Firefighters with the Fort Oglethorpe’s POST Volunteer Fire Department have moved up to the status of part time employees.

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

These volunteers will not be employees of the city, but will retain employment by the POST, which will furnish the benefits, liability insurance and any expenses such as background checks associated with their employment, said fireboard chairman Capt. Robbie Tester.

The cost for paying the employees until the end of the year is $155,000, which will come out of the POST’s budget.

At the Aug. 24 City Council meeting, the Fort Oglethorpe council approved the proposal to act as “bookkeeper” for POST, said city attorney Robert Stultz.

The city will provide the labor and computer program for printing payroll checks, but the checks themselves as well as the funds behind them will come from POST.

Goulart said POST will provide the city with reimbursement for the cost of checks and other supplies associated with this service.

This employment status change is valid until Dec. 31. Plans for next year are being negotiated as the 2010 budg-ets are completed.

POST and Goulart are still working on a proposal to submit to the Catoosa County officials. In the past, the county has expressed interest in taking over fire services. The proposal asks how this change would be imple-mented.

Tester said the 20- to 30-page proposal might be finished by the end of the week. The details in the paper have taken about up to 50 hours to prepare.