Colorado Municipal Spotlights the Evans Fire District
Recently, the Evans Fire Protection District and City of Evans were featured in the Colorado Municipal League publication Colorado Municipalities, October 2012 edition. This is a publication targeted to and read by thousands of Colorado municipal government officials and others interested in municipal government in the state.
Addressing Shrinking Revenues and Growing Demands
Fire Protection Services in the City of Evans
Long-range revenue predictions for the City of Evans showed that absent any major new growth in the commercial, industrial, or residential sectors, the City would see only very small revenue growth into the foreseeable future. The City's taxing rates were comparable to those of other municipalities in Weld County; however, Evans was the only municipality trying to fund an in-house fire department within that taxing umbrella.
The number of calls for service to the City of Evans Fire Rescue Department was increasing, while the number of responding firefighters was decreasing. Emergency services had to compete with other important public needs like police protection and road maintenance for the City's general fund dollars. No funds were being allocated to replace aging firefighting equipment.
The City responded with a preliminary study and a task force of interested stakeholders to look into preparing a service plan to create a fire protection district and an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) between the City and the proposed district. Creating a Title 32 fire protection district with its own mill levy would provide a more stable and predictable revenue stream that would be devoted solely to providing the highest quality emergency services. In November 2011, the voters responded by approving the formation of the district and a 5.5 mill property tax to help support it, as well as an IGA between the district and the City concerning the operational relationship between the entities, the sharing of certain revenues and operational functions, and the transfer of facilities and equipment from the City to the district.
It was a three-year effort, but one look at the website for the Evans Fire Protection District (www.evansfiredistrict.org, under "History of EFPD") shows that this was a win-win outcome for the City, the district and, most importantly, the citizens.
