Who ya gonna call?

LINCOLNVILLE -- Police officers unable to drive their cruisers. Firefighters with no trucks to respond to calls. These scenarios are real possibilities for this small town on the verge of losing its insurance coverage.

State officials notified the town Aug. 25 that it had 30 days to pay off a $28,000 delinquent insurance bill or lose coverage for its buildings, vehicles and other property. That deadline passed Thursday night with no payment.

State law requires that legal notice be published before the policy is yanked, so that likely buys the town another week or two to pony up the money before its insurance evaporates, said Michael Sponhour, public affairs director for the state Budget and Control Board.

Mayor Tyrone Aiken insists the bill will be paid, but others are a bit nervous.

Police Chief Gary Hamner said he and Fire Chief Charles Gantt have been unable to get Aiken to return their phone calls about the matter. They only stumbled upon the problem while the fire chief was calling around to check out a rumor that one of his pumpers was about to be repossessed, he said.

The two chiefs were making arrangements to mothball their vehicles and have outside departments cover their calls when they learned that the insurance wouldn't expire at midnight Thursday, as they had believed.

"We've received a stay of execution," Hamner said.

Aiken said the situation has been blown out of proportion. He blamed the problem on expected revenue that has been slow coming into the town.

Town officials are now making some adjustments to take care of the shortfall, he said.

"I don't know how it got to all this media blitz. It's not a real big issue," Aiken said. "I'm quite confident we will get this paid."

Sponhour said the town has struggled for some time to make its payments to the state's Insurance Reserve Fund. The town fell behind last year, caught up, then slid into delinquency again.

Town Councilman Charles Duberry said he was unaware of the insurance problem until a fireman called him Thursday. Council often learns of financial problems only when they become dire, he said.

"It should have never come to this," he said. The town's annual budget is about $500,000, he said.

Capt. Kevin Powers said he is one of three part-time paid firefighters who will be laid off Oct. 1. They work weekdays when the department volunteers are at their jobs. "They're running out of money and they just can't afford us," Powers said.

The department has about 30 volunteers for a town with about 400 homes, 1,200 residents, eight churches and an industrial plant. "These are just the problems that we know of," Gantt said of the town's financial situation. "It's putting the residents at risk."

Resident Albert Roberts said a residents meeting has been called for 3 p.m. Sunday at the fire station to discuss the situation. "There are so many things that are wrong with this town. It's a shame," he said. "My point of view? They need another mayor."

Lincolnville has faced its share of problems, such as in May 2007 when Constable Robert Bailey was kidnapped and shot to death after a traffic stop.

In the years since Bailey's death, the town has expanded its police department from one officer to a four-man operation -- Hamner and three part-time officers.

Now, Hamner said, the financial problems will require him to become a part-time chief as of Oct. 1. He also worries that he will have to return $67,000 in federal stimulus money earmarked for two much-needed cruisers.

"If we don't have any insurance to put on those cars, I'm afraid I'm not going to be able to accept that money and get the cars we desperately need," he said. "It puts us in a bind."

Gantt, a volunteer fire chief, said his mostly volunteer crews are dedicated to the town and take their jobs very seriously, but they can't risk the liability of operating the department's three trucks without insurance.

He and Hamner said the town will not go unprotected. The town's volunteer rescue squad, which Gantt also leads, can handle many emergency calls, and area fire departments can chip in.

The Charleston County Sheriff's Office has agreed to handle patrols in the town, if necessary, as it does when Hamner and his officers are off duty.

Aiken maintains that such measures won't be necessary, and he said he is frustrated by the amount of misinformation running around town.

He said there are no plans to make the police chief a part-time employee, and two, not three, of the part-time firefighters are being laid off. Even that may only be temporary, he said.