Waynesville town leaders will decide this month whether to raise property taxes to hire additional firefighters, and if so, by how much.

When a funding request for Emergency Management Services came in for more than double what Jackson County is paying now, commissioners were taken pretty far aback, asking lots of questions about the justification for the $821,000 leap and setting the issue aside for a few weeks to investigate the options.

With a drop in county value and increase in emergency response costs, Jackson County is looking at a draft budget built on a property tax rate of 37 cents per $100 of value — a 32 percent increase over the current 28-cent tax rate.

Waynesville leaders will face a big decision this budget year: whether to increase property taxes by 10 percent to pay for additional firefighters.

Waynesville town leaders heard something they didn’t necessarily want to hear last week.

Ambulance service in Jackson County could more than double in cost to taxpayers if commissioners decide to fund the full $1.4 million budget requested by Harris Regional Hospital.

Haywood County is continuing with efforts to update and improve its emergency management ordinance — a local regulation that came under fire last year by a group of residents who thought the language violated their constitutional rights.

Kevin Rohrer, a captain with Morrisville Fire and Rescue Department, has been hired as Franklin’s fulltime fire chief to replace former interim chief Warren Cabe.

It’s been a year since the Haywood County commissioners agreed to make changes to the county’s emergency management ordinance to tone down some overbearing language that didn’t sit well with an adamant group of civil liberty watchdogs.

Despite the stereotype of volunteer firefighters as Type A alpha males, knowing your Nascar drivers and driving a pick-up truck isn’t a prerequisite for being a volunteer firefighter.