Bristol Volunteer Fire Dept. has unanswered questions

BRISTOL – The dynamics of volunteer fire departments are often hard to understand unless one needs a fire department.

Even more confusing are all the Emergency Service District areas in Ellis County, basically volunteer departments who manage county fires when needed.

Taxpayer’s money goes to these ESD departments, and sometimes residents have questions.

In many cases, the ESD departments do not want to give answers.

Recently an Ellis County resident wrote The Ellis County Press asking questions about the Bristol Fire Department.

The questions seemed easy. Apparently not for Jimmy Whatley, speaking on behalf of the Bristol Fire Department/ESD #7 – because he could not answer any of these questions below:

• Does Bristol, as a rural fire department, receive county tax money and if so, how much?

• Bristol has a fire station with trucks and usually no one around if there is a fire, so who is in that station and what do they use it for?

• Can you confirm if the house next to the station was bought next door as a fire department club house?

• The chief drives a new SUV with “Bristol Chief” on the doors – is this his personal vehicle or did tax money pay for or subsidize it?

• The Bristol Volunteer Fire Department also just purchased the lot where the old general store used to be in Bristol, and they are going to build yet an additional fire station and get more trucks and equipment – what is the need for that?

• Does a rural fire department really need all this or do they just sitting around figuring out how to spend the county tax money?

• Does anyone have oversight over these individuals? 

• Do they submit a yearly budget or just get the money handed to them?

• Do they keep records of how many fires they went to, categories such as structure or pasture and what volunteers attended each fire, etc.?

• How many volunteer firefighters do they have?

• Do they already have enough infrastructure in place and the tax be reduced?

The Ellis Country Press sent Whatley these questions, and after asking him to answer he said he would do so – and then took two weeks to respond.

Whatley did mention in a phone conversation the ESD had no interest in answering these questions because – “you are the press.” Roughly one or two weeks later he responded with the answer below, which answer none of the questions that were asked by the concerned resident.

“The Bristol Fire Department is a volunteer fire department. The department offers continuous education to firefighters to help protect their Bristol family. Volunteers have regular jobs and may not always be available for all calls. Because it’s a volunteer fire department, the Bristol Volunteer Fire Department is an open book, governed by a board of elected volunteers, which is overseen by the ESD #7, Emergency Service District #7. Meetings are held every month on the last Tuesday at 6 p.m. located at the Bristol Firehouse. BVFD meetings are the first Tuesday of every month at 7 p.m. located at the Bristol Firehouse. All meetings and records are a matter of public record. If anyone has any questions, please fill free to attend any and all meetings. Anyone may attend, we would love for more people to take interest in helping or community stay safe. Please feel free to volunteer as well. We would love new volunteers and your participation.”

Meanwhile, none of the answers that the concerned citizen asked were answered. So, the original questions do remain – where is the taxpayer’s money going and why doesn’t anyone at ESD #7 want to answer these questions or feel the residents have a right to know the answers to the questions?