Hopkins County Commissioners met with members of the Hopkins County Firefighters on Wednesday to discuss firefighter budgets and other items.
During this meeting Fire Chief Andy Endsley showed the proposed personnel budget, this budget from the 2023 year currently sits at just over $800,000, stating the cost of salaries, overtime, holiday and other items. However, with the growing need for more personnel, equipment and other items within the department the budget was adjusted to appropriately allow finances for these items, this new budget for 2024 will be just over $970,000.
Also during this meeting a new incentive pay was pitched, this pay would give firefighters of different levels the chance to earn more money. these levels are as follows:
- TCFP Intermediate Firefighter- $100 per month
- TCFP Advanced Firefighter – $200 per month
- TCFP Master Firefighter – $300 per month
During the 2022 year there were more than one thousand different emergency calls made to the emergency lines, these calls were as follow:
- Structure Fires: 50
- Grass Fires: 172
- Vehicle Fires: 40
- Ems: 177
- Motor Vehicle Crashes: 210
- Rescues: 3
- False Alarm: 56
- Hazardous Condition: 60
- Good Intent: 334
- Public Assist/Misc: 71
Totaling to 1,195 separate calls.
