At a work session with the Fort Oglethorpe City Council Thursday night the POST Volunteer Fire Department presented a proposal to shift volunteers to paid positions.

They would be paid by the number of calls they respond to. The type of calls these paid-on-response (POR) employees help with would be limited to those that only the part- and full-time staff could not handle alone.

Volunteer fighters are given a small stipend to offset the cost of fuel and uniforms. There are 36 active volunteer firefighters.

This change is an effort to maintain a high level of fire service, to improve response time, and to increase firefighter retention.

“Right now we don’t see a light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to volunteers,” said fire board chairman Capt. Robbie Tester, who gave a slideshow presentation at the work session. “We’ve got to find a way to compensate (them).”

Fort Oglethorpe is a level three in Insurance Services Organization (ISO). Being an ISO level three or below lowers a homeowner’s insurance premium.

Tester requested that the council approve an amendment in the city’s budget to allow the shift in employment status to occur by the end of the month. Changing the status of volunteers is common practice now, especially in the northern United States.

The cost of granting the new status of paid-on-response employees for the remainder of the year is $155,000. This money would not come from the city, but would come out of the POST’s budget, Tester said.

In order to continue offering the POR status, the volunteer fire department would require funding from the city next year. Tester said the amount depends on how many people the city decides to keep at each station.

The city allotted about $710,000 for fire services this year. City manager Ron Goulart said his projected amount for next year is around $639,000, and he’s cutting back in every department.

“Your request has come at the most untimely time,” city clerk Harold Silcox said.

This year, the county budget allotted $216,000 specifically to POST.

Changing the status of the volunteers would change the structure of the volunteer and city fire departments’ employees. Tester proposed the full-time employees will start 12-hour shifts instead of their normal hours of 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

This change would keep two full-time and two part-time firefighters at each of the three stations— Forrest Road, Mack Smith Road and Boynton Drive— during the 12-hour day shift.

At night, two firefighters would be at each station.

These numbers, Tester said, are ideal and subject to change according to the City Council’s wishes.

In the event of a large structure fire, mass casualties or hazardous waste spills, the POR employees would be called to “supplement” the rest of the department, Tester said.

The council decided to table the proposal until its Aug. 24 meeting.

In the past, the county has expressed interest in taking over fire services entirely. The council voted to submit a written request to Catoosa County officials to ask how they would plan to implement that change.

Currently, the county’s ISO level is five in some areas and nine in others. Losing the ISO level three would change home insurance rates for citizens in Fort Oglethorpe.

POST and the Fort Oglethorpe and Catoosa County Fire departments coordinate their services throughout the county. This means that sometimes the city will help with emergencies outside the city limits, and the county will help with emergencies inside the city.