By Scott Pearson

Staff Writer

The Cornersville Mayor and Board of Aldermen met in a special session on Thursday to discuss the issue of pay in the Town of Cornersville Fire Department.

The town is the only department in the county, other than Lewisburg’s professional department, which pays its firefighters for their service.

The town and department have had an understanding for many years that responders would be paid $15 per call and $8 for their monthly meeting.

Town Administrator Scotty Brock said that was the figure when he was involved with the department as far back as 1995.

“They’ve been paid $15 for a long time,” said Brock. “I definitely think they need to be raised some. It’s a thankless job.”

None of this agreement has been in writing however, and that spurred this recent push to re-examine the policy.

“We need to get something down,” said Alderman Mary Johnson, “so they aren’t working in the dark.”

The current firefighters held a special meeting and presented the aldermen with changes to the current arraingement that they felt were reasonable.

They agreed to give up pay for emergency calls outside the town limits. Responses to those calls will be entirely voluntary if the new guidelines are passed.

In 2016, the department responded to 128 calls inside the town limits and 52 outside.

The department currently has nine active members on the roll, three of which concentrate on medical call response.

One challenge for the town is budgeting funds to pay for responses when the annual number of calls is so unpredictable.

The timing of this discussion raises issues as well.

“I’d like to see us give these guys a raise,” said Alderman Doris Arthur. “We might not be able to do much now, but when our new (fiscal) year starts, we could put it in the budget.”

At the January board meeting, aldermen agreed to restart a billing agreement with Covenant Solutions, a Huntsville company that specializes in insurance billing for emergency responses.

The town had used Covenant between 2012 and 2014 to recover expenses, but the program had been discontinued.

The department will submit calls outside the town limits or calls within Cornersville that do not involve residents, so that Covenant can file an insurance claim for reimbursement.

Whether or not the department will submit billing on individuals without insurance has yet to be decided.

Four responses have already been submitted for billing since the board’s approval. Covenant keeps 25 percent of any money collected as their fee.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has guidelines for acceptable expenses, such as hourly rates for equipment used or trained firefighters on scene.

Funds collected would be used strictly in the fire department budget for training and equipment, as well as firefighter pay.

The department has a renewed interest in training and equipment needs over the past year, along with an increased push to expand the number of active firefighters on it’s roster.

“I’ll fight ‘til the day I die to get these guys what they need,” Chief Josh Young said.

The town hopes to have a resolution, spelling out any new policies, ready for the Thursday, Feb. 2 board meeting.