.”

During the work session, Musselwhite asked residents not to consider raising their taxes as an option to solve the issue.

. Option C: Consolidate the Demorest Fire Department with Habersham County Emergency Services. Uncertainties about cost and feasibility prevented a decision from being made in the meeting on Tuesday.

According to Musselwhite, Schuerer rejected the option. However, Schuerer insisted that he did not reject the county option, but rather stated that it was not the best option due to the costs.

“All I’m saying is it’s going to be expensive,” said Shuerer.

. Option D: Engage in an intergovernmental agreement with the City of Cornelia to cover the fire and medical calls. The proposed agreement would require the city to terminate its mutual aid agreements with Clarkesville and the county, but would save the city $564,000 annually. Demorest would pay the City of Cornelia $228,000 based on a $300 rate, servicing 759 tax parcels that contain structures.

The agreement could potentially lower Cornelia’s ISO rating from a 3 to a 4 or 5 due to a larger map size and heightened response times.

. Option E: The Fire Fee Proposed Revenue option would charge $308 per property per year, or a total cost of $508,100. However, multiple class-action lawsuits could reach the Georgia Supreme Court within 18 months due to the legality of a fire fee schedule, according to Mitchell, who advised against using the fire fee schedule as an option.

Ultimately, Demorest officials took a different option in the regular meeting. They decided to wait and see what the SouthEastern Fire Consulting Company’s fire consolidation feasibility study produces, including the cost of consolidation and its impact on ISO ratings, before scheduling a town hall meeting to discuss the final solution with residents.