Salisbury volunteer firefighters continue to get defunded

Two of Salisbury's volunteer fire companies, Stations 2 and 16, are being defunded by Wicomico County and within just a few years, the county funding will completely stop.

Although the upcoming budget funds 11 other stations in the county, including a small sink fund to independent Station 13, the budget does not fund the Stations within Salisbury City limits.

County Executive Bob Culver says any money provided to station 2 and 16 in the budget complies with a per-call formula established last year in a city-county fire service agreement. This means, for example, that if Station 2 receives a fire call, the county will reimburse 300 dollars. 

Salisbury Mayor Jake Day gave the follwing statement to 47 ABC: "While these two volunteer companies – Wicomico County's busiest – were defunded over a year ago by the County and this is not news, it's disappointing to see them not funded again and treated differently than all others for purely political purposes." 

We then reached out to Culver for a statement in response, but he was not available, so we pulled the following statement from his Facebook page.

Culver said, "I would like to clarify that the Fire Service Agreement negotiated between the City of Salisbury and Wicomico County took into consideration the volunteers at both Station 2 and Station 16." Culver continued to say, "I have great appreciation for the services these men and women provide to our community.  Station 2 and 16 need to speak with Mayor Day about this issue."

We have heard reports that Stations 2 and 16 are trying to lobby to get their stations county funding restored.

We reached out to both Stations 2 and 16 for comment, but president's from both organizations were not available for an interview.

To view Wicomico County's full fiscal year 2019 budget you can click here.