CONCERN FOR JANUARY

Wild fires have  been in the news the past couple of weeks with what is taking place in LA County in California.  While I do not believe we face the same type of fire situation here in Catoosa County, this time of year we do see an uptick in house fires due to portable heaters and other heat sources.  We have an area in District 4 that has not had a staffed fire department in some time.  Mahny of the homes in this area are trailers or mobile homes which will burn rather quickly and become a total loss.  Last year an elderly couple died in a house fire in that area and the fire station sits unstaffed today.  The county has plenty of SPLOST money sitting around from prior SPLOST cycles and nothing is being done.  This fire station is a listed project on the SPLOST cycle that started in July 2024.  We have been collecting around $1,000,000 a month since July and yet nothing is being done.  Blackstock deserves to have a local fire station that is fully staffed in order to provide better fire protection for the citizens in this area.  They pay the same tax rate as you and I and yet they received inferior services.   This needs to be addressed and fixed now before another family loses a family member to a house fire. People have said the family that passed away last year would not have survived if that fire station was active but the reality is that we will never know if that is true or not.