Makeup of Charles City Fire Department under consideration

Possibility of going all-volunteer may be discussed at next City Council meetings

By Mitchell Hanson, mhanson@charlescitypress.com

Charles City has been lucky. That was City Administrator Steve Diers’ main point when asked about the future of the city’s Fire Department, which is seeing its full-time professional staff reduced from four to two because of retirements.

“We’ve done well as a community to do what other communities this size do,” said Diers. “Charles City is probably one of the smallest in the state with professional, full-time firefighters.”

Due to the reduction in paid, full-time staff, the city has begun exploring the idea of changing the Fire Department to an all-volunteer operation, while still keeping its paid, full-time chief.

Made up largely of volunteers already, the Charles City Fire Department has had a long history of retaining some professional, full-time firefighters. There were eight originally, before scaling back to four. Now, two new retirees are reducing the full-time staff to half that.

The retirees are Darien Uetz, who retired at the end of April after 30-plus years, and Marty Parcher, who has been with the department since 1999.

The department still retains two full-time employees: Curt Teeter and Fire Chief Eric Whipple. Diers said he isn’t aware of either of them leaving anytime soon.

But with the full-time staff reduced to two, the city has begun to consider changing to an all-volunteer fire department.

“Waverly, Decorah… they’re similar in size and operate mainly as all-volunteer,” Diers said. “They’re places to look at.”

He added that Floyd County’s other towns have successfully run all-volunteer fire departments, and could be used as inspiration for a newly structured department in Charles City.

The main questions, he said, are, “How do we fund this? What’s the path forward?”

Diers said that reduced city funds have made the possibility of continuing with full-time firefighters slightly more difficult.

“It comes down to funding,” he said. “We need to factor in all the pros and cons.” He stressed that the main importance should always be on the ability to fight fires, no matter if the department is run by full-timers or volunteers.

Diers also said that response times would not be affected by a department change, and “it shouldn’t impact insurance costs.”

Ultimately, the future of the Fire Department will be decided by the Charles City Council. The issue will likely be further discussed at the May 11 and May 25 workshop meetings.

“Now’s the time to look and assess,” said Diers. “We’re currently researching. It’s whatever the best solution can be for the city. With reduced funds, it’s harder to make those decisions. It’s about what we can afford to do. It’s an interesting topic; we’ll see where we end up. Stay tuned.”