Several residents left the meeting still wondering what was going on between the council and the city's fire and police departments.
"There must have been another meeting (after last Monday's regular meeting), because I don't remember letting the fire department members come back after they had quit," said councilman Jim Hagy. "When I left the meeting I didn't know whether the city of Loyall had a fire department or not."
According to city officials, the council had raised some questions concerning the fire department responding to fires outside the city limits at last Monday's meeting. Councilman Clarence Longworth had made a motion at that meeting that the fire department shouldn't respond to any fires outside the city unless it was to a subscriber.
According to Hagy, he had looked up some laws before coming to Monday night's meeting. He said that KRS 95.830 says that use of a fire apparatus belonging to a city outside the city limits is up to the city legislature.
"Does the city have an ordinance about fire trucks leaving the city?" Hagy asked.
"I don't know," said Loyall Mayor Charles Wattenberger. "It's safe to assume that we don't."
Assistant fire chief Hollace Wilson told the council that the Loyall Fire Department was not the first department paged to a fire at Rio Vista.
"When a call comes into Post 10, we page out the first 911 protocol. After five minutes, if no one comes 10-8 and says that they're on their way to the fire, we set the pagers off again and wait another five minutes. If no one answers the call, then we page the closest department to the fire," said Wilson, who is also a dispatcher at Post 10. "If the call was in Rio Vista, then the second department to be called out would be Loyall.
Harlan County Rescue Squad lieutenant and county fire department member Chris Allen told the council that if the rescue squad or fire department was on a call on the other end of the county that he would call Post 10 and have them page out the second protocol.
Loyall Fire Department safety officer Owen Noe asked the council if it wanted the fire department back or not.
"I appreciate the job that the department does," said councilwoman Sue Ball. "We are part of the 911 system and if they page us out we either got to go or we need to pull out of 911.
"If we are going to be our own group, why should these people want to come in and be a part of a well-trained department and help the city?" said Wattenberger.
"I just don't understand why that if we respond to 911 calls outside the city and the person were responding to is not a subscriber why we have people subscribe to our department," said Hagy.
The reason people subscribe is so that they can get their insurance rates cheaper on their homes," responded Wilson.
Post 10 dispatcher Raymond Day said calling the Loyall department as second protocol to Rio Vista fires is common procedure.
"No one to my knowledge has ever told us to do anything different," said Day. "The city has never told us that it don't want the fire department to respond to fires outside the city."
The crowd applauded as Wilson told members of the Wallins Fire Department that if it needed assistance that Loyall would be there to help them even if the department was not allowed to bring a truck.
"We may not have a truck, but I guarantee you and the Harlan County Fire Department that if you need our help, we'll be there to assist you."
Wattenberger told the council and the crowd that as of now if the department is paged to a fire by 911 that it would respond whether the fire was inside or outside of the city.
"I promise you and the council that the city of Loyall will not be left unprotected, and if there is a fire inside the city, someone from the Loyall Fire Department will be there to put it out," said Wilson.
Hagy asked Loyall City Police Chief Silas Whitehead why is it that the only time he sees his name in the paper it is when he's assisting someone "20 miles down the road."
"I was on my own time and what I do when I'm off is my business," said Whitehead. "I don't stop being a cop when I leave here."
The crowd cheered as Whitehead told Hagy that he needed to read all the newspaper reports, saying he had been mentioned in plenty of articles referring to work he has done in Loyall since he has been the city's police chief.
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