Neighborhoods outside of Salisbury such as Nithsdale, West Nithsdale, and areas south and east of the city that are served by the Salisbury Fire Department are in imminent danger of losing that service because the county executive does not want to pay fair value for the services rendered. This will lead to longer response times for those affected areas from volunteer county departments.
Salisbury’s Fire Department has a $15 million budget for fiscal year 2027. One third of Salisbury’s calls are from outside the city, in other words, in the county, so the city has requested one third or $5 million from the county based on that number of calls.
Instead, the county has budgeted $825,000 per station for the eleven volunteer fire companies, and the same for each of Salisbury’s three stations, which would have totaled $2.475 million, but in actuality, budgeted only $2.3 million for Salisbury.
Consider the unfairness of giving every fire company the same dollar amount, regardless of the number of calls they respond to in a year. So, for example, the Allen Fire Company and Westside Fire Company have some of the lowest calls to respond to in the county, yet they are receiving the same amount as Hebron and Salisbury, for example, that respond to far more calls annually. One of the volunteer fire chiefs recommended that the budget should be based on the number of calls each station responds to, which makes the most sense.
Opponents of fully funding Salisbury and the volunteer fire companies claim that the fire companies and EMS are reimbursed for some calls by insurance companies. However, this is a strawman argument. Insurance reimbursement should not impact fire and EMS budgets because it can lead to financial instability and service quality issues. Insurance companies frequently do not cover the full cost of service delivery which can create budget shortfalls. Not allowing insurance reimbursements to dictate budgets is crucial for maintaining effective and reliable emergency services.
If the Salisbury Fire Company and EMS are not fairly compensated for the 2027 fiscal year, they will have no choice but to begin cutting back service in areas of the county that they have faithfully served in the past. That is an outcome the county executive and council should make sure does not happen. Time is running out.
Joe Schiaffino
Salisbury resident
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
