The Pagosa Fire Protection District previewed a draft of its 2025 budget during the regular meeting of its board of directors on Oct. 1, with additional spending proposed for new firefighters and enhancements to its existing training center.
The district anticipates its proposed addition of three full-time firefighters in 2025 will require an extra $201,734 — or about $67,000 per benefited position — and will help the fire district maintain higher levels of minimum staffing and plan for future growth, Fire Chief Robert Bertram explained.
“Right now our minimum staffing is three. When we have four, we’re able to split our crews a lot easier,” Bertram said. “More than half the time we’re running as three, so we don’t have that ability.”
Looking ahead, Bertram explained the additional hiring would also support staffing another 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.”
Revenues from 2024 will, in part, offset the proposed additional spending, the budget shows, including unanticipated returns from investments and general property taxes.
“We completely underestimated what COLOTRUST was going to bring us in this year,” Bertram said, describing 2024 dividends from the district’s investment portfolio. “Here, today, we’re at $116,000. We still have a few months to go.”
The district is hoping to collect $140,000 from the trust by the end of the year and $110,000 in 2025.
“We don’t know what the market is going to be next year,” Bertram added.
Property taxes also delivered revenues for the district.
According to the draft budget, the district received $53,385 more than what it initially projected — an amount largely due to procedural maneuverings by the state to withhold a portion of the revenue before releasing it back to local entities, Bertram explained.
“Last year we weren’t really sure if we were truly going to get that,” Bertram said in a follow-up interview with The SUN.
He added that because the amount the state withholds is based on a sliding scale of assessed property values, it’s difficult to budget for.
In 2025, revenues from property taxes are projected to be $4.2 million, according to the draft budget.
Just how much money the district will be allowed to collect from property taxes in the future came under examination during the meeting as the board discussed an impending revenue cap that resulted from a special legislative session in August.
Dino Ross, the fire district’s attorney, explained that the amount of future revenue the district reaps from property taxes would be capped at 10.5 percent over the course of a two-year period beginning Jan. 1, 2025.
Bertram added that the cap only applies to property tax revenue.
“We’re basically tied to that right now,” he said, adding he anticipates the full impact of the cap to manifest in future district budgets.
The proposed 2025 budget also calls for an additional $40,000 set aside for improvements to the existing training center, located near Station 3 south of Pagosa Springs.
“We do have a good training center,” Bertram said, “better than a lot of departments.”
The improvements, he added —including tools and props for replicating various fire scenarios — are designed to “bring our skills to that next level.”
He continued, “I anticipate this is going to be ongoing for many years to come,” adding the district is currently in the midst of hiring a full-time training captain — an expense budgeted for in 2024.
“[The captain] will be instrumental in moving us forward and upping our training program,” Bertram said.
The fire district is scheduled to hold a public hearing of the proposed 2025 budget during its November board meeting, with a final vote tentatively scheduled for December.
garrett@pagosasun.com
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