Woes plague Maysville fire station
Posted on Wednesday, November 19, 2008
MAYSVILLE — The tiny town of Maysville has a problem — a big problem. The town, which is nestled comfortably on the Arkansas-Oklahoma state line, cannot seem to keep firefighters because of their board of directors.
Several county officials, including County Judge Gary Black; Director of Emergency Management Marshal Watson; and Jimmy Thompson, president of the county fire board, all met with Maysville firefighters and their board of directors Tuesday night after learning that there was a problem with the fire station.
The last time the county’s fire board was called out to Maysville was in February, after finding out that the then Maysville fire chief, Jessie Thomas, had embezzled money from the station. During that meeting, it was discovered that Maysville was not properly maintaining some of its equipment or filing the reports the department needed for compliance purposes.
To help rectify the situation in February, the Maysville Fire Association appointed a new fire chief and was supposed to address the other concerns the county fire board had. Maysville has not done so, which left many of the firefighters feeling a little less than happy with the station.
“ You go to any small community, and the fire department is what holds it all together. If the fire department is not together, the community is not all together, ” said Jimmy Thompson, president of the county fire board.
“ The problem in Maysville is, we have got these firefighters out here trained and ready to go, and they refuse to be on this fire department until the board changes. The whole reason they are here is to save lives and protect property, and we are here to help them do that, ” Thompson said.
The solution to the problems with the Maysville Fire Department is simple.
“ The fact of the matter is, the board is messed up. Fix the board, and you have got a fire department, ” Thompson said.
Fixing the board means the fire department needs to adopt a new set of bylaws to operate under, as their current bylaws are as old as the fire department itself and are badly outdated.
The main issue the county had with the Maysville Fire Department was that there is no standard of operation at the Fire Department.
One of the station’s current bylaws allows firefighters to opt not to respond when called to a fire if that property owner has not paid fire department dues, an action that would be illegal if Maysville ever chose to do so. Fortunately, the firefighters respond to all calls.
There was also the problem of finding a new fire chief for the tiny town. After a great deal of debate, Darcy Nichols took the position.
Nichols lobbied to make sure his fellow firefighters would have a voice on the board before he agreed to take the position.
“ I do not know the board members. For me to make the best decisions for my guys, I need the board’s backing. I will take the post, but only if I have total say-so. We are together, but we cannot have anything standing in our way, ” Nichols said.
Jim Singleton, president of the Maysville Fire Board, argued against putting firefighters other than the fire chief on the board.
In the end, compromise was the word of the day, and the board agreed to allow firefighters to join them in the decision-making process. As for the bylaws, the board will meet at 7 p. m. Dec. 8 at the fire station to discuss adopting a new set of bylaws, modeled after those of several other area fire stations.
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