Groom Creek Fire District – Prescott, Arizona

The Fire District has been awarded two grants to continue our fuels projects.

We are pleased to be able to split funding with the Crown King Fire District under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Stimulus Funds) in the amount of $179,000. We should see approximately $100k of that money and it will be used to employ 3 people to perform the fuels treatments and maintaining the properties already treated throughout the district. With this program, we expect the residents to cover the overhead expenses which should amount to about 10% of the normal costs. We are still awaiting the funding of this project and will provide the details for this as soon as they are available.

The second award is for 3 years of continued fuels projects to include the overstory thinning in the Silver King area and in the areas of Spruce Mountain and Mount Tritle. (This was one of the grant projects where in the past we would have to make a 50% contribution). This time around we are only required to match 10% of the costs associated with the project and that will serve to keep the fees to the residents as low as possible. We will be contracting with Arizona Public Service to provide the thinning in order to make certain that we have a contractor who is knowledgeable and maintains safe working practices around powerlines.

As a landowner in the Groom Creek area, you will not need to know which project is being used to treat your property. All you need to do to have work performed on your property is to call Jeff Archer or Ernesto Manzanedo and have an assessment completed. The assessment is free of charge and we will work with you to maintain a healthy ecosystem while eliminating hazards in the Home Ignition Zone. For more information see our website at www.groomcreek.org.

As with all of our projects, we are attempting to achieve an overall goal of providing a sustainable, healthy ecosystem and being the first communnity in the US to be removed from the Federal Register List of Communities At-Risk of a Major Wildland Fire. With the work the US Forest Service has completed around us, the work left to achieve the goal is on the private lands within the district. With a community-wide effort, we will achieve this goal within the next few years.

The Groom Creek Fire District has registered with Fire Corps, a national volunteer program created after the September 11th incident. Under this program, the President urged Americans to get involved locally with their emergency service providers.

This initiative has taken on many forms throughout the United States and has evolved into a format that we can now adopt for the Groom Creek area. Beginning in July, the Groom Creek Fire Corps will be established to provide non-emergency support to the residents within the Groom Creek Fire District. We will have positions for volunteers to respond to assist with smoke detector installation, provide traffic control on emergency incidents, help with administrative tasks, perform Firewise Community public education and operate fund-raising events for the Groom Creek Firefighter’s Association. Volunteers will be scheduled one four-hour shift per week.

The Groom Creek Firefighter’s Association is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization created to provide assistance to the career and volunteer
firefighters, their families and the community. We will be using this auxiliary organization to provide assistance to those in our community who are in need with things like transportation needs during winter storms, ensuring our neighbors have fuelwood for heat, continuing to improve our community park and ultimately making Groom Creek a better place to live.

Training will be provided to all volunteers and you will only be asked to perform in those tasks that you are trained and are comfortable performing. Anyone with administrative experience will be able to assist in many ways providing office support. We have plenty of opportunities available.

Assistant Chief Manzanedo will be supervising the Groom Creek Fire Corps program. Please contact him at 928-778-6519 for details.

The Groom Creek Park Committee has received a very generous $20,000 donation from a community resident. There will be playground equipment and landscaping installed in the park before the end of spring. Since the fund raising for the park is now complete, the members of this committee will assume the fund raising duties for the Groom Creek Firefighter’s Association. All funds raised in the future will be used for the purpose of supporting our firefighters, their families, members of our community and other charities as the organization deems appropriate.

The Groom Creek Firefighter’s Association will be meeting regularly to discuss the upcoming events. There are many possibilities being explored at the present time. If you would like to provide input, this organization meets the first Monday of every month at 4:00 p.m. at the Fire Station. Although this organization has the same Board as the Fire District Board, we want the efforts of the Firefighter’s Association to meet the needs of our firefighters, their families, the community and our residents.

If you know of a special need in the community where the fund raising efforts can be directed, please contact the members of the association. If you would like to join the fund raising committee please feel free to attend any of our meetings on the first Monday of the month.

In the General Election held November 6, voters in the Groom Creek Fire District approved the Ballot Question regarding the adoption of fire codes. The measure passed with a vote of 58.5% to 41.5%. The codes will have no effect on existing homeowners within the district. New construction will now have to meet defensible space and tree density requirements as well as meeting FireWise construction requirements. (more…)

The Groom Creek Fire District has been applying for grants and funding this year as in the past. We are working on fuels project funding from the Economic Stimulus Package that will provide us the ability to operate a 3 person fuels crew for the next year and beyond. This funding comes without the traditional matching funds requirements and will allow us to provide the fuels reductions services at little or no cost to our residents. Our decision to move away from the grants we had been receiving was made to shore up our financial position as we were looking forward to needing financing capabilities for the new station.

There is funding coming from many sources that we will pursue for our new Fire Stations on Spruce Mountain and new Main Fire Station on Senator Highway and Marapai Road. We have applied for a grant from the US Department of Homeland Security for $1,150,000 for the main station. We should hear more about this application in the summer. We have entered into an agreement with the US Forest Service to provide the space for a Forest Service Engine Crew to work out of our station. This agreement will help us to provide an increased level of wildfire protection to our community. Engine 3-2 has began the process of moving in and will be staffing their engine year-round. Engine 3-2 is a smaller (Type 6) engine with a 5 person crew. Once our new station is built on Senator Highway, we will provide the facilities for this crew at that location.

During our Firewise Day Activities this year, we will be showcasing some of the new equipment we have received from our grants during the past year. We will have demonstrations with vehicle extrication and stabilization, a thermal imaging camera, cardiac monitor and fire extinguishers. If you would like to see how fortunate we have been to receive all of the new equipment and would like to learn how to effectively use a fire extinguisher, please take some time to stop by on April 25th. The demonstrations will begin at 10:00 am.

Lastly, we have begun the budget process for the next fiscal year and encourage you to attend the Board meetings in the next few months if you would like to know how we are appropriating our revenues.

Captain – Paramedic Luke Wakefield has been a member of the Groom Creek Fire District since 2002. He was initially hired as a volunteer firefighter and then as a defensible space contractor. Luke was promoted to Captain when we hired our first full-time personnel in July of 2006.

Since then, Captain Wakefield has successfully completed the paramedicine program at Yavapai College and became the District’s first Paramedic. Luke and his wife Brooke have a young daughter and live in the Groom Creek area.

Luke level of professionalism and knowledge of Emergency Medical Service has proven to be invaluable to the fire district and the residents of our community.