The city of Martin’s fire department has resigned.
Seventeen of the eighteen members of the Martin Fire Department in Floyd County resigned earlier this week after a longstanding dispute with the town’s mayor, Sam Howell, over funding for fuel, according to a report by WYMT.com.
Plans have been made for other fire departments, led by the Prestonsburg Fire Department, to provide mutual aid (assistance) in the territory the Martin Fire Department was responsible for covering.
The city of Martin has approximately 500 residents.
A tearful former Martin Assistant Fire Chief Brandon Salisbury told WYMT that the firefighters didn’t want to resign but felt it was best for the community.
“We all love this community. We love this department, and we don’t want to leave. But it’s in the best interest of our community members for this department to close” due to the “financial situations that come from Mayor Howell.”
Primarily, Salisbury said, the longstanding inability of the mayor to provide money to fuel the department’s emergency vehicles, some of which also need to be repaired.
The fire department issued a fuel request to Howell on December 13, 2024, and the mayor did not respond until earlier this month when he allegedly told the department leadership that the money wouldn’t be available until February 10.
In the meantime, though, Floyd County Fiscal Court gave the fire department a $10,000 grant which was placed into the fire department’s business account. That allowed the department to purchase fuel and other needed items.
Howell, though, demanded the money be placed in a city-authorized account. That demand, which fire department personnel interpreted as the mayor wanting to use the money for other purposes, spurred the mass resignation, according to Salisbury.
Howell was first elected mayor in 2012.
By Ken Howlett, News Director
Contact Ken at ken@k105.com
