JONAS BEALS
The Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg, Virginia)

At a Stafford County Board of Supervisors meeting two weeks ago, Supervisor Paul Milde made a motion for staff to look into a seemingly innocuous issue: the color of the county's firetrucks. There was no second, and the motion died.

According to a county ordinance, any new firefighting apparatus purchased with taxpayer funds must sport the predominantly red color of the county. This could be troublesome for firehouses like Station 2 at the courthouse, which has had lime-yellow trucks for nearly 50 years.

An apparatus purchased by a volunteer station can be painted whatever color the volunteers choose, but a new firetruck can cost more than $500,000 -- an amount that most county volunteer departments have difficulty amassing on a regular basis. It is likely that any new trucks will be purchased by the county.

"This is a normal transition that every growing community faces," said Milde, who did not get support for his motion but certainly struck a nerve.

"But this is not the time to try and take away the volunteers' identity. Do you want to trade volunteer identity with uniformity?"

Savings versus tradition -

Fire and Rescue Chief Rob Brown said the color of a unit has little bearing on the service provided, but he has practical and financial reasons to favor a fleet of red firetrucks. A standardized, interchangeable fleet could potentially save the county money and ensure that each station is equipped with safe, reliable trucks at all times.

Brown plans to rotate trucks among stations to prolong their useful lives and save money. A busy station like Falmouth can put as many miles on a firetruck in one year as a smaller station would in five. Moreover, a new paint job could cost $20,000 to $30,000 -- something Brown would like to avoid if he moves an apparatus to a new station.

"This is about good business, good financial management and building a team," he said. "And it's working."

Response times have improved over the past four years.

But as Brown tries to organize and unify the countywide department, some volunteers feel that their traditions are being threatened.

Shawn Dunstan, chief of the Stafford Volunteer Fire Department, worries that the loss of their unique station colors could hurt recruitment efforts and erode morale.

"Our trucks are yellow," he said. "It's a pride thing."

Dunstan also thinks it is a money thing and pointed out, as did Milde, that volunteers save the county millions of dollars in labor costs each year.

"We provided thousands and thousands of man hours last year," Dunstan said. "To me, even if you had to pay $20,000 to repaint a firetruck, it's worth it."

Seeing red -

The mere fact that Milde brought up the issue of firetruck paint jobs angered some county officials, who suggested that his motion might be linked to the November election.

"I can't believe Paul is stooping so low," Supervisor Joe Brito said. "It seems to me that he's trying to turn the volunteers against the career firefighters. He's creating turbulence and being very divisive. It's politics at its worst.

"I have a lot of respect for what the volunteers have done," Brito added. "To try to polarize this issue is dead wrong."

In one e-mail to volunteers, Milde suggested that if volunteers did not come together over the issue of apparatus color, they could lose their positions.

"You will be phased out," he wrote. "You need to help get pro-volunteer supervisors, like me, elected."

Milde went on to suggest that volunteers could also count on fellow Republican candidates Susan Stimpson and Gary Snellings.

"I'm concerned we're executing policies that are going to take away important aspects of the volunteers' identity," Milde said. "The attitude toward volunteers from the board is not one that's been gracious or appreciative. I think there are some board members who would prefer to have paid staff in place of volunteers. That is not the way I feel.

"If you scare off the volunteers, you are essentially phasing them out."

Regardless of why Milde raised the issue, it has placed an additional burden on Brown and his staff. The chief said he is concerned with the state of the volunteer departments and values their traditions, but he is also trying to run an efficient, responsive, countywide department in a climate of steep budget cuts.

A major part of Brown's calculus depends on reliable, dedicated volunteers. Issues such as the color of fire engines, while important, are complications the department doesn't need.

"This issue has huge financial implications," Lt. Mark Stone said. "There are bigger fish in the sea right now."

'A Small Price to Pay'

Neighboring counties have faced the same issue when consolidating fire departments, and all of them have dealt with it differently. Spotsylvania has different color schemes on county-owned vehicles and those used by the Chancellor Volunteer Fire Department, though both are predominantly red.

King George County has a uniform color scheme on all firefighting apparatus. Fairfax County is similar to Stafford in that there is uniformity among county-owned vehicles but different paint schemes on trucks purchased by volunteer departments.

Milde feels it is too early for Stafford to make the switch to a uniform color scheme.

"The signal they're sending to the volunteers is that they're not appreciated. If you do this, you could see a dropoff in volunteerism. A paint job is a small price to pay. We're still heavily dependent on volunteers and we need to show that we appreciate them."

All supervisors agree that volunteers are vital to the county's safety.

"Our volunteers and career folks complement each other," Supervisor George Schwartz said. "Volunteers are not going to be phased out. This is an issue that should not have been politicized in that way. The safety and well-being of our citizens comes first."

Whether those improved response times have anything to do with the color of firetrucks is open to debate. Brown prefers to think it has more to do with better organization.

"Fire and rescue in Stafford is light years better," Brown said. "And that's due to a combination of career and volunteer staff."

Copyright 2009 The Free Lance-Star
July 3, 2009