White County Fire and Emergency asking the County Commission for some $112,000 more than they asked for last year.
White County Emergency Management Director and Fire Coordinator Matt McBride presented his 2026 budget requests to the county commission’s budget committee Monday night. McBride said he wants to increase the money for fire and rescue equipment and supplies from $45,000 to $100,000.
“This year, we’ve seen that departments were falling short,” McBride said. “I mean, there’s still things that was needed and we would have been real nice last year to start out at $100,000. But we did see that increase and we continue to see those increases in fire and emergency equipment because we know that in a fire and rescue equipment, when it’s life safety, the prices of things are higher.”
McBride also asked for $25,000 to replace the roof, downspouts and gutters at the fire station on Sullivan Knowles Road. McBride said the roof is more than 30 years old. McBride said the roof has been re-coated multiple times by numerous companies.
“The estimate we got last year was around $18,000. I spoke with the company again this year and they felt like it would be close to that again, so we just planned for $25,000 or lower in that cost.” McBride said.
McBride also asked for $25,000 to purchase a six-seater side-by-side all terrain vehicle for use during events and for rescues on private property as well as on state and local parks.
“In the last four years since I have been in this position, and it’s been part-time position, we struggled in this county to have sufficient ways of travel off road,” McBride said. “We’re very rural, so we still have a lot of farmland, even with all the building and urban stuff coming.”
McBride asked for $7,500 more in three other categories to buy vehicle lights and sirens, mobile phones and various supplies for the haz-mat team. The supply money will be used for medical supplies, hoses, ropes and harnesses.
The budget committee voted to hold a special meeting soon to discuss these and other budget requests.
In other business, the county finance director informed the budget committee that G. Meeks Constrution, LLC was awarded the bid for replacing water lines for DeWhite Utility District for a cost of $670, 210.
