Questions Simmering About Foreclosed Md. Fire Department

MCCOOLE — A group of McCoole area residents have gathered 205 signatures on a petition they hope to use to obtain answers regarding the stalled investigation surrounding the financial collapse of the McCoole Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department.

The citizen group has been seeking a resolution to the case surrounding the demise of the once solvent community fire department that ended up $1 million in debt. The McCoole fire department’s assets were sold off and the fire station foreclosed on. The fire station and 1.88 acres were subsequently sold in October for $150,000 to Roy Droll Jr.

The advocates of the investigation are using the petition as the basis for a letter drafted to Gov. Larry Hogan and members of his new administration.

The letter asks for assistance and was sent to a variety of officials across the state in mid-January, including Gov. Hogan; Attorney General Brian Frosh; Thomas V. Mike Miller, president of the state Senate; Michael Bush, speaker of the house; and the members of the District 1 legislative delegation.

“We are asking for your assistance into a matter which has devastated our community. We lost our fire station, bingo hall, nine acres of ground and we are nearly a million dollars in debt. It is our opinion that this was caused by mismanagement and theft,”?the letter says.

The fire department was officially closed in April 2013. After years of solvency, the department’s revenues from bingo, which averaged around $250,000 a year, began to drop around 2008. A loan taken out against the fire department’s assets in 2005 for $624,000 eventually brought the department down when the loan went into default in 2011 and led to the foreclosure.

Of particular concern to the advocates of the investigation is the relationship between the fire department and the Hamburger Haven restaurant, also in McCoole.

The fire chief of the McCoole station also was, and remains, the principal agent for Hamburger Haven. Between 2004 and 2010, the McCoole Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department was entered into a lease arrangement that obligated the fire department to pay Hamburger Haven $3,800 per month to lease the restaurant. Funds were taken from the fire department in an apparent effort to bolster Hamburger Haven to in turn raise revenue for the fire department.

“He (the fire chief) leased his restaurant to the fire department and was paid $3,800 to $4,600 monthly. This lease burdened the fire department with the restaurant’s substantial debt,” the letter said.

A grand jury was convened in July of 2013 to look into the demise of the department. However, after hearing several witnesses, the grand jury stopped the proceedings with no indictment or explanation.

“Twenty-three people were subpoenaed, only eight testified. The grand jury did not hand down any bill. Why? If the grand jury needed to hear more testimony there were 15 people who were subpoenaed that didn’t testify,” the letter said.

Several members of the advocate group who are pushing the investigation are subpoenaed witnesses and therefore have not wanted to release there names.

Subsequent communications from the office of State’s Attorney Mike Twigg, indicated that a forensic accountant would be needed to move the case further. Under budgetary pressure, the state’s attorney said it did not have the resources to enlist the help of a special auditor at a cost of $40,000 to $50,000.

The McCoole advocates hope the state can invest the funds needed for a forensic accountant and jump-start the stalled case.

“We are asking for your assistance. Please give this matter some serious thought. This once very honorable fire company was started in 1938,” the letter said.

The advocates hope the large number of tax-paying citizens offering support through the petition will help reignite the investigation.

“Signed by these 205 citizens who lost their fire department and want resolution,” the letter concluded.

Greg Larry can be contacted at [email protected].

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