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FROSTBURG, Md. — Members of the Frostburg Volunteer Fire Department questioned Frostburg City Council members about comments made at an August meeting during the governing body’s Thursday afternoon work session.

Fire department President Todd Logsdon, past chief and current rescue captain Joe Hoffman, business manager Gary Tummino and treasurer Dayne Lancaster met with the council to discuss comments made during a special work session held Aug. 30.

During that meeting, council members indicated support for providing the department with American Rescue Plan funds for the purchase of a new fire truck, but not without the fire department first undergoing an independent audit. The department requested $750,000, and the ladder truck is projected to cost an estimated $2 million.

Hoffman said he was “appalled by what I observed” during last month’s meeting.

“What I saw was the team’s integrity, competency and accountability questioned,” Hoffman said.

There’s also “a knowledge gap” for both city residents and the council about the department’s duties in town, Hoffman said, “and it should be disturbing around the city of Frostburg to see such a disconnect.”

Logsdon presented a list of the comments made with which the firefighters were displeased.

Logsdon first asked Finance Commissioner Donnie Carter, who attended Thursday’s meeting by phone, to clarify his comment that the department hadn’t been “straightforward” with the council about their finances. Carter said that the city, county and Frostburg State University provide approximately $350,000 to the department annually, “but the budget that was given to us only shows somewhere around $315,000 in income.”

The fire department receives $345,000 from those entities, Logsdon responded, and submitted the council a $332,000 budget. The additional funds, Logsdon said, go to state funds that the department doesn’t directly receive.

“The money never touches our hands or our accounts,” Lancaster said.

Hoffman said the new truck will take about two years to build, and the one they’ve had since 2004 “already has signs of wear” and most likely can’t be stretched for use for another decade.

“Once it fails ladder testing, it’s basically a very heavy paperweight,” Hoffman said. Failing equipment, he said, risks the lives of both firefighters and the people they save. National Fire Protection Administration standards dictate trucks be replaced every 20 years, Hoffman said.

They’ve taken preventive maintenance measures “at huge expense,” Logsdon added.

Asked about her agreement with Carter’s statement at the earlier meeting, Commissioner of Water, Parks and Recreation Nina Forsythe said she felt “there has been a disconnect, and if the chief had come to our monthly meetings and given a report ... we could talk one-on-one about what the challenges are and what you need and why, and not have everything come by hearsay with incomplete information.”

“This is a lot more than I had known in the last couple years about what your challenges are,” Forsythe said. “It would have been nice to have known that a long time ago.”

“Or, by the same token, the council could come to the fire station,” Lancaster replied.

Logsdon also asked about Carter’s comment that the department should have been audited a decade ago, to which Carter responded that the council was trying to assure the money was spent properly.

“I’ve been on the council for 12 years and we’ve received one financial report from you in 12 years,” Carter said. “The charter requires that we get that every year, and we’ve asked for it before in the past. Until this past year, we had never seen it.”

Logsdon said he’d offered to send City Administrator Elizabeth Stahlman copies of the department’s last 10 years of financial statements. Lancaster said of his eight years as treasurer, he’d never been asked for a budget until this year.

The council’s comments, Tummino said, were “almost defamatory.”

Forsythe attributed her characterization of the department as “untrustworthy” came from a “discrepancy” that “made it seem questionable.”

“You can see where I’m coming from,” Forsythe said.

“No, I can’t,” replied Lancaster.

“We had to request this meeting to defend against what you said about us,” Logsdon said. “ ... We’re not in any way, shape or form trying to hide anything.”

Forsythe apologized for her comments.

“I do want to say that we need you, and I recognize that,” Forsythe said. “I think it was really remiss of me not to mention that during that meeting, because the fire department is an integral part of this city.”

Lancaster asked if the city wanted them to proceed with the audit.

Public Works Commissioner Adam Ritchey said he felt “a lot more comfortable” after discussing the subject with the department.

“I think we’ve got the answers we wanted here. I’m comfortable without the audit,” Carter said.

Stahlman asked the department to provide financial and tax statements for the last few years.

The council meets next on Sept. 15 at 3 p.m.

Lindsay Renner-Wood is a reporter for the Cumberland Times-News. Follow her on Twitter @LindsayRenWood, email lrenner-wood@times-news.com or call 304-639-4403.

Lindsay Renner-Wood is a reporter for the Cumberland Times-News, covering West Virginia and more. Follow her on Twitter @LindsayRenWood, email lrenner-wood@times-news.com or call 304-639-4403.

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