Lynn Cody
Robbinsville – Considering that two fire chiefs serve on the five-member Graham County Board of Commissioners, you might not know it from the condition of the county’s fleet of fire engines.
Commissioner Keith Eller is chief of the all-volunteer, four-station Graham County Fire Department, while Commissioner Lynn Cody is chief of the Stecoah Township Fire & Rescue, a separate department. Much of the equipment these fire departments operate is decades old.
Yet, fire-equipment funding doesn’t often come up at Board of Commissioners meetings – about once a year, during budget time – but it was heavily discussed Dec. 20.
Cody has found a source for about $800,000 that could go a long way – not all the way, but a long way – toward improving the condition of the county’s fleets of firefighting vehicles and equipment.
Cody, Eller, board chairman Jacob Nelms and finance officer Becky Garland will meet to discuss specifics about whether and how the money should be distributed among the county’s five fire stations.
Becoming advocate
Cody asked to be added to the board’s monthly agenda this month, so he could broach the subject.
As a commissioner, Cody told the board that he has helped other county departments with their funding and equipment needs – in some cases, 50-percent increases in funding over the past 20 years – while funding for fire protection and the rescue squad has remained flat. The county’s volunteer firefighters – arguably in the thick of it during COVID-19 – went unrewarded when bonus money became available.
“I support each person who works for the county and will continue to support them in each way I can,” Cody said. “The only thing, when the COVID funds came in, those who worked for the county received some type of bonus or additional pay from these funds. The Fire Departments members are all volunteers and none of these department were able to receive any of these funds, because they are not employed by the county.”
Cody said he has “failed to speak up” on behalf of the fire departments, to avoid appearances of favoritism and conflict of interest.
“Along the way, we forgot the volunteer departments,” Cody said. “I was looking over some of the expenditures for our department for the past six months and realized how much we were spending due to high cost. Then, I looked back at other budgets that we have and realized we have received the same amount for years.”
Funding found
Cody noted that Graham County has a small tax base and it is difficult to fund everything that the county needs, so the only way to achieve this is to look for funding sources, such as grants and other means.
While working a project at work, he came across funds from Local Assistance Tribal Consistency Fund, which are available for counties that have large amounts of government owned lands.
“In this case, it fit us to the tee,” he said. “So, I had begun to research to see if the county could get these funds. This is when I found that Graham County was listed, this is when I contacted Becky (Garland, finance officer) and Jason (Marino, county manager at the time) to see if we had applied for these funds.”
Garland was able to secure about $800,000 in funds for the county, which could be divided among the five fire stations in the county (Robbinsville, Lake Santeetlah, Meadow Branch, Snowbird and Stecoah), or about $160,000 per station.
“We are faced in replacing our first out pumper, because it is over 35 years old, and it has become problematic on keeping it running and repaired,” Cody said, again referring to the Stecoah department. “When talking with other departments in the county some are in same boat as we are in updating equipment, and some are working on expanding their buildings. …
“The funds from LATCF would help the departments. It will not solve the funding sources that is needed, but it will help. Over the years in our budget workshops, we have talked about putting some funds or if we came across funds that were not budget could go to the fire departments.”
Stecoah is one of only a few departments in the state that still proved EMS, fire and rescue under one department, Cody said.
“We are a rated department and provide Advance Life support ambulance from our station,” Cody noted. “We are all volunteers, as the other departments in our county, and I can assure that these funds will be used wisely in each of these departments.
“I am so glad and proud of these men and women of our county who work hard and train to provide these services.”