WIS News 10 - Columbia, South Carolina | Bishopville cuts fire service over budget concerns

Bishopville cuts fire service over budget concerns

By Jillian Capobianco - bio | email

BISHOPVILLE, SC (WIS) - The tough economy has the city of Bishopville cutting back on their fire services. Officials say it will not affect your safety, but may have an impact on your wallet.

The affects of the tough economy can be seen everywhere. In Bishopville, it's a big reason why the city and lee county have ended a five-year relationship.
  
In 2004 the city and county merged fire services, but Wednesday the contract is up. City Manager Gregg McCutchen says Bishopville could not afford the county's demands.

"It would have just thrown our budged out of kilter, we are bare bones right now. We didn't have to furlough any body we didn't have to lay off anybody we would have had to look at some of those situations," says McCutchen.
    
The city was paying the county $135,000 a year for fire services, but the county wanted to raise the fee to $180,000. They also wanted the city to pay a quarter of a million dollars for a new pumper tanker.
    
Lee County Fire Chief Mike Bedenbaugh says Bishopville was basically paying the county for extra protection.

"They wont be slighted a bit," says Bedenbaugh. "They'll have the same service they always had. The only thing they wont have is what they have right now with a man 24 hours on duty but they will still have the whole county working the city as we do the other districts."

In the town of Bishopville, the fire insurance rates are lower. But with the city losing the extra protection, that means the rates could go up.

Right now the fire insurance rate in Bishopville is at a IS04 level. If the level raises to an IS06, which is what much of lee county is at, a person with a $100,000 brick house would pay an extra $73 a year.
    
McCutchen says it's better than the alternative. He says they would have had to raise property taxes to keep the service, which would have cost residents about $300 to $400 more a year.

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