SAN ANTONIO - Pay up or we'll take your truck! ATA-Bexar Volunteer Fire Department received a notice demanding nearly $10,000, or the bank would take their main fire truck.
"It's scary. It's scary," assistant chief Doug Inmon said. Inmon says in the past, the Emergency Services District # 6 has always made all of their payments on the truck. He was shocked to receive the letter demanding payment at the beginning of this month.
"That's our primary engine. That's what we use to fight fires," he said.
Inmon also shared his concerns about the 2011-2012 ESD budget the board recently approved. It includes no money for his department or the other two covered by the ESD to maintain any of their trucks, he said.
"Without running trucks, you don't have a fire department," he explained. "Right now they're not taking anything we submit to them as far as repair costs."
The ESD distributes taxpayer dollars to ATA-Bexar, Sandy Oaks and South Bexar volunteer fire departments.
"We are keeping all essential apparatus for this area," ESD # 6 board president Sylvia Mendelsohn explained.
She said the district is involved with ongoing litigation but says ATA-Bexar did not notify the board about the payment notice.
"We are interested in putting it (the truck) in the district's name which protects the taxpayer and ends up being taxpayer's property."
She also explained the district is "prohibited from being the primary source of funds" for volunteer fire departments, but said the maintenance and repair money should be included in the $8,000 the department is allotted each month from the ESD.
"It's supposed to cover operations, education, training, equipment, personnel and debt service," Mendelsohn said.
Southside Independent School District superintendent Dr. Juan Jasso worries his 5,000 students would be caught in the middle of any legal fights between the ESD and the area fire departments.
"It's very unfortunate the emergency services board members do not understand the responsibility, obligation and legal duty they have to protect the citizens of the community," he said. "They (the students) are not as safe as they could be."
"That to me would be a misinformed response on his behalf," Mendelsohn said. "These children and the community have always been covered sufficiently."
ATA-Bexar says they'll end up using their reserve money to make the truck payment.
