Town hall clarifies unresponsive calls from Lakeville Fire Department

LAKEVILLE, Ind. (WNDU) - The Lakeville Fire Department is not responding to calls right now.

As it turns out, the legal entity they were contracted with never paid taxes, which means these volunteer firefighters were not properly insured.

“You cannot run a truck period. You can’t reinstate because you have no insurance. You will be sued if something happens. Nobody here wants that...” said one resident.

Fire territories have different options when it comes to implementing fire protection.

You can contract with a joining territory, or you can contract with an entity.

In this case, Attorney Marcel Lebbin said the fire department was contracted with Volunteer Firemen INC.

“That entity was not actually abiding by the rules it was supposed to. It was not paying taxes. It was not filing returns. It was not doing the things it was supposed to do to keep up as a legal entity. So, when the new trustee took over and we were given a contract, we looked at the contract and we vetted all these things,” Lebbin said.

“We have to be insured to be able to run these trucks. I mean, it’s a big responsibility to be on these trucks. There’s people’s lives are at hand, and you know you’re driving a tanker that’s got twelve-hundred gallons of water in it they don’t stop on the dime, so we’ve got to be certified and you’ve got to be insured,” said Ron Baker, who is a volunteer firefighter with the Lakeville Fire Department.

Southwest Central Fire Territory will be handling calls for the short-term.

Meantime, the Union Township Board will review and submit applications and certifications to get these firefighters insured as quickly as possible.

So far, 10 out of the 15 firefighters have submitted applications.

“We’re going to submit those to insurance and we are going to give them employment agreements. We are going to move forward in short order,” Lebbin said.

The fire department is looking for volunteer firefighters.

If you would like to apply, click here.

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