The Cumberland City Council heard heated comments Tuesday night from the fire chief about the lack of funds the department receives from the county.

“This is the bastard end of the county,” said Cumberland Fire Department Chief Fess Eldridge. “The county doesn’t give us that much money. We only get $3,300 a year. Everybody else, they just give them money any time.”

The comment comes after talks about the current need to resolve the city’s fire response ordinance heated up.

The city fire ordinance came under fire in October when the E-911 board had complained about Cumberland not responding to fires outside of the city limits.

During the meeting it was said the ordinance probably dates back to the 1950s and is in serious need of being revised.

Council member Kateena Haynes asked Eldridge if the fire department was a city or volunteer department. Eldridge said the department is volunteer because the other members get reimbursed for gas and other items. He then explained the equipment is purchased by the city, the assistant fire chief and himself salaries were paid for by the city, so he considers the department more of a city fire department.

Council member Carl Hatfield said the fire department should respond to outside of the city and the department could bill the insurance agency for payment.

“If we are outside of the city limits fighting a fire and your house catches on fire (in the city), we’ve got to drop what we are doing out there and come back to your house, if we can,” said Eldridge.

Eldridge said one of the problems is the Cumberland fire department is being dispatched from Harlan and being sent all over the county. He explained the department had still not been set up on the 911 dispatch system and if the department was to be set up on the 911 system for all of its emergency services it would cause less confusion.

Council member Yvonne Gilliam said she thought the city was being set-up for a total 911 conversion. Eldridge explained the project had sort of lost momentum and he was considering traveling to Frankfort after the new year to find out what was going on.

Eldridge said another one of the issues the department has about responding outside city limits is the current truck used only holds 1,000 gallons of water and doesn’t help a whole lot on some of the larger fires. He said the department asked for enough funds from the county to purchase a tanker truck and build a building to keep the water from freezing inside of the truck.

Harlan County Judge-Executive Joe Grieshop said a tanker has never been formerly asked for or requested at either the fiscal court or even in a direct letter to him.

“We have a set amount of money each year in the budget, no fire department gets special treatment,” said Grieshop. He continued saying the county allocated $10,000 to the District 3, which has three fire departments; Cumberland, Benham and Lynch.

Grieshop said the county has spent a great deal of money on the area up there in water and sewage projects. He continued saying fire protection is difficult but Harlan city fire department does charge for going outside of the city limits and seems to work fine.

Eldridge said the department does and will continue to assist the area between Cumberland and Putney.

“If they call me and say there is somebody in a house I’ll go,” Eldridge said.