The Georgia Fire Standards and Training Council voted unanimously Thursday to suspend the City of Midway’s fire certification and is calling for Liberty County and the city to immediately sign an intergovernmental agreement to relieve the county of any liability for answering calls within the city limits.
“We let [Midway] know they’re in a very, very serious state of noncompliance and there’s just no way around it,” GFSTC Executive Director Randy Toms told members of the statewide board. “Their station is closed down due to mold issues. They don’t have a piece of fire apparatus on site.”
Toms added that Liberty County had taken back its fire trucks, which Midway had allowed to get “in serious state of disrepair,” and confirmed that the county was in the process of getting the usable one fixed.
“I told them Monday it doesn’t matter how they provide fire protection to their citizens in Midway,” he added, “…but they have to do it.”
Other members agreed.
Screven County Fire Chief Harvey Cryder said, “Myself and Chief Hodges visited Midway yesterday, and it’s exactly what Randy described – no truck in the station, no equipment, and two people on the roster. They are in very serious need of regrouping and getting themselves back in order.”
Council Chair Tony Pritchett of the State Fire Marshal’s Office asked the board for a vote to allow Toms to pull Midway’s certificate of compliance on April 1 if the city was still out of compliance, “and even before then if they’ve absolutely not done anything they’ve told us, at the discretion of the executive director, based on their progress.”
Cryder suggested GFSTC “suspend as of today and then they can come back to us when they’re ready to unsuspend.”
LISTEN: GFSTC votes to suspend Midway’s fire certificate of compliance
Midway Mayor Pro Tempore Clemontine Washington was on the GSFTC call, but did not comment during the meeting. Also on the call were Walthourville’s fire chief, Nicolas Maxwell, and City Manager Shana T. Moss.
City consultant says he can beat county price tag
During a special called meeting in Midway on Monday night, Toms and Pritchett told the city council they’d had enough and threatened to take the matter to the state attorney general’s office.
Meanwhile, Fairburn Fire Chief Cornelius Robinson, who is acting as a consultant for Midway, said he had a plan and was trying to get the city into compliance by Thursday.
Midway officials have complained about Liberty County’s proposed price tag but have yet to explain how much they would spend on a city fire department or how to pay for it. City officials have yet to present the public with a proposed fire department budget. (The city also has failed, since August 2024, to produce current and recent city budgets as required by the Georgia Open Records Act.)
In contrast, the county has been forthcoming with its proposed budget that offers to provide Midway with full fire service and a strategically-placed county fire station at $5.8 million over 5 years. Under that plan, taxpayers in Midway would pay a fire district tax. Right now, Midway has no city taxes.
What does a fire service actually cost?
On Feb. 17, which was a national holiday, Midway City Council held a special called meeting and voted to reimburse Robinson for travel expenses. The council also hired Craig Reynolds “to oversee the repairs of all city buildings to include the old police department and the fire station.” The city has not produced an audio recording of that meeting, which The Current requested.
During Midway’s next special called meeting on Feb. 24, both Toms and the chairman of GFSTC’s board, Deputy Commissioner of the Safety Fire Division of the Georgia Office of Commissioner of Insurance and Safety Fire Tony Pritchett, attended by phone. They did not mince words.
“I’ve been involved with Midway Fire Department since I came to this agency,” an exasperated Toms told the council. “You are as not compliant as a fire department as anything I have ever seen. You don’t have firefighters, you don’t have fire trucks, you don’t have a fire station. You don’t have the coverage to give your citizens right now. You are in a serious state of non-compliance in every area possible.”
County Manager Joey Brown urged the council to act, suggesting that the county could come up with a 3-year deal if that would be more desirable.
After the meeting, Robinson told The Current the county’s offer to set up full fire service and a new station for $5 million over 5 years was too expensive, and that he could put one together for about $300,000.
Previously, Washington also had told The Current she felt the county’s offer was overpriced but did not say by how much. Asked whether she thought the city could meet state regulators’ April 1 deadline for compliance, she replied the city would have to get someone to intervene on their behalf.
But Toms said the April 1 date had been for the proposed deal with Liberty County, not for the city to come up with a different plan from scratch.
Councilman Stanley Brown asked Joey Brown, “As the chairman would say, what? Liberty County pride? We are the gateway. So if you’re talking about partnership, why aren’t you helping us get where we need to be at so that we can take care of our own?”
Joey Brown replied, “Well, what do you think we would need to do? I mean, we have been answering your fire calls.”
Stanley Brown said, “Of course you’ve been answering, but we want to answer our own fire calls, and we want to be responsive to our citizens, so the citizens can know that we here on the elected board are doing what we need to be doing so that they’re protected.”
Toms told The Current Wednesday that he was “out of patience” with Midway, after three years of trying to work with the city to ensure it meets mandatory state fire certification requirements.
Walthourville Mayor Sarah B. Hayes, who had attended the meeting along with Moss, took to the podium to say Robinson had helped her city get fire trucks but that Walthourville had been “in no way under any plan or any agreement or anything with anybody” to assist Midway with its fire service, adding, “We don’t have a dog in that fight.”
City, county to sign temporary agreement
Could Liberty County residents and businesses lose their fire insurance coverage as a result? “If this were to be prolonged, yes,” Toms said.
However, he added he’s optimistic that the suspension is already having the desired effect.
“I already spoke to the mayor,” he said. “I already spoke to Joey Brown, he’s already been in touch with [Liberty County Chairman Donald Lovette], and there will be an IGA as soon as tomorrow. The mayor said he’s willing to compensate Liberty County for coverage during that time. I think it’s going to work out and I think it’s going to be okay.”
But even a temporary agreement between the city and county is far from done.
As of publication Thursday, Lovette told The Current any agreement “won’t be today,” adding, “We meet on Tuesday. Will address it then. That will give us time to discuss with all the Commissioners. As you know, this [plan] was not what we were discussing.”
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