FAITH — The Faith Board of Aldermen voted to approve a budget amendment that will create paid firefighter positions during their meeting Tuesday night. Previously, the town’s fire department has been staffed entirely by volunteers.

According to the proposal presented to the board, the request for paid positions comes as a result of a record amount of calls combined with a lack of volunteers that can answer those calls during the business day. The proposal lists the reasoning for the shortage as a lack of businesses in the town and the age of the owners and workers at those businesses. There are still enough firefighters in the town to answer calls after 5 p.m. during the week and all day on weekends when people are off the clock, however.

The Faith Fire Department is one of two fire departments in Rowan County that still rely solely on volunteers, according to the department’s request for the budget amendment, with the other being Union Fire Department.

“One of the problems is there are several mornings where there’s just nobody here any more. They need to respond, and they didn’t even get out of the station because they don’t have enough, and we can’t continue to let that happen,” said Mayor Randall Barger.

The budget amendment the aldermen voted unanimously approved added up to a total cost of $41,461. That is broken down to $36,800 from the payroll increase and call reimbursements, $3,581 from payroll taxes and $1,080 for pensions. If any firefighters take the job openings the wages would be $15 an hour. The amendment includes wages from October through June.