The Cedar Creek Volunteer Fire Department announced Sunday that they will cease emergency response immediately.
As we reported earlier this month, the Greene County Budget and Finance Committee heard a report that two county volunteer fire departments had been non-compliant with recent audits. One of those, the Cedar Creek VFD, had failed to comply with requirements from that audit. That audit found that there were no receipts for checks that were written, the ATM was used to make cash withdrawals with no receipts on what the money was used for, and some deposits did not include information on where donations came from. Several receipts were also questionable from places like PayPal, Wendy’s, and ABC’s Family Dentistry.
Greene County 9-1-1 Director Jerry Bird said that residents previously served by Cedar Creek have no reason to worry. 911 will automatically dispatch other volunteer fire departments to respond to emergency calls in the former Cedar Creek area. Bird said that those departments are will equipped to handle any response needed to any call.
Official Statement by the Cedar Creek Volunteer Fire Department
The Cedar Creek Volunteer Fire Department offered this statement that they requested be shared in its entirety and original form:
In August of 2023, the Greene County Commission implemented changes for financial checks and balances for all Greene County Volunteer Fire Departments. Of those changes, Chiefs and Treasures could not be related. This requirement caused some departments to have to change officers by September 2023. In this department we changed treasures to comply. Another requirement was that all departments have a yearly audit from an outside CPA or establish an in-house audit committee to do quarterly audits of the treasure.
We want our community and the county to know that we have spent over a year complying with the commission’s new requirements. Yes, we had some clerical errors that were addressed and policies put in place to prevent future incidents. We also had some human errors made by accident and those were corrected and reimbursed immediately upon finding the error. And again, we made changes to prevent those errors in the future.
While reconciling the findings from the first audit we did have two missing receipts from the year 2023 that could not be produced after intense searching and contacting the businesses. The amount of the two receipts was minimal and our bank accounts reflected the transactions as well as a detailed account in our own records as for what they were for. In reference to the statement about ATM withdrawals, those was cash withdraws within the branch, to pay for property maintenance. It is not the departments policy to use ATM’s. The department paid for two different audits from an outside CPA to comply with the commission requirements. Our 2024 audit through July came back with no errors. They are now, nor ever have been any misappropriations or missing funds in the department.
Regarding the ISO rating, the departments rating was changed to a 10 during a previous Chief’s term. While recruiting, daily operations, new requirements and trying to work with the Commissioners, the process of rectifying and reducing our ISO rating which is a three-year process at minimum has been difficult. Our current Chief and Assistant Chief have only been in place for two years and have worked diligently to prepare for a new ISO audit. This is the first time that funding has been withheld for a department having an ISO rating of 10 to current officers knowledge.
All volunteer departments in Greene County and other counties in the state of Tennessee are struggling to recruit volunteers. Our active volunteer firefighters that are available, respond to calls we are dispatched to. We work with our neighboring departments to back each other up and have done so to every call when possible. Our department as well as others are struggling for volunteer firefighters during day-time hours. We spent numerous hours in attempts to recruit by placing ads in multimedia outlets, held open houses and other events. The majority of volunteer firefighters have full time jobs, sometimes two, and family responsibilities. And with the required hours of state mandated training, which each department pays for, it is harder to get people to volunteer.
Without the time to meet the requirements to lower the ISO and the withholding of county tax funds from the Greene County Commission, and a lack of personnel to help with fundraising it will be very difficult for the department to continue to be in operation to the Cedar Creek community. Our board and officers held a meeting to discuss the situation and after careful consideration it was decided to close the Cedar Creek Volunteer Fire Department. Our community will still be served by either South Greene Volunteer Fire Department or St. James Volunteer Fire Department.
As of September 16th, 2024, Cedar Creek Volunteer Fire Volunteer Depart will no longer be in service to the community. If you have any questions as to which department you now fall under, please contact Greene County 911, or you can contact either South Greene Volunteer Fire Department or St. James Volunteer Fire Department.
As part of the closure procedures per our original deeds, the property that the department sets on will be returned to the family of the original donors. The apparatus and equipment will be sold, and all funds received will be distributed between Cedar Creek Church of God, Cedar Creek Free Will Baptist Church, and Cedar Creek Presbyterian Church equally. This will be a time-consuming process but will be handled in a timely manner.
It has been a pleasure for Cedar Creek Volunteer Fire Department and its members to serve the Cedar Creek Community for over 50 years. A multi-generational department of many community families, we truly are a family. We appreciate all the support from fundraisers, donations, and events over the years from the community. We want to thank our founders, lifelong members, and anyone that ever served in the department for their wisdom and service.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact your local Greene County Commissioners.
