|
|||
COMMUNITY NEWS
The City of Fountain has never had a ladder truck, and following the fire that destroyed her Fountain home, Donna LaChey has worked to help the Fountain FD in campaigning for one. She presented an unofficial petition signed by local residents she spoke with- many of whom assumed the city already had a ladder truck. And they were quite surprised to find out differently. Thus far, if a need for a ladder truck has arisen, Fountain fire officials were forced to ask a neighboring city like Colorado Springs or the Security Fire Department to send one on mutual aid, and those fire departments can only respond if they’re not already on a call.
There is also the issue of the Insurance Service Office (ISO) rating. To help establish fire insurance premiums insurance companies review a community’s fire protection services. An ISO provides that information. The analysis uses a Fire Suppression Rating Schedule (FSRS). A Public Protection Classification rates a department from 1 to 10. Class 1 is the best possible rating, and Class 10 means the fire protection program doesn’t meet the ISO’s minimum requirements. The ISO helps the community evaluate their public fire protection services. The program creates a standard for fire departments in planning and budgeting. The ISO rating directly impacts how much residents pay for insurance. It also directly impacts new business and public service development such as hospitals. Developers want to be sure their investment is protected. Without a ladder truck, a hospital would be exposed to undue risk. A ladder truck would help lower Fountain’s ISO rating. Obviously, there are other factors involved that might raise the rate, such as annexing large developments, which would impact response time, but the goal is to reduce insurance rates and attract new businesses by dropping the number as much as possible, which a ladder truck would do. Presently, the City’s ISO rating is a 5. Security has a rating of 4, which Security Fire Chief Stambaugh directly attributes to the fact that they have a ladder truck. Councilmember Darell Craighead asked why the fire department hadn’t saved up over the past six years toward such a purchase, knowing the need was there. Kuberka explained that’s not how the budget works. The city distributes funds on a priority basis, and all the funds go to the highest priority items. Fire, police and roads have been deferred by other priorities for years. Every dime available is hotly contested for. Also, it was explained it was ulitmately the city manager’s choice what was brought to the council previously, regarding needs. A brand new truck would have to be custom built, and it wouldn’t get here till 2010. The dilemma is that the city needs a ladder truck now, not three years from now, and a new truck would cost approximately one million dollars. It could be purchased entirely on capital lease, but the interest payments would be prohibitive. Fountain’s Finance Director Kathy Kuberka explained various options for paying for the truck One option is to dip into the “rainy day” fund, which reserves an amount equal to 25% of the annual operational expenses, and presently has approximately three million dollars set aside. The upside of paying in cash is the City would have no interest payments. The final option is to split the difference; to pay $500,000 from the reserve fund and the rest with a capital lease, thus maintaining a robust reserve fund, and manageable interest payments. At that point, Anstine presented Council with a surprise. He had a ladder truck in front of City Hall that could be purchased for $800,000 rather than 1 million. He invited Council to come have a look. Members of Council Darell Craighead, Mary DeGroot and Bryan Johnson were given the pleasure of riding the mobile cage atop 105 feet of retractable ladder, well above the roof of City Hall, which normally would be unreachable with the resources available to the Fountain FD. Upon returning to earth, and City Hall, Council listened to public commentary. Citizens came forward, requesting consideration. “Darin Anstine’s been with this City for 22 years,” Al Lender told them. “You heard him tonight, fighting for the people of this City. That’s all the man cares about. Anstine’s a professional. He saves lives. If it’s one of your family or my family; if one person is saved, that truck is worth it.” LeChey told Council, “If you do not make this a priority, it shows the Council is insensitive to the residents of Fountain.” But the Fountain FD must compete with the Fountain Police Department; two significant public safety organizations struggling for limited resources. The Police Department is desperate for an adequate station. Right now, they’re crowded into a few rooms in a section of the Fire Department building, with meager holding cells with no means to separate men, women and minors, as required by law. They need funding for new headquarters or a sub-station and holding facilities. Lieutenant Michael Haley from the Fountain PD came forward as a private citizen and asked that the Fountain FD look into government grants, mutual aid from local towns to help pay for the truck, a risk analysis to determine how the truck would be utilized, etc. Anstine responded with passionate force. He has already applied for government grants for years, and while they have granted around 300 thousand dollars over time, they simply will not fund a ladder truck. He described guaranteed mutual aid for other towns as “ludicrous,” because the Fountain FD cannot in good conscience sign an agreement to be available immediately to other local towns. The Fountain FD’s first obligation must be to Fountain, he explained, and the other towns would demand an equal priority agreement if they were to contribute funding. Risk analysis is about public safety, and relates directly to the City ISO, Anstine told Council. If the City can’t lower the ISO figure, insurance rates will remain high, and new developments will go to communities that can better protect their investment. If developers look into Fountain, they find they don’t have a ladder truck, and their risk prohibitions send them looking elsewhere. Anstine went on to explain a ladder truck can be used for technical water and wildland rescues, and as a crane in traffic accidents to move vehicles off victims or from dangerous precipices, etc. Having heard from all sides, the Council discussed the issue, debating about fiscal responsibility and what about a few years down the road when they will need another truck, and more stations, and why isn’t there a long-term strategy to pay for these things? The moment arrived, and a vote was in order. The audience waited in rapt apprehension. The council chamber was intensely silent. Votes were locked in, and the board on the wall lit up. All lights turned green. Council had voted unanimously in favor of a ladder truck; $500,000 from the reserve fund and a $300,000 capital lease. Anstine leaned forward, thanking the Council as the audience broke into spontaneous applause. It was a moment in the City’s history, an achievement. Credit must go to the Fountain City Council for their compassion and discernment, and to Chief Anstine for his commitment to the community, his heart, intelligence and deft political instinct. The entire Fountain Valley region, in particular Fountain City will benefit from the wisdom of the Council, as well as the stalwart dedication of their fire chief to the community he is entrusted to serve as lives and property are protected for years to come.
|
