Vienna Fire Chief Steve Scholl appeared before the Wood County Commission on Monday to address the county’s concerns over purchases the department made for promotional/educational materials the department purchased with money from the department’s portion of the Wood County Fire Fee. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

PARKERSBURG — Vienna Fire Chief Steve Scholl appeared before the Wood County Commission on Monday to address the county’s concerns over purchases the department made for promotional/educational materials the department purchased with money from the department’s portion of the Wood County Fire Fee.

Commissioners recently questioned $21,448.59 in promotional/educational materials the department purchased since July. The commission initially signed off on it, but the purchases were questioned by the county finance department. There are also over $6,000 in other invoices for plastic flying discs and push pop stress reliever key chains which the county did not sign off on and have not been paid for.

“We discussed it and we agree that all of the expenditures were legitimate, but the funding used to pay for them was wrong,” Commission President Blair Couch said.

Scholl said he understood.

“The one thing I really want to make the public aware of is we are not trying to hide anything,” he said. “This money was spent on fire prevention to help save people’s lives.”

Vienna Fire Chief Steve Scholl appeared before Wood County Commissioners Jimmy Colombo and Blair Couch on Monday to discuss how the department has been spending on promotional/educational materials from the department’s portion of the Wood County Fire Fee. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

The department makes 1,000-1,200 little bags to give to young students who visit the Vienna Fire Station from schools all over the area, Scholl said, adding he felt they put on a good presentation that some of the other departments don’t have the resources to do.

“The $27,000 may sound like a lot of money, but it costs $25-$30 per bag,” Scholl said. “That is worth saving a child’s life and a family.”

Commissioner Jimmy Colombo said they weren’t questioning the value of these materials or what the department wants to accomplish with them.

“We have to abide by the rules of the state of West Virginia,” he said. “You have a number of buckets of funding that you could have taken that money out of.”

The department receives money from the city of Vienna, the county fire fee, the state and from fundraising donations made through the community, county officials said.

Vienna Mayor Chad Emrick attended Monday’s meeting of the Wood County Commission as commissioners discussed how the Vienna Volunteer Fire Department spent its portion of the Wood County Fire Fee. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

Colombo said with the county fire fee and funding from the state, the county has to be accountable with state officials.

“This is just an accounting problem that we would like to get straightened out,” he said. “We don’t want to put any pressure on you.

“We just want to make sure it is earmarked out of the right place.”

Since the department started using money from the fire fee they have made these purchases, Scholl said, adding they were previously made with the $17,500 allotted to the department by the commission before the fire fee was put in place.

However, after reviewing the laws and guidelines with Wood County Clerk Joe Gonzales he understood the commission’s concerns.

Officials said there is a section of state code, provided by the state auditor’s office, that says only $500 can be spent on educational/training supplies and fire prevention promotional materials.

Officials did feel that $500 is too low and have asked state lawmakers to see what can be done to change that.

Couch said the commission signs off on the purchases made by the departments from the fire fee as the money passes through them for auditing purposes.

The concern was an auditor from the state reviewing the county finances could come in and question why these kind of purchases were made with the county fire fee money, officials said.

Scholl said their department was also audited regularly by the state.

“There is nothing underhanded going on,” he said. “Now that we know the rules, we will play the game.”

He pointed out that officials had previously said funding for these materials could come from the annual Vienna Volunteer Fire Department Ice Cream Social, but said they do not make $27,000 from that event..

The department is getting some reimbursements that they will be receiving this year that they will be using to straighten this situation out so money will be coming from the proper funding sources, the chief said.

“I want the public to understand we are not doing anything underhanded,” Scholl said to which Couch and Colombo reiterated they did not believe they were.

“We believe that 100%,” Colombo said. “We just want to follow the rules so we don’t get our hands smacked as well.”

Scholl said he can fix the issue for the remainder of this year, but he will have to find another approach for the future.

Vienna Mayor Chad Emrick, who attended Monday’s meeting, said he was having his people look up the funding amounts the city gets. He did not have an exact number but estimated the city gets around $130,000-$140,000 from the county.

“A large portion of that went to pay for our leases and equipment and those various things we have with truck payments,” he said. “This portion went towards their prevention programs.”

He is in the process of reviewing the funding and looking into ways they can address the issues. Gonzales said the state funds can be used for lease payments, utilities, equipment and gear.

The mayor agreed.

“We are making sure we are getting it out of the correct pots of money and that is all we want to do,” he said.

Commissioner Robert Tebay was not present during this part of the meeting.

Brett Dunlap can be reached at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com