Paid Firefighters and Fire Fighting Training Facility in Lincoln County per Safer Grant

Commissioner Prather:  

I have forwarded my most recent communications to you.  I do want to thank you for agreeing, at Tracie's suggestion, to meet with us.  I think the first email forwarded below accurately summarized our conversation and our agreed positions on the matters discussed. 

My intent here is to secure from you and the rest of the Lincoln County Commissioners a committment to pursue the funding opportunities available to Lincoln County in order to provide the fire protection the Alto community desperatly needs.  That would include employing paid firefighters at the Bonito Station, and other stations as OES sees fit, in order to begin the process of creating a "hybrid" system of limited paid firefighters augmenting VFD volunteers at select stations.  This is a system already in use and proven effective throughout parts of New Mexio and Texas.  In addition, I further request you pursue funding for a Lincoln County owned and OES staffed and operated training facility.  This is particulary important to support the many volunteers who sacrifice so much in service to all of Lincoln county and who deserve to receive the training so crucial to thier safety and the safety of our residents.  Since almost all volunteers also have a day job and a family to support, it is unfair to ask them to travel outside the county and spend time away from their jobs and family to get that vital training.  The answer is a training facility owned and operated by the county where our volunteers get first opportunity to avail themselves of that training without sacrificing time with family or their employment.

To be clear, this is not a request that the Lincoln County Commissioners commit funds for any particular program.  Rather it is a request the Lincoln County Commissioners vigoursly pursue available federal and state funds as appropriate to accomplish the goals outlined above.  Specifically, the request is that OES be specifically tasked with writing the SAFER grant that can provide essentially no-cost funding to add upwards of 16 or more paid firefighters for up to 4 years.  In addition this request includes tasking Lincoln County's federal lobbyist with pursuing congressionally directed spending for the training center referenced above.  He has already, in the last session, secured between $2.5 and $3.5 million for the necessary expansion of the OES headquarters.  And that was before the fire.  Given the devastation  suffered by Alto, Alpine Village and other Lincoln County neighborhoods served by the Bonito, Sontera and Copper Ridge Stations NOW is the time to pursue this Safer grant.  The window on the Safer grant will close roughly mid-April, so time is of the essence, and that is why I am putting this before you now.

As we also discussed, given the current BOCC dynamics, neither staff nor the Lincoln county lobbyist, will pursue these opportunities on their own without a very specific commitment from the Lincoln County Commissioners. It is that public support for staff and the Lincoln County lobbyist that I seek today.

Thank you. 

Pierre Pfeffer

619-992-4534 (cell)