AIKEN, S.C.() – In a meeting on Tuesday, the Aiken County Council voted to allow contract proposals from the volunteer Wagener Fire District, after the matter was tabled last meeting.

The battle to save the Wagener Fire Department has been ongoing since November. In the meeting on March 4, there was a passed motion to table the termination of the contract between Wagener Fire Department and Aiken County. Residents of Wagener showed up to that meeting to compel the commission to give Wagener Fire District, a volunteer group of firefighters, the chance to propose contracts to provide fire services to the town of Wagener and Aiken County.

In Tuesday’s meeting, the motion failed to remove the contract termination from the table to discuss it amongst the council. Later on, a motion was passed that will allow the Wagener Fire District to propose contracts to provide fire services.

spoke to Ryan Jordan, a volunteer firefighter with the Wagener Fire District who told us, “It’s been hard of all of us, we call each other family. We’ve been able to just see how it affects each other and to be in this moment right now, it’s not quite over. We still got to go fight with the town to make sure they sign everything over. But we’re finally getting somewhere. It feels like we were running in place, tripping and falling  and going backwards a little bit but we’re here now.”

County Council Chairman Gary Bunker told representatives from the Fire District that the success of the Wagener Fire District would be contingent upon success contract proposals and negotiations between them, Aiken County, and the Town of Wagener, respectively.