SUMNER COUNTY — Sumner County’s volunteer fire department ad hoc committee met Dec. 9 to begin a study aimed at defining a baseline for personnel, equipment, funding and coordination across the county’s volunteer fire districts. The committee framed the session as an information-gathering meeting and set next steps, including a Jan. 13 study session focused on recruitment and staffing.

The meeting opened with an invocation and routine approvals before members heard a public comment from Joe Bloch, who urged the county and departments to keep controller reports current, to follow up on missing reports and to use clearer budget breakdowns. "This report has been required by the controller for 10 years," Bloch said, urging closer review of annual expenses and how grant competition and call volume affect funding outcomes.

Committee members repeatedly returned to the need for clear, comparable baseline data. An unnamed fire chief told the group the chief’s office had received roughly half the departments’ asset and liability reports and expected to collect the remainder after a scheduled chiefs’ meeting; the goal is to deliver a single spreadsheet to the ad hoc committee ahead of the January meeting.

The County Technical Assistance Service (CTAS) report — completed in 2021 but using some older data — was discussed as a directional resource. Members highlighted equipment age, maintenance backlogs and procurement lead times: one committee member estimated two years to procure a new engine and cited a typical cost range "close to $700,000" for modern apparatus. Members said those long lead times make short-term budgeting decisions difficult.

Several speakers pressed for a county-level coordinator to unify reporting and mutual-aid tracking. One member argued the county is hampered by inconsistent accounting practices and dispatch-recording issues that make response-time and performance metrics unreliable. "The CTAS report really puts a good foot forward for the county to be able to put forward a legitimate fire and life safety protection plan," a committee member said, urging coordination among fire departments, EMA and EMS.

Training and staffing came into focus. Speakers noted that while fire calls comprise a minority of runs, medical calls make up the bulk of department activity — a pattern that raises different equipment, training and personnel needs. The group repeatedly referenced a common performance benchmark framed as "10 people in 10 minutes," and members asked each department to state what staffing level it needs to meet response objectives.

On a procedural motion, committee member Steven Shoemaker moved to add a standing five-minute public comment period at the end of each meeting for volunteer fire chiefs to clarify or respond to topics discussed that evening. The motion was seconded and passed by voice vote; no roll-call tally was recorded in the meeting transcript.

The committee set Jan. 13 for the next meeting and instructed staff and chiefs to prepare line-item cost estimates for common items (examples cited: SCBA sets and turnout gear) and to further develop personnel metrics for discussion. The group adjourned after the chair moved to close the Dec. 9 session.

What happens next: the ad hoc committee will prioritize personnel data and recruitment options at the Jan. 13 study session and expects to review a consolidated spreadsheet of assets, personnel certifications and apparatus inventories collected from the departments.