The fire season is upon us and we already have a crew of Groom Creek firefighters assisting with a fire response in New Mexico. We are expecting an above normal fire season in the desert elevations and a normal fire season in the Groom Creek area. We have already responded to two wildland fires within the district in April.
We are committed to maintaining adequate staffing and resources when the fire danger increases in our area. This includes staffing Severity Patrols and assisting our neighboring agencies. After the monsoon rains come, our personnel will again be available to assist on fires out of the area as we have in the past.
Even though we have received significantly higher precipitation over the winter months, we will always have days of significant fire danger and critical fire weather. Let’s all remember to be careful with fire.
At the April meeting, the Groom Creek Fire District Board approved a tentative budget for the upcoming fiscal year. The Groom Creek Fire District has been dedicated to providing the highest level of service while maintaining the lowest possible levy rates. In the upcoming fiscal year (beginning July 1, 2008) we will be adding three additional full-time firefighter positions to our staff. The additional personnel are necessary to perform our duties as well as provide safety to the firefighters and public. This staffing increase will directly affect our budget.
Right now, we rely heavily on our volunteer and reserve firefighters to augment our staffing and require these members to work two twelve-hour shifts each month for which they are not paid (in exchange for the training, experience and benefits they receive).With these additional full-time personnel and our volunteer and reserve members we can respond with a minimum of two people on an engine and usually three people. This staffing level will help us meet the minimum requirements of the national standard for providing fire and emergency medical services.
The cost of adding these positions is over $100,000 annually. We believe that the benefit of providing the increased level of safety to the public and our personnel far outweighs the cost. We will continue to seek funding from grants to acquire necessary equipment and rely on our off-district response to generate revenue for capital improvement projects. We currently have grant applications totaling over $900,000 pending. The applications are for personnel, a new fire engine, updated safety equipment and our fuels projects.
With this budget approval, the average taxpayer will see an increase in the Groom Creek Fire District portion of their tax bills. Our levy rate will be increasing to $2.50/hundred in secondary assessed valuation. The current rate is 1.88. This proposed rate is average with districts of our size that are providing full-time staffing. If you have any questions about this budget, please call Chief Bentley at 928-778-6519 or attend an upcoming Board meeting. They are scheduled on the first Tuesday of every month at 7:30 p.m. at the Fire Station.
The Groom Creek Fire District will once again be offering a dumpster for the disposal of pine needles and leaf litter debris beginning on April 25th and continuing until June 29th. This program is a part of the ongoing grant for our fuels management project and requires us to match the grant funds from homeowner fees and/or in-kind services.
We rely on the public participating in the dumpster program to complete a Sweat-Equity form that is available at the fire station and on our website. We need you to log your time cleaning up your own property and any other expenses related to removing hazardous fuels around your property. These forms should be returned to the fire district office before the end of September.
This is the only way that we can continue to provide this service that has removed over 100 tons of hazardous fuels materials from the Groom Creek area to date. The dumpster will be changed out every Monday, Wednesday and Friday as in past years.
Before the State Legislature are some aggressive tax initiatives that will affect the strategic planning and future level of service of the Groom Creek Fire District. At this time it is unclear which one(s) will get the support of the Senators and Representatives, but each of the measures (if passed) will require a vote of the public for them to take effect.
Groom Creek Fire District has always tried to maintain a responsible tax levy rate and we are currently at 57.9% of the legal limit and one of the lowest levy rates for a full time staffed department in the state.
We are asking for you to be informed voters if any of these measures makes it to the November ballot. We will make more specific comments on these issues in our upcoming Board meetings and in future newsletters. It is important for us to know if we are providing the level of service that our community desires. The only way we can be certain is if you participate.
On Monday, January 28th, the Groom Creek Fire District began our demonstration area thinning project. The demonstration area includes 16
parcels of which 15 are improved for a total of 10 acres. Arizona Public Service will be beginning work along their power line easements on February 11. We expect the demo area to be completed by the end of February.
The landowners are permitting the fire district to remove overstory trees to the same prescription that is used in the forest lands adjacent to the district. This prescription provides for about 80 trees per acre and promotes diversity of tree. The prescription is based on research from the Ecological Restoration Institute at Northern Arizona University, this will return the forest to the healthy state as it was prior to the settlement of the area.
The district is performing the demo area project to determine the cost and logistics associated with this type of project on a smaller scale in order to pursue funding for extending the project across the private land throughout the district. There is plenty of data available to estimate the costs of thinning on the open forest lands, but no data exists for this type of project within the houses and infrastructure of a community. It costs about $400/acre in the open forest areas and we are estimating the costs at about ten times that amount in the developed area. Due to this cost estimate we will be needing grant funding of over $1 million to complete the thinning of the entire area.
The current demo area is being completed under our fuels program grant at no cost to the landowners. Each parcel being treated (thinned) on a voluntary basis. The fire district appreciates the support and cooperation of these residents and we will be able to provide an update on the project at the upcoming Firewise Day to be held on Saturday, May 3rd at 9:00 am at the Fire Station. We will also be discussing the current and future fuels management projects, the outlook for the 2008 wildland fire season and operations of the fire district. We encourage everyone to attend this meeting.
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.
The district will charge a fee for the plans review and code enforcement that will
help offset the costs of the newly filled position responsible for these activities.
Our Assistant Chief will serve as the Fire Marshal and Code Enforcement
Official.
If you are planning a new construction project in the district, we will be happy to
assist in the planning stages to facilitate the permit process and compliance with
the new requirements. If you would like to review the codes and/or get more
information about them, please contact Assistant Chief Manzanedo at 928-778-6519.
The ability for the Fire District to enforce open burning requirements and
restrictions is an advantage to having the codes in place. The County repealed
their codes relating to the fire restrictions and would not enforce any during the
last fire season. We should expect future fire seasons to be more severe in the
near future until a significant event ends the years of drought conditions.
Additionally, we will be able to require that new developments have an
adequate water supply, proper access in the event of an emergency and meet
FireWise principals in their vegetation management and construction. Also,
any new structures over 5,000 square feet will need to have an approved
sprinkler system.
The intention of adoption of the codes is to ensure life safety as well as to protect
the area from the effects of a devastating wildland fire event as we have seen
recently in California. All of the same conditions that contributed to thousands
of homes lost in the last month are present in our area in our most critical time of
our fire season.
Read more on the fire codes.
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Update 12/22/2007: Since the writing of this news brief, we have received notification of two new grant awards. One from the 100 club of Arizona and the other from US Department of Homeland Security. These two awards bring the total of this year's grant awards to five. These awards are an enormous boost to the equipment, and service level of GCFD. In summary, we have received grants for the following:
- US Department of Homeland Security's AFG Grant - New turnouts and SCBAs ($92,699)
- AZ Governor’s Office of Highway
Safety - Vehicle extrication and stabilization
equipment ($24,103)
- US Smokeless Tobacco Company's Operation Ranger Grant - New Polaris Ranger ($13,000)
- 100 Club of Arizona - New Wildland Fire Shelters ($5,955)
- US Department of Homeland Security - Hazardous Gas Detection Kit ($5,000)
12/11/07: The Groom Creek Fire District has been extremely successful in receiving grant funds this year. We have
just received an award from the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security for $92,699. This award will
provide our members with all new Personal Protective
Equipment for structure fire and hazardous materials
response. The grant will include 20 sets of turnout gear
and 10 self-contained breathing apparatus.
This award allows us to utilize budgeted funds for the
5% match that was originally budgeted to begin
replacing this equipment gradually over the next 5
years.
We are also pleased to announce that we have received a
grant award from the Governor’s Office of Highway
Safety for vehicle extrication and stabilization
equipment needed in the event of a serious vehicle
accident. This award is in the amount of $24,103.
We have relied on our neighboring agencies to assist
with this type of support in the past. Now we will be
able to perform these timely tasks regardless of the
availability of our other cooperators. We have always
had the need for this equipment, but had higher priorities
for our equipment budgets.
We are also the
recipients of a 2008
Polaris Ranger 6x6
granted by the US
Smokeless Tobacco
Company Operation
Ranger program.
This all-terrain
vehicle has been
equipped with an
EMS bed that will allow us to treat and transport patients
from some of the more remote locations in the area. The
vehicle is worth over $13,000. We have provided the
ems bed for the vehicle with funds generated from off district
wildland fire response.
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This year, the Groom Creek Fire District has been very
active in out of district response. We have had 10
personnel active on our Wildland Team that has
responded to Idaho (on two separate fires), Montana,
California (two fires), Payson and throughout the Prescott
area. The season started in March and some of our
personnel have just returned from California on
December 1st.
This year’s response has generated revenue for the district
in the amount of almost $350,000. We had budgeted
needs of $75,000 in income from this activity as a way of
improving our operations while maintaining as low a tax
levy rate as possible. About 50% of the amount generated
is paid to our personnel and the remaining amount will be
utilized to improve our apparatus and facilities.
The sacrifice of the Wildland Team members and their
families allows the entire community to enjoy lower tax
rates, better trained and experienced firefighters as well as
improved apparatus and equipment. Please thank these
members for their contribution to this community and the
Groom Creek Fire District.
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Captain Ernesto Manzanedo has been promoted to the
position of Assistant Chief as of January 01, 2008. His
contributions to the district have been beyond the call of
duty and he was the most qualified applicant for the
position. As Assistant Chief he will assume the duties
mentioned in the article on page 1.
Colin Port has been promoted from the position of
Reserve Firefighter and Fuels Crew Field Supervisor to
Captain. Colin is taking the place of Captain Matt Fay
who has stepped down to a part-time position. Captain
Fay was instrumental in the applications for two of the
grant awards mentioned in the article above.
Firefighter Jason Williams was promoted to fill Ernesto's now vacant Captain's position, and will begin filling 24-hour shifts on January 1, 2008.
Firefighter Jeff Archer will be promoted to Fuels Crew Field Supervisor.
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Captains Luke Wakefield and Ernesto Manzanedo have completed the educational requirements for certification as
Paramedics. They are awaiting the results of the certification testing and will be able to provide Advanced Life
Support (ALS) services as soon as completed. This will provide a much greater level of service to the community than
the Basic Life Support that we have provided in the past.
ALS providers can administer medications for cardiac patients, respiratory difficulties, pain management and much
more than a BLS provider. The certification requirements are a year of classes, over 600 hours of clinical time (spent in
hospitals and on ride-alongs) and more stringent testing and re-certification procedures.
The ability to provide this level of coverage is a great step forward with a goal of providing continual ALS coverage in
the district as soon as our other Captains complete this training. If you see these two members, please thank them for
their contribution of time to this program.
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