The Bear Creek Volunteer Fire Department is moving forward with a proposed merger with the Swansboro Fire Department after receiving a strong recommendation from the state that it do so to address concerns about daytime response and avoid an unnecessary insurance hike for property owners in the district.
The fire department submitted a corrective action plan to the North Carolina Department of Insurance on Monday presenting a plan to hire two part-time firefighters to work the day shift to add to one part-time firefighter provided by the county.
The plan, however, is not a feasible and certain resolution to the concerns and comes too late, Department of Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin said.
The department has been under a year-long probationary period that ends Nov. 5. Without a merger, Goodwin said the department faces seeing its rating go from a Class 6 to a Class 10, which would result in significantly higher insurance premiums for property owners in the district.
“After personally reviewing all the options presented to me from Bear Creek and my experts here at the Department of Insurance, I have come to the unmistakable conclusion that there is only one viable option at this time that is in the best interests of the affected community and Onslow County: merger of the Swansboro Fire Department and the Bear Creek Volunteer Fire Department,” Goodwin wrote in an Oct. 1 letter addressed to Swansboro Mayor Scott Chadwick and copied to the Bear Creek fire chief, County Commission Chairwoman Barbara Ikner and the county’s legislative delegation.