In preparation for the Bulloch County Fire Department taking over responsibility for the five-mile Statesboro Fire Service District on July 1, the county Board of Commissioners has authorized adding 37 full-time firefighter positions to the department, which would more than double its full-time workforce.

If realized in hiring, this will be a great leap forward in the growth of the once all-volunteer, county rural fire service to a career firefighter department. After transitioning as a mixed career and volunteer department over the past decade and adding 24-hour, seven-day staffing for the stations in Brooklet, Portal and Register, the BCFD recently employs a total of 30 career fighters. That remained the maximum until a 4-1 vote of the commissioners during their March 4 meeting to add the 37 new jobs in an amendment to the “position control schedule” attached to the county’s F.Y. 2025 budget.

This is the current budget, for the fiscal year that ends June 30. Officially, it was county Chief Financial Officer Kristie King who requested the amendment.

“Due to the approaching expiration of the Fire Protection Agreement with the City of Statesboro for the Five-Mile District, the Bulloch County Fire Department needs to begin hiring additional staff as soon as possible,” she stated in a memo to commissioners.

The memo included a chart of the ranks and job titles of the 37 personnel to be employed or sought. They include one fire training captain, three fire captains, nine fire lieutenants, 12 fire apparatus operators and 12 regular firefighters.

“These positions will be paid for with fund balance reserves held within the Rural Fire Fund for the remainder of fiscal year 2025,” the memo stated. “In future years, the fire tax revenue provided by all County citizens outside the City of Statesboro will support the new and existing approved positions.”

Besides the current 30 career firefighters, the BCFD has six other full-time employees for leadership, administration, and fire inspections, King replied in an email. So the additional firefighter slots increase its authorized workforce from 36 to 73 full-time positions.

In late January, when BCFD Chief Ben Tapley presented the county’s proposal to take on half of the five-mile district for one fiscal year, beginning this July 1, and the remainder of the district on July 1, 2026, his presentation included estimates of the five-mile district fire tax revenue. These totaled about $3.35 million if the tax were to be increased to 3 mills, or $3.01 million if the tax were kept at the current 2.7-mill rate.

Those totals would have been the revenue expected from what has been, until now, the Statesboro Fire District, outside the city limits but within five miles of the Statesboro Fire Department’s stations and still served by the SFD until June 30. The county also proposed dividing the revenue with the city for this year. But Statesboro City Manager Charles Penny advised City Council to let the agreement end this June 30 rather than accept half the revenue and continued cost after short notice from the county.

Big revenue boost

So now, the county government is proceeding with plans for the BCFD to take over as primary fire service for the county’s soon-to-be former Statesboro Fire Tax District on July 1 and receive fire tax revenue from that area and the county’s rural district. (The city will continue to fund the Statesboro Fire Department for service inside the city limits and provide mutual aid to the BCFD when requested.)

Revenue from the tax in the rural district, which was already used to fund the BCFD, exceeded $3 million in 2024, and as of a March 6, 2025 update, the county’s online budget document shows $4.2 million tax revenue to the Rural Fire Fund for fiscal 2025.

So the county appears set to receive around $7 million for a full year of fire tax revenue from everywhere outside Statesboro. The actual revenue amount will depend on assessed property values and whether the commissioners, by a later decision, even out the fire service tax across their two previous fire districts to 2.7 mills or 3 mills or adopt some other rate.

As of the March 4 commission meeting, King and Interim County Manager Cindy Steinmann did not have a cost projection on the 37 added firefighter salaries. That led to a less than unanimous vote of approval after Commissioner Nick Newkirk asked for cost number and then sought to table a decision on adding the positions.

“In order to hire new positions within any department, we need to just amend that schedule,” King had said. “So that’s all this is requesting, to amend the position control schedule for the Fire Department to add new positions.”

“Do you have anything budget-wise or anything on all that yet?” Newkirk asked. “This is the first time I’ve had an opportunity to vote on any of this with the new fire deal, and I just want to make sure I know what I know what I’m doing.”

Over $500K balance

In answering Newkirk’s question, King noted that the county had more than $500,000 balance in its Rural Fire Fund and said this should cover the cost for any new firefighters hired from now to June  30. Meanwhile, the commissioners and staff will be working on the F.Y. 2026 budget, with all of the county fire  tax then available for the county department.

“I don’t have  cost numbers at the moment; we’re looking at some pay issues right now,” King said. “But there is fund balance in the fire fund, over half a million dollars, that will cover the cost of this between now and the end of the fiscal year.”

“Before we actually offer any candidates the actual positions, you will have to approve the new pay,” Steinmann told the commissioners.

The county staff had asked the Archer Company, which did the county’s 2018 pay and job classification study, to do an update of just the Fire Department part. Steinmann said she expected the report by the end of the week, after which she and Tapley and King would sit down with it to determine what salary would be offered for each of the new positions “and based on the amount that’s in the budget is all that we can hire, that’s it.”

“But before we change the actual pay grades we will need to get your approval,” Steinmann told commissioners.

However, as she acknowledged in further comments, hiring could take place at current salary levels without a vote on the salaries. Steinmann said that would only happen if the pay study came back indicating that that the county is already paying firefighters in those ranks enough, which she doubted would be the case.

Newkirk asked for more time to consider the cost of changes in the fire department and the added positions.

“I’ve just got a lot of questions about millage rate and employees and et cetera, et cetera, so I really don’t want to go ahead and vote on something if I don’t have all the details, especially if y’all can go ahead and hire without coming back to the board,” he said.

Newkirk offered a motion to table the vote on adding the 37 positions to the next meeting, but his motion failed for lack of a second.

“I think the staff is not going to do anything that’s going to hurt the citizens or hurt the Board of Commissioners. …” said Commissioner Anthony Simmons. “And looking at the time crunch, I don’t think they’re going to do anything that’s going to put us in a bad position, or the citizens … without coming back to us.”

Simmons made a motion to approve, which received a second from Commissioner Timmy Rushing and passed 4-1 with Newkirk voting “no” and Commissioner Ray Mosley absent.

One fire tax rate

In other comments, county staff members appeared to agree that the commissioners will need to set the fire tax millage throughout both former fire districts at a single rate, probably 2.7 mills or 3 mills.

 “You will vote on that,” King said.

Steinmann said she has heard of counties having more than one tax district of their own but that it would be “an administrative nightmare.”

“With the county providing fire service countywide, except for Statesboro, I think you probably need one tax district for that,” said County Attorney Jeff Akins.