Fire District #2 approves pay increase for volunteer firefighters

Image
Body

Volunteer firefighters will now start receiving more money per call after the Evangeline Parish Fire District #2 approved the pay increase at its monthly meeting on Tuesday.
During at the meeting, Board Chairman Danny McDaniel requested that volunteer pay increase from $5 to $10 for each call responded to by a firefighter.
All board members agreed that the increase is warranted, and therefore the motion for a pay increase was unanimously approved by the board.
However, a cap was set for how much a volunteer firefighter can make in a month at $599.
At the meeting, Board Member Ted Demourelle also shared that a contract, had been agreed upon by Ward 5 Fire Chief Bobby Guilbeau and Fire District #2’s board in regard to responding to calls in what the fire district refers to as “no man’s land.”
This area includes Sandtrap Lane, Putters Lane, Fairway Drive, Country Club Lane, Eagle Drive, Pipeline Road, Cazan Lake Road, and Indian Lake Road.
The contract agreed upon by Ward 5 and Fire District #2 will require both entities to respond to a fire in these areas with one tanker and one truck. For the area near Cazan’s Lake, Fire District #2 will respond with trucks.
The contract, according to Demourelle, “has been reviewed by our attorney Brent Coreil, and he said everything looks good.”
The need for a contract to be agreed upon is due to the fact that this area is not in the boundary of any fire district. For that reason, the Evangeline Parish Police Jury is required to pay for the fire services it receives from the fire districts.
During the meeting, the board also approved the annual 2 percent increase for Ville Platte firefighters.
A portion of these firefighters salaries are paid by the City of Ville Platte and a portion is paid by the fire district.
The increase now puts the fire district paying a total of $18,053.00 for Ville Platte firefighter salaries.
The next Fire District #2 meeting will be held on February 20, 2018 at 6:00 p.m.