Burning Issue:  Growing Problems with Lakeland-Lanier Fire Department Split

By Carol A. Gasser Moore

 

LAKELAND, LANIER COUNTY, Georgia – The weekly fire report read, “October 09- Call to an auto accident on Highway-37 and Boyette Road.  Arrived to find two vehicles collided at the intersection with one blocking traffic. Firemen assisted with patient care, until EMS arrived and checked on all occupants, but none were transported.”  The simple informational report provided courteously each week has a growing back story which the Lanier County News (LCN) is still researching.

 

As the LCN understands it on Wednesday, October 9, Tri-County E911 received a call for assistance due to the collision of two vehicles.  They did their job and requested first response agencies to act in answer to the call for help.

 

The first three agencies on the accident scene are said to be the Lanier County Sheriff’s Office, the Lakeland volunteer firefighters, and the Lanier County EMA director (wearing multiple hats – Ray City Fire Chief, and Lanier Westside Fire Department Chief as well).  The Lakeland firefighters are distinguished from the Lanier County volunteer firefighters.  They are recognized separately, because the Lanier County Board of Commissioners (BOC) approved for the formerly united department to separate.  The separation is not approved by the GFSTC certifying agency.

 

While the Lakeland Fire Department is in the process of filing papers with the Georgia Fire Safety Training Compliance (GFSTC) agency, the LCN has not been able to confirm that the Lanier County Fire Department has done or is doing the same at this time.  The GFSTC is the official legal agency that has the actual right to give official certification to an individual fire department.  The GFSTC has not decommissioned the Lakeland-Lanier Fire Department, nor created two certified separate fire departments.

 

Fire Chief Gary Yeomans has been the head of the joint agency, which is GFSTC certified, and is now the chief of only the Lakeland Fire Department (because of the BOC decision), which is in process of becoming GFSTC certified.  Lanier County EMS (Emergency Medical Services) head, Jack Paulsen, is the named Chief of the non-GFSTC certified Lanier County Fire Department (by the BOC), which has been reported as not having started the GFSTC certification process. In actuality, the GFSTC only recognizes a joint Lakeland-Lanier Fire Department headed by Chief Yeomans, because officially the two have not been separated legally by the GFSTC.

 

With this said on October 9, it has been reported that when the unofficial Lanier County Fire Department volunteer firefighters showed up  after the other three groups to help with the wreck, the Lakeland volunteer firefighters were ordered to leave the scene by the Lanier County volunteer firefighters.  When the Lakeland group continued working the wreck, the Lanier County group demanded that the Lanier County Sheriff’s Office Deputy remove the Lakeland group.

 

The unofficial Lakeland Fire Department group is upholding an existing agreement which is in effect roughly two (2) more years, which states that ALL fire fighters (Lakeland and Lanier County) will respond to and work all emergency calls.  [NOTE:  The LCN believes that with all of the changes it is likely that a separate decision may need to be made to invalidate or rewrite the agreement which still connects both firefighting groups to all calls.]

 

In the meantime, the LCN has learned that after the October 9 incident, Jack Paulsen may have resigned from all of his volunteer firefighting work.

 

At the September regular meeting of the Lanier County Board of Commissioners, Lanier County Fire Chief Jack Paulsen introduced local citizens and volunteer firefighters for the county, Andrew Moore and Jessie Roberts, as his “assistant” fire chiefs.  The LCN has called the Lanier County Board of Commissioners office to confirm the resignation with Lanier County Administrator Neil Ginty, but he had not returned the calls at the time of writing this article.

 

The LCN also intends to inquire as to whether or not Moore and Roberts are now considered “acting” joint fire chiefs for the county.

 

A conversation with the GFSTC Southwest Region Compliance and Evaluation Manager David Trussell revealed that whoever becomes the chief of the yet-to-be officially separated Lanier County Fire Department MUST also hold administrative firefighting certifications.  At the time the LCN spoke to him, he was not aware that anyone in Lanier County had the administration certifications outside of Gary Yeomans, and possibly Jack Paulsen.

 

As this is being written, this seems to parallel the observation that the Lanier County Board of Commissioners practices a kind of “do as I say, not as the State of Georgia requires” manner of operating.  The LCN finds itself concerned because the two entities have operated together for years, because it lowers the ISO (Insurance Services Office) rating.  The ISO or PPC (Public Protection Classification) rating is a score that measures how well a community’s fire department protects the area.  For local property owners, a lower rating costs them less to insure their properties than a higher rating does.

 

All of this means that the taxpayers pay for the firefighting service up front through their taxes in order to protect their property and minimize their ongoing personal annual insurance premiums (rental or property owner).

 

As the drama of the October 9 event unfolds, the LCN has learned that the Lanier County BOC has been given a deed to the Park Avenue Main Fire Station area from the Lanier County Development Authority without recognizing the fact that there’s an ownership issue brewing.  The City of Lakeland financed and built the main fire station located on Park Drive, and the City of Lakeland has had its Sanitation Lift Station on the property.

 

Another issue that neither the Lanier County BOC, nor its representative fire service seems to have considered, is the fact that Lanier County has no water service at any of its fire stations for use by its fire services.  The only water they have available is water that is owned by the City of Lakeland.

Regardless, the LCN has heard from more than one source that the non-certified Lanier County Fire Department is verbally claiming ownership of the City of Lakeland’s Main (and only) Fire Department building.

After working to write this article and accurately present informative information to the public, it becomes clear that while the Lanier County Board of Commissioners has set into motion a change, it does not appear to be following state law and the net result leaves a lot of yet-to-be asked questions.  The chief question seems to be do Lanier County residents have any fire protection at this time?