CHARLESTON — A special financial reward for West Virginia’s volunteer firefighters, based on years of service, appears to be the goal of a legislative interims panel heading into the 2009 session.

But one outspoken member of Select Committee F feels the mission of rescuing the state’s 419 volunteer units rests solely with counties, not the state.

“I think it’s a county issue,” Sen. Ed Bowman, D-Hancock, told fellow panelists Tuesday after state Fire Marshal Sterling Lewis endorsed the Length of Service Awards Program.

Bowman viewed the LOSAP as just another pension and predicted that West Virginians, as a whole, weren’t likely to endorse it.

“We have a terrible history on pensions,” he said. “We have millions and millions of dollars in unfunded liability, and we’re going to undertake another one? It’s a creepy syndrome that is going to hit the taxpayer a tremendous lot.”

Lewis said the LOSAP would do more than any other idea advanced so far to help struggling VFDs in the state to recruit and train new volunteers.

Earlier, officials told the special committee that recruiting and retention were suffering because there were no rewards to entice young people into their departments, and it is growing increasingly difficult to find young replacements.

“To me, that’s the No. 1 issue,” Lewis said.

Lewis and Doug Mongold, head of the West Virginia Firemen’s Association, agreed that legalization of fireworks would do nothing to finance LOSAP. The idea was suggested months ago by Cliff Rotz, a retired chemical engineer and fireworks hobbyist.

Originally, it was estimated that a special tax imposed on legal fireworks would generate some $12 million for the program, but the amount dwindled to around $2 million, Lewis said.

“That was put in the drier too many times,” he said. “It wasn’t going to help anybody.”

What’s more, Mongold told the committee, legalizing fireworks would put firefighters into a compromising position if they endorsed the concept, then were called out to assist someone in an emergency prompted by pyrotechnics.

“The first person who gets hurt would say, ‘Why did you do this?’” he said.

Based on responses to questionnaires he sent to all VFDs in the state, Lewis estimated there were 10,056 active firefighters.

“This is a crucial time for fire services in West Virginia for recruitment and retainment,” he said.

Mongold said the proposed LOSAP loomed as “the biggest thing we can do to affect the most people.”

A co-chairman of the panel, Senate Majority Leader Truman Chafin, D-Mingo, promised Select Committee F would produce some legislation aimed at helping the VFDs in the February interims session.

“It is incumbent on us to do something, or we’re not going to have them,” Chafin added.

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