The Marshall Fire Department’s board of directors is not happy with the budget the Town of Marshall proposed. The town allocated $48,174 to the department this year, but a lot of it will go to debt service for a new fire truck. The department also services a large stretch of county which pays a fire district tax. To leverage more funding, the fire department is threatening to henceforth stop responding to non-fire calls in the town limits. Services to be terminated include calls for first responders, cats stuck in trees, and directing traffic. The fire chief told the town’s aldermen they would be receiving a bill for any non-fire calls for service answered by his department. The discussion then degenerated into soap opera talk for which Madison County government has long had a reputation.