CUMMING – The Cumming City Council has discontinued free water service to several residents connected to their time as volunteers for the now-inoperative Cumming Fire Department, including current and former council members.

The decision was made following an executive session at a City Council meeting on Tuesday and will take effect as of the next water billing period. The council voted 4-0, with Councilman Lewis Ledbetter abstained, to remove eight names from the list and any others that might still be receiving the service for free from the city.

“Historically, the city of Cumming, starting back when the Council all served on the fire department, when the city had its own fire department, they were given free water along with other volunteer firemen,” Mayor H. Ford Gravitt said. “We have some people on this list that’s deceased, but the meter still bears their name.”

According to city officials, those still receiving water were Herman Wood, Henry Willard, Quincy Holton, Rupert Sexton, John “J.C.” Redd, Ledbetter, Hoyt Eubanks and Ralph Perry.

Of those names, two are current and three are retired or former city councilmen.

Holton – who voted in favor of the decision – and Ledbetter represent Posts 2 and 3. In 2015, Sexton retired from Post 1 and Perry chose not seek re-election for his Post 4 seat.

Redd was also previously a councilman.

City Manager Gerald Blackburn said Perry served as the department’s chief.

According to obituaries that ran in the Forsyth County News, Willard died in 2009, Eubanks in 2015 and Redd in 2006.

When asked, Blackburn said the decision meant those listed were not charged for water service in that time.

“No, they’ve not been paying [their] water bill for a while,” he said.

A typical city of Cumming water bill is about $29 a month, with a base rate of $8.22 plus $2.97 for every 1,000 gallons of water used, said Crystal Ledford, city spokeswoman.

City Clerk Jeff Honea said it doesn’t appear any records of the department still exist. The Forsyth County Fire Department has been providing fire service to the city since 1972, starting as a volunteer force before employing paid firefighters in 1998.

According to the Forsyth County Fire Department’s 2005 annual report, Fire Station No. 1, located at the time in downtown Cumming at 212 Veterans Memorial Blvd., was built in 1977.

Blackburn did not have a timeframe for when the city department last operated or responded to fires or when the decision was originally made.

“It’s been a pretty good while,” he said.

He said the names were left as an oversight.

“Several years ago, sometime back, the mayor and council, and this goes way on back, allowed volunteer firefighters to have free water,” he said. “I think there was eight of them that was still listed over there that had been an oversight. They hadn’t taken them off.”

He said the issue was caught after a recent inventory tied to the ongoing drought.

“Anytime that you’ve got drought type situations, it comes up with the state, and justifiably so, they put a lot of pressure on water suppliers and make sure that everyone is doing everything they can,” he said, "and one of the things they ask you to do is check all of your customers and all your suppliers, that all of your water is being accounted for.”