Fire squad fundraising begins

Jeremy Nash news-herald.net

Loudon County Fire & Rescue has officially started fundraising efforts that in part will go toward helping relocate the Sugarlimb station.

The campaign began last week and will go through the 2019-20 fiscal year. Michael Hodge, Fire & Rescue assistant chief, said typically the effort brings in $55,000-$60,000.

“We send out a little over 10,700 letters and each letter asks for at least $60 if possible,” Hodge said. “So if we got 100 percent return we’d be looking $600,000 to $700,000. So basically we’re getting about a 9 to 10% return.”

Hodge believes some of the low turnout falls on education and tight budgets.

Money raised will go toward operational costs and equipment in addition to a new building, he said.

“We’ll put what we can toward the building, but if we can put $30,000 or $40,000 toward it, that’s still not a drop in the bucket to what it’s going to cost us to build the building,” Hodge said.

The relocation is needed since Loudon County’s jail is in the middle of an expansion, which leaves little room for the fire squad’s station. Currently, a truck is left outside due to lack of space.

Loudon County Commission in its 2018-19 fiscal year budget allocated $50,000 toward the purchase of land, which was officially bought July 23 at a cost of $100,000. The property, located off the corner of Hotchkiss Valley and Sugarlimb roads, is about five acres. Commission has not provided funds for the building.

“Moving forward that’s going to be a bigger number than 50, but at the same time I think that’s an incredible service we get for the money we provide,” Rollen “Buddy” Bradshaw, Loudon County mayor, said.

Assisting with the fire squad’s new building has “inadvertently” been put on hold as the county went through a tough budget year that included additional jailers for the new expansion that’s set to be open early next year, Bradshaw said.

Hopes are to begin discussions potentially as early as August, he said.

“It’s kind of been inadvertently left on the back burner,” Bradshaw said. “I met with Chief (Bill) Hart a few weeks ago, a couple weeks ago, and that’s a conversation we’ve got to start up again and be prepared to take action on it.”

Solid dollar figures could not be provided, but fire squad Capt. Jeff Chambers has helped with a design, Chris Miller, fire squad captain, said.

“It’s going to take quite a bit of money to do that,” Miller said. “We’re working toward it but it’s going to take a little while. ... County commission’s had a lot on their plate, we’ve understood that, and we’re just kind of giving them a little (time) to get this budget cycle and maybe we can all sit down and see what we can get figured out.”

Click Here For More Information On LCFR.