Finance News (Photo Illustration/MetroCreative)

PARKERSBURG — The Wood County Commission has some concerns with how the Vienna Volunteer Fire Department is spending some of its money from the county fire fee.

On Thursday, county officials were discussing over $21,000 in purchases for promotional materials including 500 rubber ducks, necklaces, magnet stickers, slap bands/erasers, stickers, 1,100 beach balls, plastic badges, plastic helmets for kids, kid fire books, festive/decorative pens and more.

Other invoices were shown for around $6,000 for plastic flying discs and pushpop stress reliever key chains which the county did not sign off on and have not been paid, officials said.

Officials said the department has spent $21,448.59 from county fire fee money on these items since July, according to an invoice brought to the commission’s attention by the county’s finance department.

Commission President Blair Couch said the department receives money from the city of Vienna, the county fire fee, the state and from fundraising donations made through the community. The commission has oversight over how money is spent from the county’s fire fee.

Officials said the commission did approve the expenditures for the $21,448.59

“We should have caught this back in July, but we didn’t,” Couch said. “Now we are catching it and now we are looking at it. We want them to come in and talk to us about it.

“We want to ask why he is using the fire fee money for this.”

Couch didn’t think anything “nefarious” was going on with these purchases.

“I just think they are using the wrong funds,” he said. “They have other sources of funding.”

Officials feel the department is spending money out of the county fire fee on these items that should be coming from one of the other funding sources they have. The fire fee should be used for firefighting equipment and gear, they said.

Wood County Clerk Joe Gonzales said at a recent meeting with fire officials and state lawmakers that county officials laid out where things need to be spent from. However, officials said people get in a habit of doing things a certain way and it is hard to get them to do them differently.

An auditor reviewing the county finances could come in and question why these kind of purchases were made with the county fire fee money, Gonzales said.

The other funding sources is where these kinds of promotional items can be paid for.

“They can take it out of their ice cream social money that they raise,” Gonzales said.

Gonzales 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.

Wood County Administrator Marty Seufer said he can understand giving the kids a coloring book and a plastic helmet when they visit the fire station, but those should be paid for from a different source.

Vienna Fire Chief Steve Scholl was scheduled to appear before the commission on Thursday to discuss these matters but had to postpone. He is now scheduled to appear on Monday at 9:30 a.m.

When reached by phone on Thursday, Scholl said he had a city meeting he had to attend that morning. He was not prepared to make a statement as he was still getting things together for Monday’s meeting and said he would comment on the situation then.

Brett Dunlap can be reached at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com