Waynesville’s 2016-17 budget includes funding for eight new full-time firefighters, effectively doubling staffing, shortening response times and increasing firefighter safety at a cost of about $530,000 per year over three years.

A sparsely-attended special meeting held June 7 at the Waynesville Town Hall was meant to serve as a public hearing on the town’s proposed $29.7 million budget for fiscal year 2016-2017, but instead talk centered mostly around things much more elemental — namely, fire.

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

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.

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.

Now that the North Carolina Department of Insurance issued the Canton Fire Department a Class 4 rating this week, Canton homeowners should see a little savings on their fire insurance premiums.

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.

Little boys worship them. Bruce Springsteen memorialized them. The helpless count on them. 

Volunteer firefighters are a symbol of American strength and determination, pillars in their community who answer the call of duty when friends and neighbors need them most.

SEE ALSO: Desperate for recruits, volunteer firefighters hope to change the perception that their brotherhood is a boys’ club

As the demand for services continues to grow, Franklin will begin its search for a full-time fire chief to run the Franklin Fire Department.