Brooks County has served the East Brooks Volunteer Fire Department with a cease and desist order to stop answering calls.
The notice is part of a dispute between the county and the department, WALB reports. The county commissioners decided the county no longer wanted to fund the department through tax revenues. It has charged that the department is not cooperative with efforts to oversee how funds are accounted for.
It has asked that the department’s trucks and equipment be returned to the county’s central fire department, which will handle calls to the East Brooks area. And meanwhile, it has ordered the department to stop responding to any calls in the county under any circumstances.
The dispute has taken a toll on the department. Its 17 volunteers have dwindled to 12, but the department maintains its training schedule and its insurance.
“We’re still here we’re just not able to respond to emergencies,” Chief Weslsey Lyles told WALB. “We want to, but hopefully something can be worked out soon with the county to where we’re allowed to provide the level of coverage that we did before.”
