CROSS LANES, WV (WOWK) — A crowd of people gathered inside the Tyler Mountain Volunteer Fire Department Community Center Wednesday. The department’s board held their regular meeting addressing staffing and 911 response concerns.
During the meeting, the only action made by the board was approving three probationary firefighters. Board members also announced that at least eight new applicants are under review since seven firefighters resigned on Monday.
In response to the many public concerns surrounding current staffing and emergency response, the board says they’re confident they can handle 911 calls in the area, even with losing a portion of their staff.
The station currently has 18 members now. 13 of those have Firefighter 1 training, three are completing training and getting ready to take the state test, and two are getting ready to start training.
When it came to the public comment section of the meeting, several community members voiced concerns regarding relationships among the board members. This includes the chief and assistant chief having a father-son relationship.
Timothy Ickes, one of the seven firefighters who resigned on Monday, also spoke during the meeting and he says he and the other six volunteers want to come back and serve the community but a change in leadership has to happen before that.
“We don’t have confidence that the board is going to back us up and that they’re going to supply the stuff we need. I want to complete board eliminated and I want it absolved, I want the chief gone, the assistant chief gone. You’ve got a father-son relationship that just doesn’t work,” Ickes says.
Some members of the community also requested a “vote of no confidence” claiming they believe the board members are unfit to run the fire department and should be replaced.
However, board members tell 13 News that their current bylaws are not set up for that to happen.
Board members say they plan to discuss possibly changing the bylaws in the future, but no further action or comments were made during Wednesday night’s meeting.
This is a developing story.