Story - The Meade County Messenger


Vol. 115 No. 31	July 30, 2008

Fire district billing policy irritates Ekron resident

By LARRY SEE JR.
Messenger Staff

A car fire in the Kroger parking lot resulted in a $1,517.04 bill for an Ekron resident.

The bill was the result of 11 firefighters responding to the incident in two tankers, Meade County Fire Protection District Chief Larry Naser said.

The affected resident, Barbara Monroe, said the itemized bill included a charge for the disconnection of her battery cable.

Naser received an e-mail from the collection company, Cost Recovery Corporation of Dayton, Ohio, regarding the incident. He said the matter would be addressed at the district’s rescheduled meeting July 28.

Monroe said her car insurance won’t pay the bill.

Monroe said the car caught on fire due to a recall issue with the cruise control. Since she had purchased the car used, she didn’t receive notification until three weeks later, and didn’t have the matter corrected.

“I wasn’t the one who called the fire department,” she said, adding she was only inside the store for a few minutes.

“I’m glad no one got hurt as the fire totalled the whole car,” she said. “We have full coverage on the car.”

According to information from CRC, a resident/taxpayer is exempt from any out-of-pocket cost and the claim is written off. Since Monroe is an Ekron resident, and pays taxes to that fire district, she is considered a nonresident.

“A nonresident/taxpayer would be held financially accountable because they’re not supporting safety services in that community,” the CRC information states.

Fire district officials changed collection companies earlier, after repeated phone calls and e-mails weren’t returned from the previous vendor.

“This is just another example of Meade County getting you again,” Monroe said. “It is just one thing or another.”

“The lady did have a car fire and we were called to extinguish the fire,” Naser said. “It costs us (the fire district) money to do that. If they are not taxpayers to the district we are going to be asked to be compensated for our time and equipment.”

Naser didn’t know who called central dispatch, but reiterated discussion on the matter would be on the agenda.

He also indicated this is the first complaint the district has had.

City of Muldraugh officials are in the process of completing a similar ordinance for that community. In this case, due to the large amount of nonresident traffic on U.S.-31W, they expect to recoup significant ambulance and fire expenses.

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