After the defeat of Ballot Measure 6A on Tuesday, the Cortez Fire Protection District is reevaluating its budgets to try to prevent any disruption to the many services it provides outside of responding to emergencies, according to the department’s leader.
While the nearby towns of Rico and Dolores both overwhelmingly approved measures to buoy their local fire departments, Montezuma County voters rejected a measure that would have increased property tax to fund a $1 million budget hike to the fire district’s budget.
While Fire Chief Roy Wilkinson was disappointed that the measure failed, he is working with the board of directors to figure out other ways to generate revenue. That could include another ballot measure in the future, though Wilkinson stressed no decisions have been made.
“Our community is growing. And with that growth, we want to make sure that we grow along with them. It's going to be difficult, since we were not able to pass a levy,” he said. “We are looking at other alternatives to be able to continue to provide the services that we have in the past.”
The tightening could impact the extent to which the department can donate services and money, according to Wilkinson, as well as other activities the CFPD administers. So while CPR classes may not be cut off entirely, the department may have to “pull back a little bit,” he added.
“We’re going to sit down, take a look at our finances and see what we can do to make ends meet,” Wilkinson said. “We're gonna have to tighten our belts.
The CFPD had sought the new money to help with several aspects of operations, including offsetting a salary hike for employees that Wilkinson said was necessary to keep the department competitive.
“We immediately saw an increase in applications and an interest in applying to the fire department,” he said.
The increased funding also would have gone to repair or replace emergency response equipment. Hiking the CFPD’s budget to help cover those improvements isn’t as easy as just reallocating resources from elsewhere. Unlike the Cortez Police Department, the CFPD is not part of the city budget, according to Wilkinson. Instead, all of its funding comes from the initial levy that passed a decade ago.
“We will always be there for the community, that's one thing that we will make sure that we do,” said Wilkinson. “It's just a matter of what we're going to need to do internally.”
