What’s Happening With the Eureka Fire District and How it is Preparing for the Future
Two years of work was put into the strategic plan adopted by the District. The plan was developed by both internal and external (residents, business owners and other community member) stakeholders.
The plan identified key areas the District needed to address. Those areas were financial stability, safer manning, effective deployment of resources, and retention of personnel.
Proposition F was a result of those planning efforts.
After the failure of Proposition F, the District engaged in over 2 months of conversations, budget analysis and extensive research to find a pathway forward to best serve the entire community while remaining fiscally responsible to be able to address our needs.
Call volume is expected to increase 5 percent this year.
Equipment, building and personnel needs remain.
The difficult decision has been made to close Station 3 on Highway W. The engine house will close on or around January 1st.
The area served by Station 3 accounts for less than 4 percent of the total calls for service the District responds to.
In the response area served by Station 3, there have been 382 calls from July 1st, 2021 to July 1st, 2025.
As a whole, Station 3 responded to less than 9 percent of the total calls run by the District in the same period.
A large portion of the calls that Station 3 responds to are in Station 1s area (the Station on Highway 109).
In total, in four years, Station 3 has responded to 1224 calls.
Of the total number of calls Station 3 responded to, 528 calls outside the District (43 percent of the calls run by Station 3). Mutual aid is a practice of assisting other departments and is in place state wide for all fire agencies
Station 1 has responded to 7396 calls during that same time period.
Station 2 responded to 6261 calls during that same time period.
For calls in the area that has been served by Station 3, the closest unit will be sent as identified by our dispatch system.
The District will retain the Station 3.
Should flooding isolate the area, equipment and personnel will be moved to the station to cover the area
Should there be substantial development in the area or the District's financial condition changes, reopening the station would be considered
With the closure three firefighter/paramedics positions are being eliminated through attrition.
The remaining personnel would be reassigned to the District's other 2 stations.
Eight personnel will be assigned to Station 1 and 5 to Station 2 (per shift)
This will fully staff the equipment at those engine houses. This has been a safety concern for a number of years.
This will allow for better deployment of District resources. The ladder truck will be moved to Station 2 near the primary commercial corridor in the District. The tanker from Station 3 will be moved to Station 1 where it can still be able to respond to calls off Highway FF, in Hoene Springs, in Allenton and off Lewis Road (areas with limited or no hydrants)
This will allow us to extend the service life of our tanker, 1 of our ambulances and 2 of our brush trucks
Two District employees recently announced their retirement, a Deputy Chief and our Fire Inspector. The District has evaluated our current job positions and will be eliminating the retiring Deputy Chief position and re-assigning current duties performed by the Fire Inspector.
The District is currently seeking to fill the Assistant Chief role that has been vacant since Chief Barthelmass’ promotion.
The District will have 3 administrative chiefs officers- this a reduction from 5. As a result, administrative duties have been re-allocated.
The District is selling one Tahoe as a result of the elimination of these positions.
We are also selling (as surplus) our reserve ladder truck and one engine when our new rescue pumper arrives
There are no plans now for at least 10 years to work toward opening a station off Lewis Road.
The District has cut or re bid numerous services. The District has cut costs associated with outsourced accounting help, website services, and even insurance costs.
We have also pulled back on supporting regional initiatives to focus on our District.
The District will continue to look for other ways to cut costs in the future.
The District has adjusted its fees.
As allowable by Medicaid, Medicare and many HMOs, the District will bill for calls where medical care is provided but the patient is not transported. This will allow for recoupment of costs related to those calls. As with other EMS calls, we will only bill the insurance provider for these calls, and not the resident
The District has increased the costs it charges for reports and other information requests. The new fee structure more accurately aligns with the costs associated with fulfilling requests for such documents
Due to the delay in production of a new pumper truck, the District found it beneficial to invest the funds. We were able to receive interest income on the funds that had been set aside. The replacement of this engine was planned for with the passing of the District’s last Bond Issue in 2008.
Moving forward, we are implementing a new cash flow management program. The majority of revenue comes in December to February. We have engaged professionals moving forward to help plot our monthly cash flow needs, and invest what will be needed later in the year. Such can be done safely and still allow liquidity, but will produce interest income we have not had in the past.
The District is aggressively seeking grant funding. In today’s economic climate, the process to obtain grant funding is highly competitive. Additionally, it is not a consistent source of revenue.
The District will continue to provide the best fire, EMS, rescue and hazmat service to our community.
Thank you for your trust and confidence in the Eureka Fire Protection District.
