Pender County Commissioners hear plan for merger with Pender EMS & Fire and other departments

BURGAW, NC (WWAY) — Pender County Commissioners heard a presentation during their meeting Monday afternoon about the expected merger of Pender EMS and Fire and other departments with the county.

Pender EMS and Fire Chief James Baysden was one of many who attended the Pender County commissioners’ meeting to hear more from a presentation about the county’s plans to consolidate fire and EMS personnel.

Baysden said it’s a process he thinks is moving too quickly.

“It needs to be done correctly, it needs to be efficiently and the time frame needed to do it needs to be…. some of the commissioners want it done by the end of the year,” Baysden said. “As anybody knows, when you move rapidly with stuff and fast with stuff, stuff gets overlooked, important stuff gets overlooked.”

WWAY stopped by the Rocky Point Fire Department following the meeting, where several members said they were blindsided to find out the department was going to be part of the merger.

The department hadn’t found out until Monday’s meeting.

The merger, which was approved in March, will bring Pender EMS and Fire, as well as Penderlea, Maple Hill, and Rocky Point fire departments under the county’s control.

On Monday, commissioners were presented with a timeline for the merger, including deadlines for completing required paperwork and filings.

They’re aiming for the county to take over fully on July 1st, 2026.

Randy Burton is the chairman of the Board of County Commissioners and said the merger will help support several hundred new county employees.

“We are going to have an additional couple hundred employees through the county,” Burton said. “They’ll be able to establish roots and have families here. They won’t be all the time looking for another job to make more money, they’ll get better benefits. Just more efficiency.”

Assistant to the county manager, Sarah Fulton, gave the presentation, which shows it will cost the county more than $25 million to cover existing debts, hire additional personnel, and build a new fleet garage.

Commissioner Brad George questioned why the merger needs to be done, especially if it results in county residents having to pay higher taxes.

“If we’re keeping the same level of service, what are we changing, why are we doing this? Why are we,” George asked. “Because somebody is going to get a tax increase, whether you think you are or not. If you live in a district that pays 8 now, you’re going to be more than 8.”

During the presentation, Fulton said the county will try to maintain the same level of service from the various Fire and EMS departments as they now provide.

It will also try to maintain the existing response districts for those departments.

But Baysden said that may be hard to do since a number of workers have left Pender EMS and Fire in recent months.

“As far as disruption in our service, we’ve had 14 people leave in the past month. And most of those, on their exit interviews, were the uncertainty of what’s gonna happen in Pender County.”

Baysden said of those 14 people, 12 were either firefighters or EMS professionals.

A finalized version of the plan shown on Monday will be presented at the Board of Commissioners’ next meeting in July.