Carroll County’s transition away from an all-volunteer fire and emergency services force to the Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services will increase the number of government employees by 20% and cost the county about $20 million per year, according to a fiscal 2025 budget document.

In the county’s current $545 million operating budget the department was allocated $27.9 million. That number is slated to grow to $28.2 million in fiscal 2026, which starts July 1, county documents show.

The Board of Carroll County Commissioners have started fiscal 2026 budget discussions, which will continue over the next few months. At their meeting on Thursday, commissioners unanimously approved the allocation of $400,000 in the current operating budget to continue conducting physicals and drug testing for department employees, including volunteers.

“This ensures that all personnel both career and volunteer are physically capable to perform the job duties with that undue risk to themselves or others, and it also meets the recommendation of the National Fire Protection Association, which has a standard for occupational physicals,” said Michael Robinson, the department’s chief and director. “In addition, these funds will also cover both random and reasonable suspicion drug testing, which we do on an ongoing basis.”

Carroll Occupational Health in Westminster provides the pre-employment and annual occupational physicals for firefighters and EMS workers, a county briefing paper states. A comprehensive occupational physical ensures that firefighters and emergency medical technicians are physically able to perform the job without undue risk to themselves or others. The funding also covers routine and random drug testing.

Paul Supko, the department’s deputy chief of operations, a guest on District 4 Commissioner Michael Guerin’s podcast in January, said that 13 of the county’s 14 stations will be staffed with career firefighters. The department currently has 191 employees working in stations, he said.

On Feb. 27, the county began staffing Union Bridge and Lineboro fire stations with career personnel.

Robinson has also said he will request funding to fill 12 positions in the fiscal 2026 budget.

“In the two years I’ve been doing this I think we’ve done a good job,” Guerin said on his podcast. “At the end of the day, we’re trying to provide the best firefighter response, EMS, paramedic, we’re trying to find the best response for people in the county.

“We needed to do this,” he said. “We needed to supplement the effort there. We needed to keep up with everything that’s going on in the county, and so far I couldn’t be happier. Has it been perfect? No.”

Guerin said issues and concerns are addressed when needed.

“This is people’s lives,” he said. “We’re talking about people’s lives at stake. Minutes matter.”

The push to create a combination paid and volunteer county fire service began in Carroll County more than a decade ago. In 2018, the Maryland General Assembly passed legislation allowing the county to establish the new department and in October 2020, commissioners unanimously voted to pass an ordinance creating it. The county has been building the department since then.

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