LA PLATA — Charles County’s volunteer fire and rescue companies could soon buy major apparatus without the mandatory 30-day wait that has repeatedly forced them to ask for special waivers to lock in prices before manufacturers raise them.
A committee that spent nearly a year reworking the county’s Capital Acquisition Submission and Approval Policy presented its changes to the Charles County Board of Fire and Rescue on Oct. 15. The rewrite would drop the required 30-day table on purchase requests, make emergency purchases easier to approve and raise the dollar threshold for reporting large non-capital purchases made with fire tax money.
It did not pass that night. The companies’ executive committee had already voted to table the policy until its next meeting, and the board followed suit, voting to table it until its next meeting or until the executive committee approves it.
The stakes are practical. The policy governs how each volunteer company asks to spend public money on engines, ambulances, boats and buildings, and how quickly those requests can move. With apparatus prices climbing and build times stretching into years, a month’s delay can cost a company real money.
The 30-day wait, in practice
The same meeting showed why the committee wanted the change. Earlier in the evening, the Newburg Volunteer Rescue Squad and Fire Department asked the board to approve replacing an engine at an estimated cost of $1,259,580, with $500,000 to be paid directly to the vendor up front. The company also asked the board to waive the 30-day layover period because the vendor had announced a price increase taking effect Nov. 1, 2026. The board approved the request and the waiver.
In presenting the rewrite, a board member said many companies have come in asking for the same waiver because waiting the extra 30 days would expose them to price increases, and that the mandatory delay can financially hurt departments given how apparatus is now priced and built. The committee kept a safeguard: any department can still ask that a proposal be tabled if it needs more time to review it.
What else would change
Based on the summary presented at the meeting, the proposed policy would also:
- Add a new section on donated apparatus.
- Make a company’s letter of intent valid for 12 months, matching the one-year life of the chiefs’ endorsements, rather than indefinitely.
- Keep a layover until the next regular executive committee meeting so all companies can review a proposal, after which a majority of member companies must approve it along with any changes.
- Allow emergency purchases to be approved at the executive committee level by a simple majority of companies present, instead of a two-thirds majority.
- Raise the threshold for large non-capital purchases with fire tax funds from $50,000 to $75,000. Those purchases are reported to the board through a letter of information.
Taken together, the changes would speed up routine purchases and lower the bar for emergencies, while shifting more mid-size spending into the report-after category. The full draft policy was included in the board’s meeting packet but has not been posted publicly.
Bay doors and a bid waiver, on hold
Another request that night showed the bidding side of the process. The Hughesville Volunteer Fire Department and Rescue Squad asked to spend EMS capital funds to replace three EMS bay doors and related equipment. That part of the station was built in 1994, and the doors are original, now more than 32 years old. The company said the mechanical parts fail more often, with about six service calls this year costing more than $4,000.
Hughesville sent a request for proposals to six companies on Aug. 18 and received two bids:
Bidder Price Garage Doors and More LLC (current maintenance vendor) $48,300 Overhead Door of Washington, D.C. $87,088
The company asked for a waiver of the county’s three-bid requirement and said it would pay with its EMS building allowance and EMS building maintenance funds, without taking on debt. According to the request letter, the low bidder acknowledged it had underbid to win the work. The company’s board approved the low bid Sept. 9.
Board members noted the letter did not show that the department’s membership had approved the purchase, only its board of directors, and asked for clearer wording on how it would be paid for. The board voted to table the request until next month so Hughesville can submit a corrected letter.
Waiting in line for new rigs
Quarterly updates at the same meeting showed how long new apparatus now takes. The Charles County Volunteer Rescue Squad reported that the correct chassis for its replacement Ambulance 518 has been delivered to builder Horton and production has resumed, with delivery possible in November. A board member recalled the earlier delay was caused by the manufacturer supplying the wrong chassis.
The Cobb Island Volunteer Fire Department and EMS reported it is still waiting for production to start on a new ambulance. Its new fire and rescue boat is scheduled for delivery in December 2026, but the company said the builder warned the project could be pushed back because of government contracts. Cobb Island also said it has received a grant to replace its inflatable boat and plans to bring that request to the board next month.
The board also flagged one company still waiting on its auditors for overdue financial statements, warning that its fire tax distribution would be held until the statements arrive.
Who decides
The Board of Fire and Rescue reviews the financing of the county’s fire departments and rescue squads and makes recommendations on equipment and facility needs. It is chaired by Lynn Gilroy, who represents the volunteer firemen’s association, with Bill Deer of the EMS association as vice chairman. Its members also include commissioner appointees and a governor’s appointee.
The purchase policy shapes how the volunteer system spends a large share of public money. The Chronicle has reported on Charles County’s $18.4 million fire and EMS budget, the board’s decision to speed $1.15 million to the volunteer retirement fund and volunteers’ push to lift the income cap on their property tax break.
The policy returns once the executive committee acts on it. The board meets at 7 p.m. on the third Thursday of each month, which puts its next meeting on Nov. 19, when Hughesville’s corrected bay door request and Cobb Island’s boat request are also expected.
