City of Summerville could save $10,000 in insurance premiums

During Monday night’s City Council meeting, two different proposals were introduced for property and casualty insurance covering fire department vehicles. The proposals were presented by Butch Eleam representing Volunteer Firemen’s Insurance Services (VFIS) and Meghan Watson representing Georgia Municipal Association (GMA). The City currently holds insurance with VFIS and has for the last 20 years, the renewal for the current policy was quoted at $13,522 annually.

GMA’s policy had a substantially lower quote, coming in under the $3,500 mark annually. While the policies were not offering identical coverage, the potential savings of $10,000 resulted in the council voting to table the offers in order for more details on the specific coverages which would allow for an “apples to apples” comparison. The current policy was set to expire Monday evening, the City will continue the coverage with VFIS and pay a monthly rate until a decision is reached.

GMA covers over 340 cities and municipalities including Lyerly. Lyerly Mayor Josh Wyatt confirmed that all of the town of Lyerly’s insurance is with with Georgia Municipal Association. Wyatt went on to add, “GMA also offers a safety grant program and if you keep up employee safety training you can get up to $12,000 per year for safety equipment, we’ve gotten it multiple times for things like firefighter gear and radios, traffic cones, and safety equipment for our water department.”

VFIS is the largest provider of insurance, education, training and consulting services to emergency service organizations in the U.S.