The county has put $1.2 million into its volunteer fire and rescue services in the past year. This money does need to be accounted for, but it would be a formidable accounting project to add up the return that citizens reap for this investment. As county government investigates putting in a new system requiring more stringent financial reporting from the volunteer departments, it needs to tread softly and mindfully.

County auditors, in the course of completing this year’s round of financial investigations into the keeping of county books, recommended that a more frequent and thorough method of accounting be put into place for those volunteer entities. The proposal put before county council’s finance committee this week by county administration called for quarterly financial reports outlining all money in and out of the fire and rescue coffers, with supporting documentation.

Yes, those squads and departments are public entities by virtue of accepting public money—like county contributions and state and federal grants. However, the people that rise in the middle of the night to attend to a community member’s burning barn or leave their paying jobs to give CPR at a backroad wreck are volunteers. They are volunteers whose contributions are essential to the fabric that knits up the safety net that we all rely upon.

When you add up the time commitment that our fire and rescue volunteers give freely to the community—time for training, physicals, time responding to scenes of fires or accidents, a neighbor’s heart attack—it is formidable. It is also doubtful that reconciling a checkbook and filling out paperwork was something that drew these folks to make those commitments. Most of the organizations already hold countless turkey stews and Boston butt sales to raise money to support their volunteer efforts. Adding in accounting, without the proper support and respect, could be one way to shoot ourselves in the collective foot and further depress the numbers of people that choose to volunteer in this way.

So, a few ideas.

Designate county financial staff to enter in the collected data from the volunteers. Someone on a county payroll could file the donation checks, the grant disbursements, the utility bills, etc. in the proper cabinets and take most of the burden of quarterly reporting off the volunteers. It would be the equivalent of someone who takes a shoebox full of receipts and paycheck stubs to an accountant to file their annual taxes.

Alternatively, recruit volunteers with a financial or accounting background and make that their contribution in support of the fire and rescue efforts. Perhaps county employees that fall into this skill set could even be offered work time that they can choose to put in as volunteering to do those tasks.

However this conundrum is solved, we need to work on solutions that demonstrate the gratitude we have for the burdens these volunteers have already shouldered for us all.