Volunteer Fire Department is unable to cover calls after 12 members resigned Monday night.
Clint Fichter, a consultant for the City of Neola, confirmed that the firefighters quit.“It caught us off guard,” he said.
The department has four members currently, and the City Council is set to review eight applications, Fichter said. The town will be covered by the Minden and Underwood Fire Departments, among others, until the Neola department is back at full strength.
Part of the dispute appears to be over City Council efforts to exert more control over the department.
The resignations come on the heels of a state audit report that found more than $230,000 of alleged misspending over a five-year period by the former city clerk, Deb Schierbrock. Schierbrock was a member of the fire department and the wife of Fire Chief Bill Schierbrock.