BonDeCroft Volunteer Fire Department land request addressed by White County School Board Chairman Young

BonDeCroft Volunteer Fire Department

The past few months, the BonDeCroft Volunteer Fire Department has requested and worked with White County Board of Education to work out a deal about the property their station is on. Chairman of the Board Bob Young talked with The Expositor about the challenges facing both parties and how they are seeking to find a resolution that benefits all involved.

BonDeCroft Volunteer Fire Department seeks to have some form of ownership or authority over the property their station is on, as it is currently property of the School Board. Because of this, the fire department is unable to acquire some grants that would benefit their department. The past few board of education meetings have addressed the progress on this discussion. Young hopes they can reach a resolution as quickly as they can for all parties.

“It’s a unique request from the BonDeCroft Fire Department,” Young said. “From the district’s position and as the board, the challenge is understanding the ask and options - understanding of what we can and can’t do.”

One of the biggest hurdles initially was making sure who had the final authority on the arrangement. At the last meeting, Young said the school board would have final say as the property is theirs, and Young confirmed to The Expositor again that is their current understanding.

Young said the two options the board are entertaining would be either leasing the property or selling.

“Nobody has brought up options other than sell or lease,”  he said. “No other options have come up yet as an option we could take. Selling of a district’s assets would require a lengthy process. Leasing would alleviate some complexity and help us, too.”

On whether the school board would visit this topic for every fire department on school property, Young said, “Overall efficiency, what you do for one you would do for all, but that’s a full-board decision. I’m not speaking to that’s what we’ll do, but logically that’s something we’d have to look at in the discussion and then come to an agreement to.”

The school board is now working with Chad Marcum, the county’s director of finance, while moving forward.

“Director [Kurt] Dronebarger has been working on things with Mr. Marcum,” Young said. “To make sure we do the process the right way and find something we could do to benefit all parties, especially BonDeCroft Fire Department, and hopefully come to a resolution as quickly as possible. We’d like to move this quickly as we can for BonDeCroft’s sake.”

Young also wanted to personally commend BonDeCroft and all the fire departments that work with the school board, saying, “We got a lot of respect for volunteers for the county regarding fire protection. As a county entity, we don’t want to be a hinderance to them and their work, but we also have to, for the county, protect the interest of the district.”

As progress continues with this issue, the school board will continue to update residents of the county during their meetings. The next scheduled meeting is 6 p.m., Dec. 11, at the White County Board of Education building, and all their meetings are livestreamed on YouTube as well.