• Originally published July 8, 2008 at 4:49 p.m., updated July 8, 2008 at 4:49 p.m.

An idea is floating on a raft in the waters between the city of Victoria and Victoria County. Perhaps now is the right time to try the idea: Let the city absorb the county position of County Fire Marshal.

The idea calls for the county’s fire marshal position to be incorporated in the Victoria Fire Department.

We think the idea, if tried, isn’t written in stone. Try it, and if it doesn’t work, return to the current method of a county fire marshal and a city fire marshal.

Understand that the city’s fire department answers emergency calls outside the city limits. There’s a shared contract between the city and county in which the county pays 14.5 percent of the city’s fire department budget.

Volunteer fire departments shore up the effort to save lives and extinguish fires out in the county often being the first on the scene. But the city’s fire department, by far, has the best equipment and the best-trained personnel. Certified city fire department personnel have trained volunteers.

However, volunteer fire departments contend that a county fire marshal easily acts as a liaison between them and county government.

Dave Garza, Telferner’s volunteer fire chief, told Advocate reporter David Tewes on June 21 that having a county fire marshal makes it easier to acquire needed funds and equipment because of the close relationship between a county fire marshal and the 11 volunteer fire departments in the county.

Of course, this relationship could be made with City Fire Marshal John Bradley or Victoria Fire Chief Vance Riley, who said his department easily could absorb the position.

Currently, the county’s fire marshal position is open. Kyle Young, resigned that position in April to take a position in Houston. So the time is right to try the idea because of the vacancy.

And County Judge Don Pozzi already has said the county can continue searching for a new county fire marshal or try the idea if all agree to it. He said the entities could dissolve the agreement if the idea doesn’t work, and the county then could create the county fire marshal position again.

We agree. This melding of the county fire marshal position in the city’s fire department might save some money. And part of that savings might be given back to the county’s volunteer fire departments. Couldn’t hurt to try the idea and see if it works.

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