The NewsLeader has coverage of the County taking over control of the Yancey Volunteer Fire Department... Several people have observed how this district of the county has gotten the extra attention of the BOS since the Wayne district citizens rallied after their insurance rates increased due to a poor rating for the Yancey FD. Many observed how the folks over in Wayne were able and willing to petition and pressure the BOS for a paid staff at Yancey but not to volunteer or help out at the same FD they were complaining about. Some from this district even made it a campaign issue this past fall. Numerous other districts in Augusta have volunteer staffs that carry most of the weight and respond to the call of their neighbors. These same volunteers, besides carrying the weight of their locales, are now paying the taxes and salaries of the majority paid staff over at Yancey...
VERONA — The end of a more than three-decade-old tradition of an independent volunteer fire department in Fishersville won't change who responds or how they respond, Augusta County and Preston L. Yancey Volunteer Fire Department officials promise.
The Yancey company's decision to turn itself over to the county mostly means the county will assume the administrative headaches of running a fire company along with its equipment and station, which will remain in place, said Tracy Pyles, chairman of the board of supervisors.
"It doesn't matter whether it is a career patch or a volunteer patch on a firefighter's shoulder," he added.
Augusta County already stations 12 paid firefighters at Yancey, for round-the-clock staffing by four county employees.
The county will not need to station more paid firefighters at Yancey and the takeover should not affect the budget, Pyles said.
"It's like squeezing the balloon," he said. Any additional expense the county incurs taking over the administrative and business functions of the company will be offset by a lower payment to the volunteers who will continue to respond to calls, he said.
The county has stepped up support for Yancey over the past year and a half after an insurance rating agency gave the company a failing grade. In addition to assigning more paid firefighters to the Fishersville station, the county decided to automatically dispatch Company 10 and Waynesboro Fire Department to calls in Fishersville alongside the volunteer department.
But Yancey has seen a decline in the time people can commit to volunteering, even as it served one of the county's fastest-growing areas. It has recently averaged one volunteer firefighter responding per call, and had averaged three in 2010. The insurance rating body that gave the company a failing grade says a minimum of four firefighters are needed on a call.
Mr. Pyles is slowing but surely getting his wish of an all “career” fire fighting staff in the county.
ReplyDeletePyles quotes against volunteers.
“I think it would serve more people, serve them better: career people serving you” April 14th BOS Meeting.
“You know that our volunteers are not our future. That’s exactly what I said”…… “What we heard the gentleman say the other day was that when you have a concentration of professionals together to run calls, you’re better off, if we had paid people”…… August 25th 2010 BOS Meeting.
“Volunteers are not the future, that’s a reality.” Tracy Pyles said. Augusta Free Press Article September 29th 2010.
You have the chairman of the board publicly saying that volunteers are unprofessional, there is no future for them and that because they are not paid for what they do, the public would be better off without them. Can you blame people for not wanting to volunteer?
Maybe it's a Bigger Government / More Control thing?...
ReplyDeleteAlso harder to tell volunteers what to do, just send your tax dollars in, they know whats best....
The quotes from our Supervisor Chairman shows me exactly what he thinks of those who he & the board of supervisors claim to represent. Instead of involving the citizens to be part of the fixing he would rather just have us pay taxes for them to spend it how & where they want to. I LOVE this site! where was it before this all happened and how do I get one of those names like waynedistrictguy?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 9:31,
ReplyDeleteYou can create your own "screen name" by choosing "Name \ Url" in the toolbar below. You can still remain anonymous by using this but you will be able to build a history of comments this way as several already have.
This site came to be after I had several come to me asking to create a site that will track BOS issues as they happen. Many saw the direction that local politics was headed during the last campaigns \ election and the need to have a format to discuss this new Board of Supervisors and their actions. Please feel free to comment but no personal attacks or name calling...
The issue as I see it is that such a bailout for politically connected areas of the county will cause other communities to question why they continue to put forth the tremendous effort in terms of training, administration and community fund-raising when the politically connected area can shirk its duties and be relieved of its obligations to protect itself.
ReplyDeleteWD-guy- great work on finding previous statements in the public record in regards to Career vs Volunteer. This is the only way we can begin to hold local politicians accountable for what they say, especially since our local print media has shown no desire or ability to do any research.
Perhaps the SWACster can be persuaded to volunteer down at Yancy. She's already carrying Dr. Mike's water.......
"Watching"
ReplyDeleteAgreed and it does appear to be a political connection that helped along the way....
I live over in Draft and we have strong FD and first aid teams and I know many citizens who come up with the "coin" when it comes time to help out. We do have professional Medtecs as all first aid squads should have but volunteers carry most of the weight and they are great people...
WDGuy, Great use of BOS quotes and I know others have used minutes from the BOS meetings in the past. Is there a link or site where we can get these from the meetings?
Try this link.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.co.augusta.va.us/Index.aspx?page=477
Thank you Waynedistrictguy for the link and let me take the name of AugustaGuy now that I now how. I read the opening remarks by Chairman Pyles for the february 8 meeting and if I get this correct he is suggesting we use bus drivers to fill in as subsitute teachers to save money?
ReplyDelete"We have asked them to look at some things to change and take costs out of the system that doesn’t affect education.
We have a big area in Augusta County. We have 150 buses. We have 150 bus drivers. For each of them, they make $13,000. It is not a lot. They get $5,000 in benefits, butthey only work two or three hours a day. What if we had them all day long? We spent $800,000 a year for substitutes. Do they bring value to our system? Suppose those bus drivers were the substitutes and save that $800,000."
Is he serious? And what happens to the subsitute teachers? Is the maint staff going to be leading my childs study hall? This is crazy and YES you will see me at the next supervisors meeting!
Pyles is such a politician, against everything unless it benefits his district. Staying on topic with Fire/Rescue in reading the minutes Pyles fought the Riverheads Station tooth and nail with the argument the county shouldn’t spend the money to build a fire station and have it run by volunteers in 2010. Fast forward to 2011 and he was all for giving Churchville Fire and Rescue over half million dollars of county money to build an addition to their station no questions asked.
ReplyDeleteAs for the school bus drivers has substitutes saving $800,000 I doubt that very seriously. A bus driver makes about $35.00 a day based on the $13,000 salary figure. A substitute teacher makes $70.00 a day. If I was a bus driver why the hell would I work as a substitute teacher while being paid less then what a substitute teacher makes?
Pyles likes to play fast and loose with numbers and those numbers can not be trusted. I remember back when he made the big hoop-la that the county would save $800,000 a year by consolidating the Emergency Operations Call Center with Staunton’s and Waynesboro’s. He said he did his own study and found the savings. When the Cities and County had an official study done, the study reported that there would be NO SAVINGS with consolidation.
AugustGuy,
ReplyDeleteWelcome and good points... Bus drivers taking Subsitute teachers positions? Don't see that as a solution, Thanks for pointing that out...
WayneGuy,
I have heard that about Pyles likes to make claims that don't add up later when looked into by others.
Go to augustacoboswatch.blogspot.com to review the latest Regular Meeting Minutes. This blog will be updated from time to time with these and other documents of importance to the Citizens of Augusta County as it relates to their governance and elected officials, in a format that is more readily accessible and user friendly.
ReplyDeleteJohn Galt,
ReplyDeleteLike the name and thanks for the link...
I have added the link to this site so it's easy for all
visitors to read the actual text from the BOS meetings for themselves....
Thanks !