Lowndes County Volunteer Fire Services will receive 12 additional radios and pagers it requested for its new volunteer firefighters, the board of supervisors decided during its Monday meeting.
The department's handling of the request, however, sparked a lengthy debate among supervisors during the meeting, which eventually led them to vote to establish a chain of command for firefighters requesting equipment purchases.
Supervisors on Monday approved to amend the Fiscal Year 2020 budget to include an extra $41,203 to pay for the additional equipment. The new radio model would each cost about $1,000 less than the ones the county ordered for all 114 volunteer firefighters late last year, said County Administrator Ralph Billingsley.