CORYELL COUNTY — Gatesville city and Coryell County officials discussed at a county budget workshop a proposal to move the Gatesville volunteer fire chief role to a paid city employee who would also serve as a county fire marshal, and to share the cost of replacing an aging fire engine.

The city manager said the city would propose paying roughly half the salary and all benefits for a new chief, with the county asked to contribute up to $50,000 toward the salary; the new position’s market salary was estimated at $100,000–$110,000. The city has set aside $550,000 toward a new fire engine that officials said would cost about $1,100,000 if ordered now.

Why it matters: Gatesville’s volunteer model handles most local calls at low cost to taxpayers, officials said, but aging equipment and rising commercial chassis prices are pushing leaders to consider a hybrid or partially paid model and to lock in vehicle orders now because build times are 28–36 months and prices are rising.

Officials urged the court to weigh several related costs and trade-offs. The city manager said the county’s request might include a one-time or ongoing share of salary costs and a contribution toward an engine the city expects to pay half of if the court agrees. He said a signed commitment is typically required years before delivery to reserve production capacity.

The county judge observed the local value of long-serving volunteer leadership: “There is no replacing Billy,” the judge said, referring to the current Gatesville volunteer fire chief, who is planning to retire and currently receives an annual contract payment of $50,000 from the city.

Officials described other capital needs: a replacement rescue truck would cost roughly $100,000–$300,000 new, the city’s half of that was not yet set aside, and ongoing maintenance is handled largely by a city mechanic. The workshop also included discussion of the county’s contributions from federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARP) funds in recent years: participants said the county provided about $300,000 in 2022 and $100,000 in 2023, plus further one‑time allocations in 2024 and 2025 (participants characterized these as “additional” ARP or miscellaneous allocations but did not list a single consolidated source in the meeting).

Separately, fire services leaders asked the court to continue funding a new fire-reporting subscription the chiefs expect to cost about $45,000 next year. Presenters explained the county’s volunteer departments are switching from Emergency Reporting (which will be discontinued for the county’s use in September) to a new vendor suite (identified in the discussion as ESO/FirstView), and that the federal/state incident-reporting standard is changing from NIFRS to a new system the speakers referred to as NERIS (the transcript used that acronym).

Officials also noted recent grant activity: a FEMA grant was cited as providing bunker gear, and the Texas A&M Forest Service funding backlog was described as being cleared by recent legislative funding, potentially increasing the number of rural fire grants that can be funded this year. Participants urged continued efforts to apply for grants, noting that some purchases (water tenders, bunker gear) historically relied on multi‑year grant cycles.

The city manager said he would present a formal request to the commissioners court in the budget cycle with specific figures and options; no formal county action or vote was taken at the workshop.

Officials asked volunteer departments for clearer, regular financial and incident reporting to inform any county contributions, and some court members said they wanted a snapshot of each department’s fiscal health before approving new capital or salary commitments.