Status of Gainesville volunteer fire company still up in the air

Gainesville, Va. - Supervisor John T. Stirrup Jr., R-Gainesville, is confident that his community will step up to the plate in order to get the Gainesville Volunteer Fire Department back in the hands of its volunteers.

On Aug. 3, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors voted 7 to 1 to stop negotiations between the Gainesville Volunteer Fire Department and county officials.

Instead, the board directed that the Fire & Rescue Association, made of Prince William Fire and Rescue Chief Kevin McGee and members of the career and volunteer fire companies, spearhead the effort to make the station functional again. This includes increasing the existing volunteer base.

The Aug. 3 vote also started the process of transfering assets in the building, which the county attorney is handling.

"We have closed this chapter now and we're starting a new chapter," Stirrup said Thursday. "...There is a very much volunteer ethic in the Gainesville area."

In January of 2009, county supervisors disbanded the company based on numerous issues centered around an audit of the station. The audit revealed the company failed to follow policies and procedures, failed to control spending, failed to respond to citizens' concerns, failed to adhere to its own bylaws and had ineffective governance and oversight by the Prince William Fire and Rescue Association.

According to his presentation to the board that night, volunteer company president Ernie Luhn said they have approximately 28 members, with 12 trained and ready to go. However, the agreed upon number of trained volunteers by the August deadline was to be 20.

Luhn, who did not return a phone call Thursday, told the board that night there were numerous obstacles put up for them to overcome to get to that number. Stirrup said he empathized with the plight of the volun-teers, who, he said, claimed were unable to recruit new volunteers given the status of the station.

However, Stirrup said the date to have 20 members had come and gone, and there wasn't enough progress being made in the negotiations between county officials and volunteer representatives for them to continue in the same manner.

According to McGee, it's a state requirement for a volunteer fire company to have at least 20 mem-bers. The county took it a step further and said they had to have 20 active members.

There are currently 42 career firefighters working out of the Gainesville station, which McGee calls one of the busier stations in the county. There are approximately 800 operational volunteers and 475 career staff in 20 county stations.

Like Stirrup, McGee hopes that the FRA will be able to remedy the situation in an expedited manner. As part of the vote, the FRA will come back to the board in six months with recommendations regarding the status of the volunteer base.

"Volunteers are integral to the functioning of our rescue system," McGee said.

Staff writer Kipp Hanley can be reached at 703-530-3904.