TIMMONSVILLE — Members of the Timmonsville volunteer fire department reached their boiling point Tuesday night at the town council meeting.
Stanley Matthews and a few other firefighters handed in their gear and walked out of town hall out of frustration that their $4,700 bill from service in 2009, due for payment in December, still hasn’t been paid by council.
Assistant Fire Chief Richard Grooms said it wasn’t done out of anger, but out of frustration for being passed over time and again and not being shown the honesty and appreciation they believe they deserve.
“It’s not about the money,” he said. “It’s about principle.”
Each of the 20 volunteer firefighters gets paid $10 per fire to which they respond. The most money any one firefighters is due for 2009 is about $500, Grooms said.
Every time the issue of the bill has been brought up to the council, he said, it has been brushed aside.
“One minute they’re going to get paid and then all of a sudden the money was allocated and then the money was spent somewhere else,” Groom said. “And the main thing is if they just would’ve said, ‘Look we don’t have the money to pay y’all, we’ll try,’ but it was just no communication whatsoever. And it just really frustrated them and it just got to the boiling point.”
Mayor Darrick Jackson said council is aware of the debt owed to the department, but the town doesn’t have the funds to pay the bill. He said the council and fire department have to work together and move forward on this issue.
Jackson suggested setting up some kind of payment plan, if council agrees to it.
“It’s just a breakdown in communication,” Jackson said. “It all came to the surface at Tuesday night’s meeting and we’re working on it.”
During Tuesday’s meeting, Jackson said the town is “financially challenged” because of more than $80,000 in missing town revenue from delinquent water bill payments. He said that’s one reason the firefighters haven’t been paid, as the revenue the town gets from water bill payments makes up a substantial amount of the town’s budget.
Town officials said that for the 14 million gallons of water used in February, the town only billed for less than 5 million gallons used. The town serves 1,100 customers.
Council members passed two ordinances Tuesday night that would increase penalties levied against residents who don’t pay their water bills on time.
Mark Fountain, who was named Timmonsville’s town administrator two weeks ago, said Tuesday night the town is trying to apply for grants to alleviate the deficit in the town’s coffers.
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