[Editor's Note: This is part 4 of a multi-article series on the Grant County Commission special meeting on Sept. 26, 2023, which lasted almost three hours. This one continues with a presentation on Grant County Volunteer Fire Departments.]
By Mary Alice Murphy
At the Grant County Commission special meeting on Sept. 26, 2023, County Fire Management Officer Randy Villa introduced the Rural Fire Chiefs Association Chairman Ed Downard. Villa also pointed out that several volunteer fire chiefs were in attendance at the meeting.
"As requested for the Grant County Volunteer Fire Department budget, we collected information on every apparatus that each volunteer fire department owned and on the date when received, as well as a 5-year plan by station on vehicle replacement," Downard said. "Like Mr. Hawkins, we're about to bury you in numbers. The report gives justification for why we look at dates the way we do. Our changes and upgrades must address safety and maximize fire fighter capabilities with the latest safety features and operating capabilities, according to NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) 1901, Annex D standards.
"If an apparatus received date is greater than 15 years, if it has been property maintained and is still in serviceable condition, it should be placed in reserve status. If more than 25 years old, it should be replaced. Most of us put 20 years for replacement, because we have no reserve trucks. The fire departments have 88 apparatuses in Grant County. The current value of them in today's dollars is $45.5 million and this year's quotes are going up. We have 25 stations and one more in design on Swan Street. The average age of our equipment is 15.3 years. We are already about five years behind the curve of replacing them. We need $14.7 million to replace 27 in 2024. We have some that are close to 30 years old. One we have is probably close to 40 years old By 2028, we will have 47 trucks that will age out and in today's dollars it will cost $27 million to replace them. The catch is that it's about a 500-day lead time before we get a truck, so we have to order it now to receive it in 2025. We're working on grants and trying to find funding to have a signed purchase order in place to order a truck now that I won't see until 2025. "
Villa noted that the autoworkers strike will set those order back even more. "The ARFF (aircraft rescue and firefighting truck) we ordered for the airport last year will not arrive for another 15 months. Most of the brush trucks are built on Ford frames."
Downard presented a summary of the huge spreadsheet he has for all the VFDs. The Cliff-Gila VFD has three apparatuses that will reach 20 years in the next five years. A tender and a mini-engine truck need to be replaced in 2024 at a cost of $1 million, and an engine needs to be replaced in 2027 at a cost in today's dollars of $850,000.
Villa said, not only trucks but equipment is needed by the VFDs, The Cliff-Gila department has 19 members, and this year, they bought bunker gear for 10 members at a cost of $44,000, but next year, they need nine more sets for $39,000. The SBCAs (self-contained breathing apparatus) need to be replaced at a cost of $800 a bottle. For 30, that's $2,400. "For their building, it's a block building built in 1950, and the metal building is from 1970. They are in desperate need of a new station. They have no training room, which is required by the fire marshal to have a main station status. They were grandfathered in as a main station, but during flooding they have regular septic system issues. It costs about $1.3 million for a new station. The problem Cliff has is there's no land out there that they can purchase. They have a station in Buckhorn, called a substation, because it doesn't have a training room, office or restrooms. For about $150,000, it could add a training room which would make it a main station and it would get more state fire funding. That's a goal they have moving forward.
Downard progressed to the Fort Bayard VFD, which has an old truck that needs to be replaced. "In 2024, they will need about $1.21 million. Within five years, they will need about $4 million just in apparatuses. I will let him go into detail later."
He said they are not department plans, but an overview of what is needed in the next five years. "The departments make the decisions on what they can keep running and what they need to replace."
District 5 Commissioner Harry Browne asked if the 20-year replacement is statutory. Downard said as he reads it, it is a recommendation. He noted he had to have a truck recertified at a lower psi, but the trucks have to pass a yearly inspection.
Villa said, if a department continues to put in large amounts of money for repairs on a vehicle, the State Fire Marshal's Office tells the department to stop spending the state money on it. and to start looking at purchasing a new apparatus.
Downard said the Lower Mimbres VFD has five trucks that will reach 20 years old in the next five years. In 2024, they will need $2.048 million to replace two engines at $850,000 each and a wildland truck at $348,000. In 2025, they will need $940,000 and in 2026, $348,000 for a five year total of $3,336 million.
Villa said the prices include bunker gear which has to be replaced every five years, although they are allowed to be used as long as 10 years. "They did purchase some new SBCAs in 2019. They need more funding at station 1, because they need a new roof. And they need some ductless work in the training room. At Station 2, they put in a new water tank, but they ran out of money to finish the project, so it needs some electrical work."
Downard, who is chief of the Pinos Altos VFD, said: "I know a little more about this one. We have three apparatus that need replacing this year; two are engines and one is a tender. The engines are my top two priorities. They are both engines that I'm maintaining. They are from the '80s. We're going up in front of the grant council next week to tell them this is serious, and we really need these two engines replaced. We got skipped for two years. But the grants are only for $350,000 and each engine costs $850,000. Right now I have enough carry over from my state fire funds to cover that if I get the grant. If I don't get the grant, I won't come close to covering that. Over the five years, I have about $5.8 million to cover. Pinos Altos is the second largest group in the county, next to Tyrone, the largest. I have 17 trucks that I maintain right now. If I'm trying to replace them at 20 years, I need to replace almost one a year from anywhere from $450,000 up to about $900,000 a year. The grants might be about $300,000 if they don't skip over you. My other issues are: I have about 50 members, but some are dispatchers and some are support. About 39 are running fires and I need to replace about 32 sets of bunker gear and I have SCBAs that are still running and still working, but if they break, I have to throw them out, because we can't get parts anymore. I'm looking to replace this year or next year or maybe the next to replace 26 SCBA units. I have to buy enough this year for the new station. I'll have to buy at least six in order to get the new station approved. To replace 26 of them is $235,000, so I've got to spread it out over time. This year, we did put money into wildland gear, and we've done maintenance on three of the four stations. A lot of our money went into maintenance this year, so we have to catch up on equipment."
The following station he addressed was Sapillo Creek VFD. "Over their five-year plan, they will need $1,95 million in 2024 for an engine and two tanker/pumpers. Their brush trucks are newer, so they don't really fall within the five-year plan, except for this year."
Villa said their big expenses over the five years are concrete approach pads on the front of the station, and some wildland gear for which they are going out for a grant. Also security cameras. "Some of our stations have cameras, some don't, but security is an issue, as some stations are getting broken into and being tagged, because there are really no fences around them. People hang out there. Also when you look at the ISO ratings a lot of it is data, so they are looking at software—data on training, for instance. So, we, as a county, are looking for one software package for all the departments. They are also looking at a command unit for about $55,000 and bunker gear in 2025 at a cost of $55,000. Through 2028, they will need about $185,000 for equipment and maintenance."
Downard talked about the Tyrone VFD. "They have as many or more trucks than any of us, so just for 2024, they'll need $3.7 million to replace trucks older than 20 years, and over the five years, they will need about $5.7 million.
Villa said they are looking at replacing a brush truck in 2025 or 2026. "We are going up in front of the grants council for the whole county, so we will give them information and hope we get some grant funding over all the departments. Again they need bunker gear and SCBAs and four of the stations need painting. Water is always going to be an issue in our rural areas. Long-term needs include air-conditioning and heating and a new office computer system, so we're all on the same page. With SCBAs, we also need a filling station for them. Fort Bayard just put in an SCBA filling station at a cost of $82,000, so the cost is high outside the apparatus. "
District 4 Commissioner Billy Billings asked how big the water storage they are looking at. The chief said it is 40,000 gallons.
County Manager Charlene Webb asked the chief to explain why they need it at every station.
The chief said at the the beginning of all the stations, each was granted a third of an acre. "By the time we have expanded our buildings over time, we're out of space. The reason why this one is higher in cost is because we are putting it underground, so we have a place to park. We have plans for both stations, but we're looking at only doing one because that's all we can afford."
To a question from Billings about who owns the land next to the station, the chief said: "The same ranching family that donated the land, so there may be room for some discussion there. The price for the tank is higher than we expected The engineers said it would be about $30,000 to $400,000 for both stations and it came back at $600,000 for one and $300,000 for the other. That was in 2020."
Villa said: "When you look back at these stations, they go back generations. Landowners donated land, not really surveyed, but with a fence and they said: 'You build a station here. We need you.' I know at Lower Mimbres, they want a new station, but we're trying to maintain and upkeep that one. It has to be visible. The only way to recruit people is to show them what you have to show the public that they want to provide a service for. I think the departments want to do that. Construction costs have gone over the roof and trying to get a good contractor in, it's been a challenge. But we believe the better looking our stations and our equipment the more people will want to join us. Whiskey Creek will do their own report, but this is their apparatus needs."
Downard said they have three that age out this year and one more over the five-year plan, which comes out to $2.3 million in trucks. "So over all the VFD plans, for the five years, it's almost $27 million in trucks. As I said as departments we determine which ones we're going to work on first. We just keep pushing them out, so this wave keeps getting bigger as we move farther out. We maintain them well.
"These are the future steps we've laid out for you.," Downard continued. "We know that we will not have enough funding, so each department determines its priorities, anticipates funding issues, determines our shortages in replacement targets, and we investigate other funding resources. It takes 20-40 hours to write a grant. Lucy Whitmarsh, my associate chief, writes a lot of grants, and we try to keep up with what's available. There are pros and cons to older equipment. We can reduce fire protection levels, with the pros being that we have fewer trucks to maintain. As we maintain the older trucks they don't have the same safety features as the newer ones do to ensure our firefighter safety. But the newer trucks require more training. We had a trainer come in from Utah to explain the electronics in our new truck. But the cons are that the ISO rating requires pumpers and water supply. A higher ISO rating means less state funding. Almost all of the area Pinos Altos VFD covers has a higher rating for wildland fire. That's where we sit in this WUI (wild land-urban interface)."
Villa said the presentation was to show commissioners the numbers of "what we're doing and what we're up against as far as the apparatuses we need. I think we can manage the equipment, the bunker gear and such with our state fire funds, The lower ISO rating is what your insurance company looks at. The rating looks at the ability to attack a fire in a structure and how good is your equipment and ability to put out that fire in a timely manner. When I started this job, some of the ratings were as high as 10, but I think the highest we have now is 8.5. We put in a water system at Sapillo and I think that was a plus for them to lower their rating. The lower ISO ratings increase the amount of state fire funding. I know our county manager supports fire protection, but we have to be creative with our funding."
Browne clarified the the lower the ISO rating the more state funding that comes to the department and it also lowers the property owner's insurance.
Villa confirmed that.
Browne also asked if the departments have enough personnel for the apparatuses that are needed.
Downard said: "There are currently personnel for each apparatus we have, but we are recruiting all the time."
Villa said one of the goals is to continue to recruit county-wide events. "A lot of volunteers went away with Covid, but some are coming back. We talk to young people and some have joined. They get very good training and then some go on to work for the municipalities, such as Silver City. I know one that went to Phoenix. But each department has other roles, not just fighting fires. We have officer training for people who want to do finance or dispatch or just support . We communicate with each chief at our monthly meetings."
The next article will get into the individual volunteer fire department chiefs who gave individual reports.
To read the previous articles in the series, please visit https://www.grantcountybeat.com/news/news-articles/80558-grant-county-commission-held-special-meeting-092623-part-1 ; https://www.grantcountybeat.com/news/news-articles/80607-grant-county-commission-held-special-meeting-092623-part-2 ; and https://www.grantcountybeat.com/news/news-articles/80659-grant-county-commission-held-special-meeting-092623-part-3 .