Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 10F
; FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS Sunday, M«rch28,1989
FORSYTH COUNTY FIRE DEPT. FIRE STATIONS
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/ \ 9ft charon F' oad "**W Btatlon 1 • Old Atlanta Road next to Forsyth Co. Jail
r • ;X Station 2. Highway 9 south, 1/2 mile south of Ga. 141
» Station 3. Dr. Bramblett Rd., 1/2 mile from Hwy 369
-ft z „,l - A Station 4. Hwy 20 West, 1/2 mile west of Hwy 371
\lk. 1141 J/, Station 5. Holtzclaw Rd., near Pilgrim Mill Rd.
\ , "" 'f Station 6. McFarland Rd, 1 mile west of Ga. 400
* V Station 7. Hwy 9 North at Silver City
\ Station 8. Hwy 306 near Mayfield Dr.
Station 9. Hwy 369 near Jottem Down Rd.
Station 12. Settendown Rd. at Fire Dept. Headquarters
Station 13. Dr. Bramblett Rd. near Ga. 20
Station 14. Hwy 9 south, north of McFarland
Station 15. Hwy 20 east
* Station will soon move to corner of Old Atlanta Rd. and
James Burgess Rd.
From a volunteer, fire chief Bennett now heads up state firefighters
group and has seen the county change from rural to suburban county
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j Chief Norris Bennett worked his way up the firefighting ranks
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HEALTH & SAFETY
By Colby Jones
Staff Writer
Fire Chief Norris Bennett, who
joined the Forsyth County depart
ment in 1973 as a volunteer, spent
a good deal of time the last two
years fighting hot air at the state
Capitol in Atlanta.
Bennett lobbied legislators on
behalf of state firefighters as pres
ident of the Georgia Firefighters
Association.
“There was one particular piece
of legislation to legalize sparklers
and other small fireworks, and we
were not so concerned about fires
as much as injuries,” Bennett
says. “It did not pass and I assume
we had something to do with
that.”
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Fire department: Healthy comho
of career, volunteer firefighters
By Colby Jones
Staff Writer
The fire department added 30
full-time firefighters to its ranks
last year while developing a num
ber of incentives to bolster its
strong volunteer force.
“The response issue is the one I
was mainly concerned about,”
said Public Safety Director Miles
Butler, who would like to hire 30
additional career firefighters each
year until the department reaches
120. It currently has about 200
volunteers.
In the way of incentives, the fire
department began paying volun
teers $75 to S9O for working 12-
hour shifts at several stations that
are manned exclusively by volun
teers.
“This was to help augment the
career firefighters since the 19
paid slots did not receive approval
from the Board of
Commissioners,” Butler wrote to
commissioners in January. Butler
initially had requested an addi
tional 30 full-time positions in the
1999 budget, but then reduced
that request to 19.
For volunteers who can’t com
mit to working a full shift, Butler
put together a package that would
allow for participation in a state
pension fund and cover dues for
the Georgia Firefighters
Another bill would have prohib
ited elected officials from serving
as volunteer firefighters. The pro
posed legislation came about
when a city council member in
south Georgia, who also served as
a volunteer firefighter, was
accused of abusing his position on
the council by showing favoritism
to the fire department.
“Our stance is elected officials
should be able to hold that posi
tion because the voters already
know they’re volunteers when
they vote,” Bennett says.
In addition to his lobbying
duties, Bennett is responsible for
attending 12 district meetings
throughout the state.
“It has been a positive experi
ence, but I’ve been involved wilh
S' ~ ;
Public Safety Director Miles Butler, center, on scene of fetal-fire
Association. Volunteers who meet
certain requirements also would
receive S6OO at the end of the
year. That compensation package
currently is pending before the
Board of Commissioners.
Butler said a healthy combina
tion of career and volunteer fire
fighters is crucial to bringing the
department up to speed: “At some
point you have to guarantee for
someone to show up. People mov
ing here from big cities, when
they dial 911, they don’t really
care who is showing up. They just
the state board for six years prior
to this,” Bennett says, adding he
has not yet decided whether he
will seek re-election for the presi
dent’s post in August.
Since he joined as a volunteer,
Bennett has witnessed the depart
ment make the transition from
servicing a rural area to part of
booming metro Atlanta.
“The early years we had to
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want someone who is trained ind
capable to deal with the situa
tion.”
In addition to changing the'per
sonnel makeup, the department
added more equipment and imple
mented a system for keeping track
of its vehicles.
Fire officials ordered eight new
vehicles in 1998 including Tour
engines, two command trucls,
one van and one car for the.fire
investigator. Butler said one. hew
*• t
See FIRE, Page; Cl F
spend a tremendous amount of
time having fund raisers,” he says,
recalling the days when county
firefighters served fried chicken
and sponsored cakewalks to buy a
used truck.
In fact, only the SR' ,r,,l ', J ,
mechanic and fire chief .cceiyed
salaries in 1973, when he worked
See BENNETT, Page 11F