Beginning in November of 2015 The Groom Creek Fire District staff and Fire Board began the development of a 10-year Strategic Plan. At the March 1st meeting of the Fire Board, a final plan was adopted. The plan uses some financial assumptions that show a level 5% increase in growth for the period with the fixed operating costs remaining stagnant. The Board and staff understand that this is rather unlikely to happen, but the plan is a starting point for the budget workshop that takes place each March.
Assuming the continued growth and costs being well managed, there will be little reliance on the revenue generated from out-of-district wildland fire responses. Even with market increases in the costs, we begin to realize surpluses in our revenue in the not too distant future.
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The repayment of the lease purchase will need to be included in the budget and factored into the plan as well. But with the continued success of the donation drive, we should be able to retire this debt and move forward with our plan. We have made modest operational improvements in the future and include a newer vehicle for our Fuels Crew in year 5.
If you have any questions about our plan, please feel free to come by or email me.
Todd Bentley
Fire Chief