Higher fees could leave homeowners in Coopertown without fire protection.
On the edge of Coopertown's city limit, Rob Morrow has turned his passion for furniture making into artwork. He mostly works with large pieces of wood.
However, if an accident or a fire were to happen, all of his hard work could be lost forever. "Springfield is 12, 15 minutes away from where we are and there's nothing from here to the interstate," Morrow said. "It'd be terrible. People would lose their homes before they get here."
The Pleasant View Fire Department, however, is half that distance and has served Coopertown citizens since the city became incorporated in 1996.
"We cover about 200 square miles, a little over that," Pleasant View Fire Chief P.J. Duncan said. Duncan is one of four full time employees, everyone else is volunteer but the cost to run the department is going up.
"Number one, the money that we were getting from Coopertown was operating costs. It's what it took us to keep the doors open," Duncan explained.
The department relies heavily on citizen donations and federal grants but those are both dwindling and the department's contract with the City of Coopertown is nearly up. So the fire department proposed a new contract with a new, higher price.
"The numbers we gave the mayor were real numbers," said Duncan.
In a letter to Coopertown citizens, Mayor Sam Childs said the new contract would raise the town's fees by 33 percent each year for the next three years. Raising the price from $90,000 to nearly $190,000 by 2018. Simply put Childs said the "budget cannot stand such an increase."
"We're not making any money in Coopertown, other than just surviving," said Duncan.
Citizens were hopeful officials would come to a fiscal agreement before July, 1, before it's too late. "We could be in trouble real quick," Morrow said.
Mayor Childs said he was confident an agreement could be made with the Pleasant View Fire Department and he did not anticipate citizens going without fire protection.
