Western Enterprise Fire Company (By Kevin G. Gilbert/Staff Photographer) |
Like all 20 of Washington County's volunteer fire companies, Western Enterprise Fire Co. receives tens of thousands of dollars a year in public funding.
Unlike the rest, however, the volunteer fire company in the big brick building in Hagerstown's West End has enough money to go to conventions every year, to subsidize at least one tour bus trip, to pay a nonprofit group to run its gaming operation, to pay three of its top officers, and to contribute to neighborhood charities.
How the volunteer-owned Western Enterprise does all that while staying debt-free and earning more than $25,000 on its cash and investments last year while most other local fire companies struggle financially, isn't easy to explain.
And then, there's this:
Western Enterprise — while housing a city fire engine and ladder truck, a Community Rescue Service ambulance and crew, and a city Fire Department paid crew of firefighters — hasn't sent any of its own volunteers out to fight a fire in more than four years, according to Hagerstown Fire Chief W. Kyd Dieterich.
None of the members Western Enterprise has recruited, trained and outfitted over the years has gone to fight a fire since April 2007, which raises questions about some of the fire company's spending in recent years, Dieterich said.
About the same time that Dieterich says Western Enterprise stopped boosting the city's firefighting force with more volunteers of its own, the company's spending on conferences, conventions, meetings and travel increased, according to financial reports the company has filed with the Internal Revenue Service.
"Why does a company that doesn't have any riding members, have these types of expenses for training or travel or what have you?" Dieterich asked.
"I don't question them attending the conventions, it's just the amount of money" that's being spent," Dieterich said. "It's like, wow!"
But James Schaffer, longtime volunteer president and paid administrator of Western Enterprise, said the spending is justified and the city's way of counting each company's volunteer firefighters is bogus.
Schaffer said Western Enterprise's members include "probably about 12 or 15" volunteer firefighters, who are also members of other fire companies in the city. It's "stupidity" that the city ties those members' fire responses to the company they joined first, rather than to all the companies where they're also members now, he said.
"Why in hell are we calling it a city fire company if you have to be members of individual fire companies?" Schaffer asked.
In addition, Schaffer said, he is tired of criticism of the amount of money the company has earned and he doesn't think people understand how much of it the company has spent maintaining and improving its fire station.
"Right now, we have some savings, yes. But what happens if a windstorm comes through here and tears the roof off all these buildings?" Schaffer asked. "Is the insurance going to pay for it? Hell, no!"
Still though, explanations of how the company earns and spends the money are hard to come by.
During a yearlong investigation by The Herald-Mail into the financial accountability of local fire and rescue operations, the leaders at Western Enterprise said repeatedly they weren't interested in talking to the newspaper.
From last January through this fall, Schaffer bristled at questions, hung up repeatedly during telephone interviews and angrily alleged the city government and the firefighters union are "out to get our money. ... Some of these people they want to run everything. You're getting no information out of us."
Just last month, Schaffer alleged that the newspaper was writing the stories as part of a conspiracy because "your boss, he's getting something to push this."
Last winter, Mike Kline, chairman of Western Enterprise's board of trustees, said he'd told current and former officers and members not to talk to the newspaper. And, he told the paper not to try to reach them either.
Unlike the rest, however, the volunteer fire company in the big brick building in Hagerstown's West End has enough money to go to conventions every year, to subsidize at least one tour bus trip, to pay a nonprofit group to run its gaming operation, to pay three of its top officers, and to contribute to neighborhood charities.
How the volunteer-owned Western Enterprise does all that while staying debt-free and earning more than $25,000 on its cash and investments last year while most other local fire companies struggle financially, isn't easy to explain.
And then, there's this:
Western Enterprise — while housing a city fire engine and ladder truck, a Community Rescue Service ambulance and crew, and a city Fire Department paid crew of firefighters — hasn't sent any of its own volunteers out to fight a fire in more than four years, according to Hagerstown Fire Chief W. Kyd Dieterich.
None of the members Western Enterprise has recruited, trained and outfitted over the years has gone to fight a fire since April 2007, which raises questions about some of the fire company's spending in recent years, Dieterich said.
About the same time that Dieterich says Western Enterprise stopped boosting the city's firefighting force with more volunteers of its own, the company's spending on conferences, conventions, meetings and travel increased, according to financial reports the company has filed with the Internal Revenue Service.
"Why does a company that doesn't have any riding members, have these types of expenses for training or travel or what have you?" Dieterich asked.
"I don't question them attending the conventions, it's just the amount of money" that's being spent," Dieterich said. "It's like, wow!"
But James Schaffer, longtime volunteer president and paid administrator of Western Enterprise, said the spending is justified and the city's way of counting each company's volunteer firefighters is bogus.
Schaffer said Western Enterprise's members include "probably about 12 or 15" volunteer firefighters, who are also members of other fire companies in the city. It's "stupidity" that the city ties those members' fire responses to the company they joined first, rather than to all the companies where they're also members now, he said.
"Why in hell are we calling it a city fire company if you have to be members of individual fire companies?" Schaffer asked.
In addition, Schaffer said, he is tired of criticism of the amount of money the company has earned and he doesn't think people understand how much of it the company has spent maintaining and improving its fire station.
"Right now, we have some savings, yes. But what happens if a windstorm comes through here and tears the roof off all these buildings?" Schaffer asked. "Is the insurance going to pay for it? Hell, no!"
Still though, explanations of how the company earns and spends the money are hard to come by.
During a yearlong investigation by The Herald-Mail into the financial accountability of local fire and rescue operations, the leaders at Western Enterprise said repeatedly they weren't interested in talking to the newspaper.
From last January through this fall, Schaffer bristled at questions, hung up repeatedly during telephone interviews and angrily alleged the city government and the firefighters union are "out to get our money. ... Some of these people they want to run everything. You're getting no information out of us."
Just last month, Schaffer alleged that the newspaper was writing the stories as part of a conspiracy because "your boss, he's getting something to push this."
Last winter, Mike Kline, chairman of Western Enterprise's board of trustees, said he'd told current and former officers and members not to talk to the newspaper. And, he told the paper not to try to reach them either.
