ARGYLE, Texas — Denton County Emergency Services District No. 1 may be in trouble, as after years of a mismanaged budget by its former fire chief who is now facing prison time, the district may not be able to pay their firefighters come August.
The Argyle Professional Firefighters Local 5190 said the former chief, Troy Hohenberger, had falsified the department's budget for several years, leaving the department with a deficit estimated between $1.5 and $2 million.
If Denton County doesn't bail the department out, the group said the department's 45 employees, including 37 firefighters, won't be getting paid once August comes around.
"We will run out of operational funds by the end of August," Argyle Professional Firefighters Local 5190 President Sam Johnson said. "Which will lead to firefighters not receiving paychecks."
Johnson said the department has no intention of abandoning the community, but that the lack of pay would lead to drastic changes to the department.
"We're hopeful we don't reach that point," Johnson said.
The department has been in talks with the Denton County Commissioners' Court, and the firefighters group said they feel there's a collective effort being made to keep the worst-case scenario from happening.
"We need to receive funds from the county or the state to help us bridge the gap through next year, and then we'll be able to reassess our budget and workshop in the fall and hopefully be able to implement the correct tax rate for next year to where we can sustain moving forward," he said.
The department did receive a $300,000 grant from the Lantana Education Foundation, Johnson said, but that would only cover a couple of weeks.
Denton County, along with the cities of Argyle and Northlake, have all passed resolutions saying if the department did certain things, they would help the department stay afloat. The group said all the issues addressed by them have now been corrected.
"There are a lot of people who pledged promises when we got to this point, now we're hopeful they're going to come forward at this point and hold those promises true," he said.
Hohenberger was arrested last November after he allegedly stole money from the fire department's pension fund. He faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.