by Geoff Fox
During a meeting in Hagerstown on Tuesday, April 28, the Board of County Commissioners agreed to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the county’s Department of Emergency Services (DES) to keep Hancock Rescue Squad operational.
County officials decided to take the step to get the squad on solid financial footing and make sure it is staffed properly for service to the community.
Commissioners and DES officials spent 15 minutes discussing the agreement and what it entails moving forward for Hancock Rescue Squad.
DES Director R. David Hays said his division has been operating Hancock Rescue Squad with a directive from commissioners and county administrator informally to implement oversight of Hancock Rescue Squad to include working to make sure the entity’s invoices are paid.
The County Department of Emergency Services and the commissioners will have full governance of the rescue squad for not less than 36 months. Extending that time period will be determined at the discretion of the commissioners.
If Hancock Rescue Squad were to get back on track inside those three years, the company would still have the county’s backing, said commissioners.
County officials said the memorandum is a temporary solution and no permanent decision has been made about the status of Hancock Rescue Squad.
The temporary solution is to make sure the station continues to operate, bills are paid, and Hancock has ambulance coverage, officials said during their discussion.
Hays wanted to let county officials and the public know the situation is not a reflection on anyone who has volunteered at Hancock Rescue Squad.
He said it’s just unfortunate these situations happen and it’s a sign a company is weak enough to collapse or get close to collapsing.
The county has a responsibility to help and get ahead of that collapse, he said.
Newly-appointed Commissioner Neil Parrott said county officials had received an email from the county’s Fire and Rescue Association asking commissioners to table the discussion on Hancock Rescue Squad so they could address some concerns.
Hays said he couldn’t speak for the association, but it appeared the group wanted to be more involved with the decision about the rescue squad’s operations.
Parrott asked if officials could wait two weeks until the next meeting, but Commissioner Jeff Cline said they couldn’t wait that long.
Cline cited a 2011 article where the writer said the county government wasn’t doing correct oversight on taxpayer money.
“Here we are 15 years later having the same problem with Hancock,” Cline said.
Cline made sure to note he wasn’t saying any illegal activity was going on, but there was a lot of mismanagement.
He said the Department of Emergency Services, in their findings, found over $70,000 in unpaid bills and a member of the board who was in a nursing home but still listed as a board member.
In the findings, Hays said the bulk of unpaid bills are two to three years old with one being four years and two months old.
Those bills range from a $21,000 single invoice to an unpaid $18,000 invoice that’s five months old.
Commissioner John Barr asked Hays how Hancock could still order supplies from vendors and equipment when they were so far behind on payments.
“We’re not far enough into this to answer any of those questions today,” Hays said.
Cline said he wanted to get Hancock Rescue Squad back up and running and the MOU is the way that happens.
Cline again said there were no accusations of illegal doings at Hancock Rescue Squad.
Hays said Hancock is indicative of a company that has formally collapsed. He said he was not being critical of Hancock Rescue Squad, but there has only been one person doing the lion’s share of the work. That is not realistic in modern rescue or fire companies having one person carrying the volume of effort to keep the lights on, Hays said.
Commissioner Randal Leatherman mentioned the Hancock Rescue Squad building had been re-keyed for security reasons.
Hays said he met with Hancock Rescue Squad officials on April 6 about a financial spending plan and where everything was headed with the commissioners.
Going through those conversations, Hays said his agency wasn’t comfortable knowing where all the keys to the building were, so the building locks were rekeyed.
The building, Hays said, has an electronic card access to the exterior doors, but the biggest focus in securing the doors was centered around office.
Some file cases and cargo containers were double locked, Hays said.
There hasn’t been any entry into those locked entities, but Hays said there would be entry in the upcoming days or weeks.
Commissioners unanimously voted to enter into the Memorandum of Understanding, placing the oversight and operations of the Hancock Rescue Squad into the hands of county officials for the forseeable future.
