Liberty County, Midway negotiating fire protection plan

Liberty County and City of Midway officials are negotiating whether the county should take over full fire coverage for the city.

The coordinated effort comes after several members of the Midway Volunteer Fire Department quit last month . Neither side would get into specifics about those negotiations, but Liberty County Commission Chairman Donald Lovette made it clear that Midway would have to pay something towards a new county-run station.

Lovette, District 1 Commissioner Marion Stevens, Assistant County Administrator Joseph Mosley, and Assistant Fire Chief Christopher Morrison were in the audience at Monday’s city council meeting, where Liberty County Fire Chief Brian Darby presented Mayor Levern Clancy, Mayor Pro Tem Clemontine Washington, and council members Stanley Brown and Henry Stevens, with a draft proposal. Councilman-elect Malcolm X. Williams was also in the audience.

While Darby said he could not speak on behalf of the county commission, he did sketch, in broad strokes, a possible five-year plan to add firefighters at the new Miller Park Fire Station on East Oglethorpe Highway, build a fire station “somewhere on the south side of (Highway) 17 from Midway” for better coverage, beef up staffing, then move the new firefighters and equipment to the new location. In addition, any contract between the city and the county would include cost adjustments pegged to the Consumer Price Index, inflation, “and other adjustments as necessary,” he said. The proposal included basic expansion plans for coming years:

• 2025: Hire 6 firefighters (2 per shift), order fire truck, buy uniforms, gear, extraction equipment
• 2026: Construction starts on new station south of Hwy. 17, hire 1 lieutenant
• 2027: Hire 2 more lieutenants, new fire truck arrives
• 2028: No changes
• 2029: Hire 3 more firefighters (1 per shift) for a total of 3 firefighters and 1 lieutenant per shift

“By no means is this a done deal,” Darby stressed.

Right now, Liberty County firefighters respond to priority calls inside Midway city limits: structure fires, fire alarms, carbon monoxide, vehicle accidents, and backup requests from EMS on scene.

Darby, who as a department head cannot enter into contracts, said the proposal was just a collection of talking points for further discussion between the city and county elected officials.

Jan. 1, 2025, is the earliest date the county could implement additional coverage for Midway, Darby explained. Significant start-up costs would include salaries, a new engine, uniforms, and $40,000 battery-powered extrication equipment.

A new engine would take 24 to 36 months to arrive. He recommended against using the old engines, built in 1997 and 2010, which belong to the county.

He also would not recommend using Midway’s dilapidated fire station .

A better solution, he said, would be a new, more strategically-located station just south of Hwy. 17: “If you build fire stations too close to each other, then you’re not helping yourself with ISO, but you’re wasting the resources because you’re not expanding to the fullest extent you can.”

During the public hearing, The Current asked Darby whether the parties had worked out any projected annual costs for the draft 5-year plan. Darby said he couldn’t answer but “I believe here in the near future, there’s a plan for me to appear before the Liberty County Board of Commissioners to make them aware of proposed ideas as far as funds or costs or whatnot.”

Brown asked, “Is this an indefinite plan until the 2 parties would want to separate?”

Darby replied, “Councilman Brown, again, I can’t speak solely for the Board of Commissioners. I’m gonna try to, and if I get popped in the back of the head, I’m sure I’ll feel it. I believe it would probably be a period of 5 years with a termination clause in there that is something that could be reviewed and renewed, I believe the county would not do anything more than 5 to 10 years.”

Darby said it’s harder now to be a volunteer firefighter in Georgia due to changes in requirements. For example, he said, volunteer firefighters have to complete 260 hours of continuing education “on top of working a full-time job, having family at home.”

Washington asked, “So basically the state is discouraging volunteer fire departments?”

Darby replied, “I would not say that, no ma’am….They’re in support of volunteers. It’s hard to be a local government and not have already had a very, very well-established volunteer program.”

He added, “Did Liberty County have the greatest volunteer program? We did not. But also the economic growth that’s going on in today’s day and age is hard to keep up with those volunteers. A volunteer, just to get fire certified, is now having to spend 345 hours just to get initially trained, on top of working a full-time job, and then 260 hours a year, so it is difficult, but the changes to the policy are trying to make it be safer and better lifestyle for the citizens of Georgia.”

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Washington also noted that volunteer firefighters are committed to their full-time stations if disaster strikes. Darby said that’s why Liberty County moved to full-time firefighters.

Darby concluded by urging both sides to act quickly: “I would ask and make both governing bodies aware that, while that is something we are doing, we probably do need to get some kind of temporary agreement in place here in the near future until a full county fire plan can be established.”

Stevens, who represents Midway as part of Commission District 1, refused to comment on details of the proposed plan.

“I don’t want to say anything about context to destroy anything and that’s being fair to everyone, OK?” Stevens told The Current .

However, Lovette told The Current the county had been in discussions with Clancy and Washington, and that the City of Midway would have to contribute to the costs of expanding the county’s fire department to guarantee full coverage, but that it would not have to pay back the county for coverage it’s already getting.

Clancy blamed the ex-volunteer firefighters for the city’s predicament, saying, “The firefighters got mad, and they got with the media.”

Williams said, “Really, everybody’s made this thing more than it is.” He added that, because the county has Miller Park Station on one side of the city and Islands Highway Station on the other, “nobody’s gonna burn up around here, right?”

None of the former volunteer firefighters nor any citizens who had complained about the volunteer department’s demise were present at the meeting.