The Pagosa Fire Protection District approved its 2025 budget during a regular meeting of its board of directors on Dec. 3, with the final draft reflecting increased cost-of-living allowances for fire personnel and slightly lower revenues from general property taxes.
Fire Chief Robert Bertram described the 5 percent cost-of-living increase as one of the “biggest adjustments” made from earlier versions of the budget — which had originally capped the increase at 3 percent.
Bertram will also receive the increased living adjustment, in addition to a 2 percent pay increase and an extra week of vacation leave, following an executive session to evaluate his performance.
The approved 2025 budget also grants the district funds to hire three additional full-time firefighters, which in earlier meetings Bertram described as necessary to increase minimum levels of staffing.
“Right now our minimum staffing is three,” Bertram said during the board’s Oct. 1 meeting. “When we have four, we’re able to split our crews a lot easier,” he said. “More than half the time we’re running as three, so we don’t have that ability.”
At that meeting, Bertram also explained the additional hires would support staffing a future station.
“We’ve got to start building up from somewhere so we don’t have just a ton of new people on shift,” he said. “This will help get us set up for the future.”
The district’s total 2025 payroll expenses are proposed to be $2,320,914 — up from $2,289,827 anticipated in 2024.
Revenues in the district’s operating budget are projected to decrease slightly in 2025 — from $5,349,597 anticipated in 2024 to $5,060,743 proposed in 2025 — due in part to decreased general property tax valuations.
“The general property tax went down by about $5,000 due to a little bit lower of an assessment when we got our final valuation,” Bertram explained during the Dec. 3 meeting.
The proposed revenues also do not account for any donations the district may receive in the coming year; in 2024, that figure is anticipated to be slightly more than $10,000.
Dividends from COLOTRUST, where the district has its investment portfolio, are also anticipated to be slightly lower in 2025 — from $140,000 anticipated in 2024 to $110,000 in 2025.
An additional $415,000 transfer from reserves into the proposed 2025 operating budget will assist the district in completing asphalt paving projects originally scheduled for 2024, according to Bertram.
Those projects include improvements to stations 1 and 3, as well as to the administrative building’s parking lot. The district had hoped to complete all three in 2024.
Elsewhere in the budget, administrative expenses are expected to increase from $455,274 anticipated this year to $502,129 in 2025.
The district’s fleet maintenance budget is also set to go up next year, with increased spending proposed for vehicle parts and tires. In total, fleet maintenance expenditures proposed in 2025 are $144,900.
In 2025, the district’s training budget is proposed to be $995,200.
“We were not able to fill the training captain’s position,” Bertram reported to the board. “We still definitely have a need for a training person, and … make training more available. We’re just trying to figure out the best way to do it. We’ve been working on trying to come up with a good solution to that and move forward.”
Impact fees a possibility in 2025
One new line item added to the district’s 2025 budget allows for future revenues collected from proposed impact fees, which the board moved closer to adopting on Dec. 3.
In a letter that was to be delivered to town and county officials on Dec. 4, Bertram outlined the district’s intent to impose the fees as well as the 2024 law allowing it to do so, thereby triggering a 60-day comment period.
“At its February 4, 2025, regularly scheduled meeting,” the letter states, “the Board will hold a public hearing on its intent to establish and assess impact fees.”
In the letter, the fees for residential and commercial developments are outlined as follows:
• For a new single-family dwelling, a fee of $1,426.
• For a new multifamily dwelling, a fee of $1,104.
• New commercial and other industrial units would be charged 65 cents per square foot.
During the 60-day comment period, the town and county may provide feedback to the district, but, according to the district’s attorney, Dino Ross, the decision ultimately lies with the district’s board of directors.
“This letter constitutes the statutory notice that the Town (and County) has through February 3, 2025, to submit comments on the Fire District Board’s intent to establish and assess impact fees,” the letter states.
Following that period, a public hearing will take place during the district’s regularly scheduled board meeting on Feb. 4, after which a final course of action will be set.
Questions about how and when to collect any potential fees arose during the Dec. 3 meeting, with Bertram signaling more discussion with the town and county would be needed in the weeks ahead.
“Do you find in other counties that the county assists in the collection of these fees?” board treasurer and secretary James Martin asked.
“If you have a good working relationship, they may very well agree to just collect them,” Ross replied, adding that it would “make the most sense” if the impact fees were collected before the issuance of a building permit.
And while the fire district does not have the authority to withhold a building permit, Ross suggested that failure to pay an impact fee could result in a lien being placed on the new structure.
If approved, the new fees would take effect on Feb. 5, 2025.
garrett@pagosasun.com
