Whitewright Sun (Whitewright, Tex.), Vol. 130, No. 3, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 16, 2014 Page: 1 of 8
eight pages : ill.View a full description of this newspaper.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
Basketball See Page 5 6 and 8
A
Volume 130 Issue 3
SBljttenmijIjt §>un
50 Cents Thursday, January 16, 2014
New Fire Department Responds
J M^Siin
Photo by Roger Palmer
The Whitewright Fire Department and EMS responded to a motor vehicle
accident on Wednesday, January 8 around 3:00 p.m. when a vehicle reportedly
lost a wheel and crashed on State Highway 160 and Jack England Road.
Reynolds named
interim fire chief
By Kimberly Palmer
Editor
The Whitewright City Council held
a special meeting on Monday night
appointing Jake Reynolds as the new
interim fire chief for the Whitewright
Fire Department. Reynolds will serve
in that position until the city conducts
interviews and hires the permanent
position. The deadline for applications
is February 14 at 5:00 p.m. The council
expects to have the position hired by
March 31. Reynolds is already a city
employee and the council voted to
increase Reynolds’ hourly pay by
$1.00.
Reynolds has been a paramedic for
Whitewright since 2010 and is currently
employed by the City of Bonham as a
firefighter/paramedic. Reynolds said
that he’s pleased with the appointment
and the confidence the council has
placed in him and looks forward to
serving the City in his new position. A
press release from the mayor stated that
Reynolds has submitted his application
for the position of fire chief and will be
among the candidates considered for
the post.
The council unanimously voted to
convert the 2001 Ford ambulance that
has been stored at the city barn as an
incident command vehicle for public
Please See Reynolds Page 2
Big changes at city fire Whitewright VFD seeks
department to clear name
By Kimberly Palmer
Editor
The Whitewright City Council met
on Tuesday, January 7 for their regular
monthly meeting with all council
members present along with Mayor
Bill Goodson and City Secretary
Beth Woodson. The council approved
the minutes from meetings held on
December 3 and 13 and payment of
the current bills. No one spoke during
the visitors/citizens forum time on the
agenda.
The council approved Resolution
409 to call for the 2014 election. Places
3 and 4 on the council and the Mayor’s
terms are expiring.
The council also approved moving
$100,000 in reserve funds set aside for
the purchase of a new ambulance into a
six month CD with Cendera Bank with
an interest rate of 0.80 percent. The
new ambulance has not been ordered
yet and will take longer than six months
so the money will draw interest during
that time.
The council then moved into executive
session at 5:35 p.m. to deliberate on the
appointment, employment, evaluation,
reassignment of duties, discipline,
or dismissal of a public officer or
employee-fire chief. Also deliberated
on during the executive session was the
purchase, exchange, lease, or value of
real property-Public Safety Building.
The council reconvened in open session
at 7:01 p.m.
After the council was back in open
session, Councilman Jason Summers
moved that the City of Whitewright
hire a part time fire chief and the
motion was seconded by Councilman
Allen West and approved 5-0.
The council tabled action on the
deliberation regarding property-Public
Safety Building. Mayor Goodson
explained that the City has been looking
at four properties to build the new fire
station on and more investigation needs
to be done.
The council unanimously approved
Ordinance 505 for the establishment of
the Whitewright Fire Department as a
department of the City and established
the office of fire chief of the department
effective January 7, 2014.
Councilman West made a motion that
the inventory of the fire department
will be distributed legally by law
with advice from their attorneys at
Brown and Hofmeister. “The City
should appoint someone to inventory
the property and they can go over
the inventory with the volunteer fire
department to see what they have
purchased.” West said. Councilman
Martin seconded the motion and it was
unanimously approved.
Councilman West made a motion that
the fire chief will be hired by the city
council and overseen by mayor just like
he does with the police chief and city
secretary. Councilman Jason Summers
seconded the motion and it was also
unanimously approved. “This is done
so that the city can move on forward
this has been holding us up because we
did not know where were we are going.
We are in a progressive mood now. We
want to do things that keep the city
safe and work this thing out. That is
why we are doing a lot of these things
here so that it is not as if we the city
wanted to take over the fire department
or anything of that sort. It’s just that we
need some continuity with this thing
and get this under some control and
that is why we did what we’re doing. I
hope you understand and appreciate the
fact that we do have councilmen here
that want to make this thing work.”
The council approved ordinance 506
that establishes standard operating
guidelines and adopted a department
operations manual. Mayor Goodson
stated that the city will be under
protection with mutual agreements
with other fire departments.
Councilman West made a motion
that was approved by the council that
the public safety director will head
the department until they have time to
look at someone for the temporary fire
chief position while they are looking at
resumes. The city planned to advertise
the position immediately.
By Roger Palmer
Publisher
What will the Whitewright Volunteer
Fire Department do now that the City
is no longer using their services?
According to Josh Clouse, Fire Chief
for the VFD, there are still some things
that need to be done and he feels the
record of the department needs to
be cleared. According to Clouse and
Assistant Chief Shawn Patterson, one
of their main goals is to make sure that
the community knows that their crew
had been responding to calls. Chief
Clouse said he was aware of only
one fire call the department had not
responded to, and that was a dumpster
fire beside Dairy Queen. Clouse
added that according to the mutual aid
agreement, another fire department did
respond to that fire. Clouse added that
the department was not licensed to go on
medical calls. Clouse also pointed out
that the department voluntarily became
regulated and was following the Texas
Commission on Fire Protection. “We
were being treated by the state as a paid
department,” said Clouse.
When asked why this all happened,
Clouse said, “The underlying issue has
been going on for decades. There has
been a competition between the city, the
city council and mainly, like the Mayor
wanting to run the fire department
like a city department.” Clouse added,
“Mainly the money was the big deal,
they would go through chiefs and
they wouldn’t be on speaking terms.”
Clouse said his goal was to fix that. “I
suggested we have a contract,” said
Clouse. He then suggested they both
hire attorneys. The city brought their
attorney in and according to Clouse,
the city’s attorney suggested that the
contract be done sooner than later.
The VFD then brought in their own
attorney to protect their legal rights
and their nonprofit corporation status.
The city presented the department
with a contract at the beginning of
2013. According to Clouse, that
contract “basically took away all of our
corporate rights. We couldn’t choose
the leadership. We couldn’t decide
on contracts for everything from who
would be testing our air to who we’d
hire for our medical director. They’d be
able to come in and look at our books
without even asking,” according to
Clouse, the VFD’s attorney said they
just absolutely could not do that. Then
the city and the VFD went line item
by line item on the contract according
to Clouse. “I thought that we had
gotten to a point where we just needed
to revise everything and then we
could move forward but we had two
sticking points, one was the medical
director and choosing the fire chief.”
In September, Clouse said he met with
Mayor Goodson. Clouse said he told
the mayor, “We are not agreeing on the
medical director, we’re not agreeing on
this medical stuff at all, that should not
keep us from having a contract; let’s
throw that out of the contract and let’s
deal with that later.” Clouse said Mayor
Goodson agreed and said they could
have a contract ready by October 1,
2013. According to Clouse no contract
was presented and that was the last
time he spoke to Mayor Goodson.
“Obviously, we no longer have a fire
district so there’s not a whole lot of
point of us continuing on, but however
I don’t know what the membership
will say.” said Clouse about the
future. “But if we vote to dissolve the
corporation by federal law we have to
dispose of our assets to a like chartered
organization.” Clouse added “That’s
the money or the actual property.” The
VFD is claiming that all the property
belongs to the VFD with the exception
of three fire engines, but the VFD is
also claiming the equipment on those
engines belongs to the VFD. The
VFD’s attorney has contacted the city
regarding those claims according to
Clouse. In addition, the new brush
truck belongs to the VFD as well.
According to Patterson, some members
of the VFD have been allowed to get
personal items from the fire station.
Sun and clouds mixed. High 59 Low 33. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph
Weather data for 1-7-2014 through 1-13-2014
High 71 Low 19
Rain 0.44 YTD 00.44
Grayson county average through January 2.47
Follow the Sun
on Facebook
www.facebook.com/whitewrightsun
Whitewright’s oldest business • Celebrating 130 years of hometown news
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Matching Search Results
View two places within this issue that match your search.Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Palmer, Kimberly. Whitewright Sun (Whitewright, Tex.), Vol. 130, No. 3, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 16, 2014, newspaper, January 16, 2014; Whitewright, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth833105/m1/1/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Whitewright Public Library.