By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post

Ellis County will move forward with merging two rural fire districts after receiving very little input from the community.

Ellis County Rural Fire Chief Darin Myers said at Monday’s Ellis County Commission meeting he had not received any phone calls regarding a proposal he presented to the commission last month that would combine Rural Fire Companies 2 and 3 in northwest Ellis County at Catharine and Companies 6 and 7 in the southwest part of the county at Ellis.

Myers said when talking to the public in those areas, most did not know there were still fire companies in those locations.

Among the reasons for the consolidations is a shortage of firefighters, Myers said. As of this week, Company 3, located on the Saline River Road, no longer has any volunteer firefighters. He said the three remaining firefighters said they would retire along with former Chief Dick Klaus — and that happened this week.

The county commission is expected to adopt an updated resolution at next week’s meeting.

In other business, the commission:

• Approved an agreement with P&W Commercial Investments for $136,900 for the purchase of the rural fire property at 1208 Cedar Street.

• Approved, as the Public Building Commission a bid from Nex-Tech for $86,218.62 for cabling, security cameras and equipment at the courthouse and Law Enforcement Center.

• Heard from Commissioner Dean Haselhorst, who said construction at the Emergency Services Building is 99 percent complete. Haselhorst said the generator installed at the EMS building is too small. He said it should have been a 200- or 250-kilowatt generator — instead a 150-KW generator was installed. Officials plan to address the issue this week.

• Gave the Emergency Management Director authority to purchase a new 2014 E350 Van for $29,764.95.