The Vance County Fire Department got another reprieve this week when the County Commissioners agreed to hold a long work session to talk over the merits of a proposed reorganization of the county fire service.
Coming at the urging of Commissioner Leo Kelly, the move means it’ll be at least a couple of more weeks before county leaders decide what to do with a proposal to break up the department’s staff and re-assign its members to two volunteer fire departments.
It also came after County Manager Jordan McMillen, Vance County Fire Chief Chris Wright and other staffers of the county Fire Department voiced misgivings about the plan.
Disbanding the county department “is going backwards, not moving forward,” Wright said, adding that he believes the fire service does need changes but that the strategy proposed by the volunteer-firefighter-dominated county Fire Commission is the wrong approach.