Fire Chief Ken Watkins - Grand Junction Fire Dept - Full Circle Podcast with The Christi Reece Group
January 31, 2024 • 44 mins
Christi and Reece sit down with Fire Chief Ken Watkins and hear about the evolution of the fire department, future growth, recruitment efforts, fire safety and more for this month's Full Circle Podcast!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Speaker 2 (00:06):
The Full Circle podcast, compelling interviews
and incredible tales fromColorado's Western Slope, from
the mountains to the desert.
Christy Reese and her team herefrom the Movers Shakers, and
characters of the Grand Valleyand surrounding mountain towns
that make the Western slope theplace we all love. You'll
learn, you'll laugh, you'lllove with the full circle.
Hello everyone, I'm KristiReese. Welcome back to the Full
(00:28):
Circle Podcast. I'm here withmy co-host re Stanley today.
Welcome Reese.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Thank you Kristi .
Speaker 2 (00:34):
And we are excited to have as our guest , uh, fire
chief for City of GrandJunction, Ken Watkins. Welcome,
Ken.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Oh, thank you.
Excited to be here and to dothe podcast with you. Yeah .
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Um, so usually we start off when , uh, uh, with
our guest , talking about kindof how you ended up in Grand
Junction. How long have youlived here?
Speaker 3 (00:54):
I've lived here almost 17 years. Um, I have a
little family history herethat's kinda what brought me
here. But , uh, my mom and herside of the family , uh, was
raised in Quebec. Oh,
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Wow. Not a lot of people can say that.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
No,
. Um, so she left for Denver
when she was 18, and so I grewup in Denver. Uh, what brought
me back here, well, brought ,brought me here was , um, I was
interested in becoming a firechief. I was already working
for quite a while for a firedepartment on the front range,
and I wanted to be a firechief, so I applied for the job
(01:27):
here in Grand Junction, and Ihad the family ties. Um, and so
I also had a family that , uh,an aunt that I was close to
that , um, had some medicalissues that I wanted to come
over and help take care of. Sothose few things brought me
over here to Grand Junction.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
What was it, what's the difference, the major
difference between being afirefighter and a fire chief
that made you seek thatposition?
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Sure. So , um, um, I started out as a , as a
firefighter, went up throughthe ranks. Um , essentially
worked in every position on thefire department, but at some
point I decided I wanted to getinto leadership and management.
And so I went back to collegeand finished , uh, uh, my
bachelor's degree and then amaster's degree also. And then
(02:10):
, uh, that basically set me upfor a fire chief's position.
So, you know, the positionitself is , um, is leadership
management. It's anadministrative job. Um, people
ask me all the time, you know,how often I go out , out on
fire. It's pretty rare for meto go on a fire. I mean, if I
go out on a fire two or threetimes a year, that's a lot. So,
you know, we have , uh,excellent staff that cover all
(02:32):
that. And if it's a largeincident or something like
that, that I might end up on afire. But , uh, really that's
up to the operational chiefsthat are on the department.
Mm-Hmm. .
Speaker 2 (02:42):
And , um, you mentioned before we got started
recording , um, that your firedepartment is city based , but
you also contract out with therural fire areas. Can you
explain how that works?
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Sure. And maybe it helps to understand the county
itself maybe. So, Mesa Countyhas , uh, 10 different fire
departments. Um, most of themare in the Grand Valley. Of
course, there's a firedepartment. Uh, Quebec has its
own fire department , um,plateau Valley, which is up on
, uh, covers Powder Horn in theMesa. Um, and so Grand Junction
itself, we cover the city ofGrand Junction, all the city
(03:16):
limits. And then we've had acontract agreement for service
with the Grand Junction RuralFire Protection District for a
long time, since 1944. So it'sbeen in , yeah, so they don't
have , uh, fire stations orpeople or fire trucks . And so
we provide all that for themunder this service contract.
And that essentially is , um,three different sides of the
(03:38):
city. They surround us on threedifferent sides , uh, up north.
A lot of the areas in theRedlands is the rural district,
and then some of the areas inOrchard Mesa. Mm-Hmm,
.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
And what year was it when , uh, the fire department
took over a lot of theemergency services that were
happening with ambulances alonewith ambulance contractors?
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Yeah. Thanks for the question. So , um, that was
right before I came. Um, so in, um, what set up that change
was in 2004, the county wrote a, uh, emergency medical service
resolution. And that set , uh,basically what it did is
divided the county intoambulance service areas, and
they roughly followed the firedistrict boundaries. And so the
(04:22):
county wanted to do thatbecause there was some concern
about the , uh, coveragethroughout the county for
medical services. So by , uh,basically dividing the county
up into area , uh, serviceareas that provided that , uh,
ability to provide ambulanceservice in those areas. Um, in
2006 is when the city , uh, inthat resolution, the city had
(04:45):
the ability to select who theservice provider would be in
the city. So in 2006, theyselected the fire department to
provide that service. And so ,uh, the Grand Junction Fire
Department has been providingambulance service since then. A
lot of people don't realizethat the fire department had
ambulances before then. Uh,just they served as a backup to
the ambulance providers thatwere already here. Um, and so
(05:08):
it's, it's not new to the firedepartment. We were providing
that service. We hadparamedics, we had EMTs, all
that. So,
Speaker 2 (05:15):
And Reese, you were on the fire department for a
number of years?
Speaker 4 (05:19):
I was, yeah. I was under Chief Watkins leadership
as well as , uh, a lot of theother great employees over
there for just shy of fiveyears, both as an EMT and a
firefighter. Mm-Hmm .
, um, you know,with, with you being leading
the, the department for 17years, you said Chief, just
about, yeah. I , I imagineyou've seen a lot of changes
both in, you know, the size ofpersonnel, how many stations ,
(05:43):
uh, call volume, all thosethings. What does that look
like in, in your time as , asas chief?
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Yeah, it's been exciting, really. And , uh,
I'll just start by saying,Reese, we miss you . So
, um, if when you want to comeback, let me know. No , no .
Reese was agreat employee for us. So we ,
uh, we hate to see peopleleave, but we always wanna
support people's passions. So ,um, yeah. So in my time, I came
in 2007, right after theambulance , uh, service started
(06:10):
for the city. Uh, thedepartment at that time was
around a hundred employees. Um,we had , um, five fire
stations. We had recently builtFire Station five in the
Redlands. Um, and so , uh, nowwe are 185 employees , uh,
seven stations. We're , we'rejust getting ready to build the
eighth station, actually. Uh ,we're going through the design
(06:31):
process right now. So , um,when I arrived here, I
recognized right away that wewere short of fire stations ,
um, be based on the call volumeand the size of the city. So we
attempted to do that earlier onthan when we're currently doing
it. But we needed to secure thefunding. And so that funding
was secured in 2019 with thefirst responder tax, thanks to
our, our , uh, grand Junctioncitizens that voted for that.
(06:55):
Um, so yeah, a lot of changewith the additional stations ,
uh, additional personnel , um,additional apparatus. Um, uh,
budget wise , my budget, thefire department budget has
grown from who, I'm trying toremember what it was when I got
here. It was around maybe 10million, eight to 10 million
this year. My budget is 33 anda half million to run the fire
(07:17):
department. So that's a bigbudget. Um, you know, most of
our budget is , uh, people,'cause we're a service agency.
So , um, and then the callvolume, like you mentioned, the
call volume's gone from about ,uh, uh, 10,000 calls to , uh,
last year we ran just under22,000 calls. So
Speaker 2 (07:37):
I have a couple of questions. Number one , um, I'm
sorry to say that I'm not , uh,up to speed on that. The tax ,
uh, is that ongoing fundingfor, I mean, that's consistent
ongoing funding for the firedistrict?
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Yeah, yeah. So it's a half cent sales tax. And so
when people shop in GrandJunction and buy something,
then um , it's , uh, additionalhalf cent over our , uh,
existing sales tax that we had.
Um, but it is ongoing and thereason it's ongoing is , um,
because it is the main purposeof the, of the funding is to
pay for the personnel , uh,that we've hired for those fire
(08:15):
stations. And then the otherpart of the first responder tax
is for the police department.
So it's a shared tax , um, the,it's same kind of thing that
it's to , uh, pay foradditional police officers ,
um, civilian personnel at thepolice department also.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
And is the expansion driven by a number of factors?
Is it population based ? Is itcall based ? Is it , uh,
geographically based ? I mean,you can only cover a certain
area with one fire station.
Mm-Hmm..
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Yeah. So for us, for the fire department, the fund
or the , uh, growth, I'm sorry,could you repeat that again? I
think I went down the wrongpath. ,
Speaker 2 (08:50):
No. Um, so the expansion of , um, you know,
new structures and things likethat and hiring more people,
how do you , um, what do youbase that on? Is it because of
the volume of calls? Is itbecause of this population? Is
it because of these geographyof the, where the station sits?
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
Yeah. Let me go back to , um, when I arrived here in
2007 and started to look at theservice that we were providing
, um, with my experience that Icame , I, I was with , uh,
another fire department for 25years. I was the deputy chief
of , uh, administration when Ileft there to come here to be
the chief. So I had a lot ofexperience already. Um, and I
started to look at the volumeof calls that we were running
(09:32):
and also where we were runningthem from. The issue that we
had here in Grand Junction atthe time was we were a , and
it's, it's not unlike othercommunities that have grown,
basically , uh, all of our firestations were in basically a
core circle area of theexisting community. But the
city had grown exponentiallyoutside of that circle.
(09:52):
Basically, station five wasbuilt, so that was fine. It
was, it was helping to coverthe Redlands, but we really
didn't have any close firestations up to the north , um,
or out toward Orchard Mesa, wehad a station, station four
that was kind of in Orchard.
Mesa is right on the edge ofit. Um, and so the issue with
that is response times. So whenwe have a critical call,
(10:13):
cardiac arrest , uh, majoraccident, you know, something
that we really need to getthere quick, we had , um,
response times that we reallycouldn't affect because our,
our locations were too faraway. Um, as the community
grows, the , the call volumegoes up, which, you know,
creates a kind of a , itexponentially , uh, makes that
an issue because then as unitsare going out of the area to
(10:37):
cover other areas, then theirareas are getting uncovered. So
, um, so we started looking atwhere do we need the additional
fire stations. The other thingthat we look at for fire
station location is we , um,just about everything that we
do in the fire service is underguidelines from the National
Fire Protection Association.
And so they have guidelines for, um, how fast we should
(10:59):
respond on a call based on thesize of our community, the type
of community. Um, that's all ofour response times. And
there's, you know, there'sdetail related to that. Um, and
then we also try to fit intowhat is called the Insurance
Service Office regulations,which affects , um, communities
fire insurance rating and inturn affects people's insurance
(11:22):
premiums. And so that agencywill also say, you need a fire
engine to respond within thisdistance, or you need a ladder
truck to respond within thisdistance. So we put all that
together and decide, okay,where's the best location for a
fire station where we can meetthese criteria to improve this,
(11:42):
the , uh, service that weprovide to the community?
Mm-Hmm..
Speaker 4 (11:46):
Yeah. Um, to speak to that point about expansion,
where is the new , uh, firestation located that you guys
are gonna be
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Building? Yeah, so this is our Northwest station.
It's at , uh, 2351 H Road.
Okay. Uh , right on the cornerof 23 and a half . And h
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Lot , lot of new residents out in that area.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
Yeah, exactly. We actually , uh, did a heat map a
couple years ago. We did a heatmap , um, of where all the
predicted growth was gonna be ,and the two areas were
northwest and southeast. Webuilt Station eight , um, uh,
la we opened it last year. It'sin the southeast area. And so
it's covering that growth andthen this will cover the
Northwest growth.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Awesome. And are you having to go and , and maybe
it's a combination of both. Areyou having to go acquire
properties as well as , um,have some that are owned by
City County? Or does the, hasthe fire department been
planning for a long time andhave parcels around the valley?
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Yeah, good question.
We do all of that . So, um, we, so I'll give you some
examples of what we've donewith that. Um, 'cause I think
we've been pretty creative andwe really try to save taxpayer
dollar when we're looking for ,uh, property or , um, when
we're trying to build thesestations. So , um, station six,
which was the first stationthat we built under the first
(13:03):
responder tax was , um, um,part of a , uh, the city owned
park property that wasundeveloped up on 27 Road
Mm-Hmm . justnorth of G. And so , uh, you
know, we met as a cityleadership team. I talked about
, uh, the need to have a firestation in that area. You know,
talked one-on-one with the parkdirector, could we carve off an
(13:24):
acre and a half , uh, for afire station on that park site.
That seemed to work well withtheir master plan for that park
too. So that's how we, that'show that location was decided,
you know, so there was no costto the community. Um, the park
ground had originally, youknow, it had been in the city's
, um, inventory for a longtime. So , um, station, the la
(13:46):
the station we just opened, weactually purchased the property
from a private owner or workedwith them in a negotiation. Um,
well actually the last twosites we've bought, we , um,
purchased through , um, throughbuying through a private owner.
Mm-Hmm , , um,station three, which was , uh,
not part of the first respondertax, but we did build a new
station to replace an oldstation , um, that was a , um,
(14:09):
a land swap agreement with theschool district. So there was
no money that changed hands,but the school district had
property right there that theywere using as a parking lot.
And it made sense that we putthe fire station on the parking
lot , and then we, in turn,what we did was we , uh, built
a new parking lot for theschool for Pomona Elementary.
So,
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Wonderful.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
And just to finish that, I guess we do try to plan
in advance, you know, so if Iknow , um, we have a station
coming up or some , then it'slike looking out in advance way
before we're gonna build astation a couple years before,
you know, where's the landavailable? Where do we need the
land ? You know, what locationdo we need to look for? Um,
this station that we are justgetting ready to , um, that
(14:49):
we're in the design phase forright now. We, we looked at ,
uh, six or eight sites in thatnorthwest area. We did have a ,
we were working with an OUTTAstate developer for a while on
a, on a land donation that fellthrough. But that was another
option. We were trying to movedown the path of , uh, getting
the developer to donate land ,uh, for the station. Yeah .
Speaker 4 (15:10):
And then obviously with additional stations
requires additional personnel.
What does the recruitmentefforts around that look like?
And then what, what does thattime period look like for
bringing on new , uh, newemployees in , in , in those
roles?
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Yeah, great question. 'cause um, that's a
struggle I think for , um, manybusinesses. Um, and in
including the government , um,you know, government in the
city. And so , um, so we have a, uh, ratio that we look for,
for the number of employees, weneeded a fire station. So
obviously a fire station is a24 7 operation, 365 days a
(15:46):
year. So , um, if we're gonnaput a fire engine or ladder
truck at a station, then we ,um, have a certain number of
people that we need to staffthat with. Uh, and if we're
putting an ambulance at thestation, same thing, certain
number of people to staff thatambulance with. So we look for
21 people for each of these newstations, because that's what
(16:06):
we need for both a fire truckand an ambulance. Um, and the ,
when I say 21 people, that'sfor the, around the clock, 365
days. That doesn't mean there'sthat many over there every day
, every day . There might beanywhere from five to seven
people , uh, in that station,but ultimately we need 21
people. Mm-Hmm .. Um, so , uh, we do our own ,
(16:28):
uh, fire academy. So inColorado , uh, fire academies
are, are a local effort.
There's some states they havestate academies that do all the
, uh, recruit training, but notin Colorado. So , uh, so that's
a piece that we , that we alsowere involved in. But going
back to recruiting, so we willopen up a recruitment for
firefighter , uh, if we'regonna do a , uh, spring
(16:52):
Academy, which is what we havegoing on right now , um, we
start recruiting around May,the May before we open up
recruitment. 'cause it doestake about four to five months
to get through the recruitingprocess. Um, as you can
imagine, it's , uh, there's alot of steps to go through the
recruiting , uh, there'sphysical requirements, there's,
you know , um, uh, backgroundrequirements , um, uh, we do
(17:16):
interview processes, all thosethings. But , uh, so we try to
get through that process , um,sometime in late fall and make
job offers to people so thatthey know, you know, when the
academy's starting, especiallythese last few academies, we've
had a number of people that arecoming from outta state. So we
wanna make sure that we'rebeing, you know, aware that
(17:38):
they need to move, you know,and find a place to live and
all that kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Obviously , um, some of the roles are very , um,
demanding physically. And you ,so they have to go through a
physical test as well, correct.
That's part of the academy.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
It's actually part of the recruitment. So , um, we
are using , uh, a national ,uh, sanction test. That's
probably not the right languagethat I'm using, but it's called
CPA, it's a candidate physicalability testing for
firefighter. It's a recognizedtest that is used all over the
country. There are a number ofstandards, well, first of all,
(18:15):
we have to be certified to evenrun that test. So we have , um,
uh, people on the departmentthat have passed certification
to run that test. Um, thebeauty of that test is someone
can take our test or a testsomewhere else, and if they
have their certificate, theycan just bring it and show that
they've proven that they can dothat test. But , um, there are
parameters that we have tooffer. We have to offer , um,
(18:37):
practice sessions to thecandidates , uh, before they're
actually tested. So they arefamiliar with the test, and
then they run through the test.
The test essentially is , um,testing someone on firefighter
skills in a way that you, youdon't have to have the
experience as a firefighteryet, but you have to show , you
have to demonstrate that youcan do , uh, firefighter
techniques to pass the test.
(18:58):
Um, and so that's part of therecruitment as I was, as I was
saying. And then , uh, oncesomeone gets into the academy,
it's extremely physical. Ithink Reese can probably help
answer that question from hisacademy. But , um, uh, physical
fitness is a critical part ofbeing a firefighter. I don't
know how many people realizehow physically demanding the
job is when you're actually ona fire scene. It's a , it's a
(19:20):
different environment becauseyou were , you were doing so
much physically in such a shorttime to make a difference on a
, on a fire. And so , um, andwhat it really, what's really
important about it, if you'regoing to be a firefighter, is
you have to adopt a , uh,fitness lifestyle. You can't
just pass the test and get onthe fire department and then
(19:43):
not do it. So you have to,fitness has to be part of your
lifestyle every single day. Andwe encourage that. Uh , all of
our fire stations have gymequipment. Uh, we have , uh,
you know, we, under ourstandard operating procedures,
there's a , a certain amount oftime that people have to, that
are allowed to work out onduty. Um, and then they, we
(20:04):
have testing , uh, you know,for our incumbent people,
making sure they're, yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Ongoing.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Mm-Hmm . Ongoing.
Yeah .
Speaker 2 (20:11):
You didn't , if you didn't fail one of those , uh,
ongoing tests .
Speaker 4 (20:14):
No. Thankfully it never fails on of those tests
. No . Uh , but youknow, to , to your point about
having to stay physically fit,you know, there's firefighters,
well , you guys have some , uh,a couple young firefighters
now, right? I think I heard youguys hired like maybe a
20-year-old or something, whichisn't real common in , in the
department, but upwards of, Ithink when I was there, there
(20:37):
was a , an engineer that was 62when he left. So, and all of
all the personnel have to passthat test, right? Right. So it
doesn't matter what positionyou're in, if you're gonna be
out on the fires, you gotta,you gotta be able to be fit
Speaker 2 (20:51):
In
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Addition . It feels like when I, when I see the
young, it's like they're 12when I see . Oh my
Speaker 4 (20:55):
Goodness. Yeah. I walk by college campus and like
middle schoolers,
Speaker 3 (20:59):
. Yeah,
Speaker 2 (21:00):
That's great. Train training 'em early though. It's
gotta feel good to get some ,um, folks in there that have
that dedication at an early ageand Yeah . Wanna be in that
role. Uh, in addition tophysical fitness, you , uh,
firefighters also havereputation for being great
cooks. You do a lot of cookingwhile they're on the job,
right?
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Yep . So not everyone understands that
environment. But , um, so ourfirefighters work , um, well
now they work a 48 hour shift.
So that's a fairly, well, Ishouldn't say fairly new, but
it's a shift that we moved to afew years ago. So
Speaker 2 (21:32):
From, what, what was it before?
Speaker 3 (21:34):
We had a 24 hour shift where they worked 24 on,
24 off for three days in a row.
And then they had , um,additional days off the , um,
we moved to what's called the48 96 shift, which is 2 40, 2
24 hour days in a row , uh, onduty. And then they get four
days off. It's essentially thesame amount of hours they were
working before. But it allows,it's a , uh, it allows the
(21:57):
firefighter the ability to havemore weekends , uh, with their
family. Mm-Hmm .the other shift there , you
know, the weekends werebasically always broke up. You
were either working a Saturdayor a Sunday. So, so that's a
helpful thing for families. Um,it's, it , this doesn't affect
us very much, but , uh, a lotof fire departments move to it
, uh, for commuting purposes,or a lot of the mountain
(22:18):
departments use it becausepeople can , people , people
can't afford to work as afirefighter and live in Vail
or, you know, so they commutefrom a farther distance away.
Um, but that can be, you know,so you're on duty 48 hours, so
obviously you're gonna eat. Um,contrary to what some people
(22:38):
might believe, the city doesnot pay for the food. ,
the firefighters supply theirown food. Um, and so they will
go shopping on duty. So you maysee our fire crews at the store
shopping. I have
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Seen, yes. Yeah .
I'm always curious about whatthey're, what they're making
too. Yeah . What are
Speaker 3 (22:54):
They buying? And , uh, and to your question,
Christy , yeah, they , uh, wedo have some really good cooks
or , and , uh, even people thatmaybe haven't cooked, but they
get to be good cooks. And , um,re this is another question
that Reese can probably answer.
I can talk about it from mydays in the firehouse, which
are a while ago. But when I wasin the firehouse, you know, if
you, if you were good at aspecialty, then you cooked your
(23:15):
specialty. Um, so it's notalways the same person cooking.
It just depends on, you know,what the crew wants to have
that day. Mm-Hmm.
. Mm-Hmm.
. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
I wanna , um, talk a little bit about , um, safety
aspects of your job and how ,um, how we can inform our
citizenry in , in GrandJunction and Mesa County to be
more safe with fire and all thethings that can potentially
cause a fire and focus maybe onfire as opposed to, you know,
(23:44):
the, the ambulance type callsthat you go on. So there's a
lot of reasons for that, buttalk a little bit about fire
safety and what people can bedoing better.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
Yeah, thanks. Um, I think still , um, probably, I,
I haven't seen our statisticsyet 'cause we're working on ,
on our annual report, but if Ihad to guess, I would say our
normal, our most common firecause is probably still kitchen
fires. That's pretty muchacross the country. Um, you
know, safety in the kitchen ,uh, food on the stove, fires,
(24:14):
those kind of things. Um,sometimes those are minor , um,
you know, someone realizes itand calls and we get it out
quick. Sometimes it takes offfrom there. But , um, yeah,
most of our fires are gonna be, um, human caused either
through, you know , um,something that happens like
that. Maybe it's carelessness,not paying attention, those
(24:35):
kind of things. Certainly we dogo on fires that are related to
, uh, maybe an electrical fire,some kind of electrical
problem. Those happen too . So,but , um, when you really think
about safety, I think ourcitizens really have a lot to
do with that. And a lot of thatis, you know, paying attention.
Um, if you're burning candles,making sure those are out. Um,
being careful around the stove.
(24:56):
Um, we do have some fires thatare caused outside , um,
sometimes , um, smoking wherepeople are , um, throwing a
cigarette into, into , um,landscaping material next to
their house. And then we have afire on the outside of the
house. Um, just trying to thinkof some other examples that
happen that are fairly commonthat our folks see. But those
(25:16):
are, I would say those are themost of we and other types of
smoking fires too, you know,smoking in the house, those
kind of things. Mm-Hmm .
Speaker 2 (25:22):
And obviously good working smoke and fire alarms
are super important and I know, um, uh, the local Red Cross
helps with that. Um, fireextinguishers also. What other
, um, things can people do tomake sure they have the
equipment available to helpthem if a fire starts?
Speaker 3 (25:41):
Yeah. For , um, number one is smoke detector,
because a smoke detector, ifyou do have a fire, and
especially at night, you know,you want to be able to be
alerted to get out. So , um,making sure you have a working
smoke detector that has workingbatteries. Um, smoke detectors
mostly are rated for 10 years.
There are , uh, bettertechnology smoke detectors now
(26:02):
that , um, where you don't haveto change batteries. And so if
you're changing your smokedetector, I'd recommend looking
into those. Um, but yeah, onceyou have that , uh, certainly
fire extinguishers , um, um,around the kitchen area, garage
area is always good to have.
Um, another important thing tothink about is a exit plan for
your home, especially if youhave a family. And so sitting
(26:24):
down with your kids and havinga discussion about, okay, if we
had some, if we had a fire orsomething happen , how would we
get out and where is ourmeeting place so that we know
where to go. Um, so , um, ourfolks that work in , um,
community outreach, they areconstantly going out to schools
and other facilities to, tomake sure people understand
(26:44):
these , um, ways to keepthemselves safe.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
I feel like that's something that we could talk
about with our clients. Youknow, like, I don't know how
many of our clients do have aplan for exiting their home. I
don't, yeah . Yeah.
Speaker 4 (26:58):
Um, they , bringing you back to real estate a
little bit and , and the waythat we intertwine with the
fire department. Um, how do youguys play a role in like, new
developments and fire code and,you know, just building con uh
, construction as a whole, youknow, where the fire hydrants
are placed? How do you guysplay into that?
Speaker 3 (27:16):
Yeah, great question. Um, a lot ,
so under the fire code , which, um, is adopted basically
every three years, it changes,but we adopt it every six
years. Um, uh, there are anumber of requirements that are
related to , um, both, youknow, the built the built
environment, I would say. Um,and then to the , um, to the
(27:38):
neighborhoods as far as access,those kind of things. So I'll
start with that. So the firstthing that happens, let's say a
, a new neighborhood's going togo in or a new , um, commercial
building or something's gonnacome in. So our, we have a fire
prevention bureau , um, numberof employees there, six
employees that , um, that we'llmeet with the developer or the
, um, builders which whichever, um, that project is being ,
(28:03):
uh, managed by. And they'llstart to talk about access. How
do we make sure that we haveaccess into that , uh,
neighborhood for firetruck? Sothere are requirements how wide
a street can be. Um, you know,if the, if, depending on the
development, if they're tryingto make it more of a, what we
call a skinny streetdevelopment, which happens
sometimes, then there's otherrequirements that the , the
(28:23):
developer will have to meet,which could be turnarounds or,
you know, places for thefiretruck. 'cause we have to be
able to get the trucks inMm-Hmm . and to
be able to get 'em out. And so, um, so that's part of the
process. Fire hydrants also ,um, if there's regulations for
how far a fire depart , a firehydrant should be from the next
fire hydrant, how far from thestreet, those kind of things.
(28:44):
So that all gets looked atearly on in the process before
anything is ever built. Um, ifit's a residential development
, um, then really we kind ofback off from that. So there's
, um, certainly the buildingdepartment has the building
code and that's , uh, we herein Mesa County, we're under a
county , uh, building codethrough Mesa County Building
(29:04):
Department. And our fireprevention people will
certainly work with them. But ,um, uh, they basically , um,
have all the regulations forthe building itself. Um, if
it's a commercial building, weget involved again with, if
there are , um, we get involvedwith , uh, exiting somewhat,
but that's also part of thebuilding code. The main thing
(29:25):
we get involved in is , um,fire protection systems. So if
it's a commercial building andit's gonna require fire
sprinkler systems or um, um,fire alarm system , uh, if
it's, you know, some kind of aspecial process, some kind of
hazardous materials process,then we get involved in that.
Um, even like it rooms where weget involved in those. 'cause
(29:46):
sometimes those systems arepretty complicated.
Speaker 4 (29:50):
Yeah. And then the, the fire department constructs
annual , uh, fire inspectionsongoing from there. Right. Um,
which allows for thefirefighters to familiarize
with those buildings in theevent that they were to respond
to an event there. Um, and, andhow often do the buildings have
to be inspected? Is that everyyear or
Speaker 3 (30:10):
It , um, it depends.
So yeah, you're correct. We dohave , uh, uh, an inspection
program. So for our inspectionprogram we don't do residential
inspections, so a lot of peopleare maybe confused with that.
So we have a , um, a voluntaryresidential inspection program.
Um, so if someone wants us tocome to their house and do a
fire inspection and basically asafety review, we will offer
(30:31):
that and we will do that. But ,uh, that in the fire code, we
don't require that. Um, but incommercial businesses where
there's gonna be people thatare coming in and out of the
business , um, you know, thatdon't live there, then uh, we
do get involved in that. And soour inspection program is based
on , um, uh, the danger, Iguess involved in the occupancy
(30:53):
and the operations going onthere. So some businesses are
inspected every year. Um, thoseare gonna be businesses that
have , um, like , uh, assemblyareas where there's a lot of
people congregating. And youcould have an incident there
that , um, you know, a lot ofpeople could get harmed. Um,
they're gonna be the ones thathave a hazardous material
operation that has a higherchance of a fire. Um, a lot of
(31:15):
our hospital assisted livingwhere you have a population
that can't get out on theirown, those are gonna be the
ones that we inspect , uh, morefrequently. And then all the
way down to like , um, just theoffice areas where the only
thing we really are looking atis , um, its , uh, exit lights,
signage , um, extension cords,those kind of things. That
(31:37):
might be every three years.
Okay . So
Speaker 2 (31:41):
I wanna shift , uh, a little bit and talk about
wildfires and what are you all, uh, how are you involved in
the wildfire fighting andwhat's your role? Yeah,
Speaker 3 (31:50):
Great. Um, 'cause we are Western Colorado where we
see a lot of wildfire ,it's an interesting question
'cause when I arrived here ,um, one of the questions that I
was asked by my boss,was what are the things that
keep me up at night? And Isaid, well, wildfire keeps me
up at night. Is one of thethings, because we didn't have
an organized wildfire responseteam in Grand Junction, which
(32:12):
surprised me coming from thefront range. I thought for sure
there would be a organizedwildfire team. Um, and so all
of our firefighters are trainedto fight wildfires. But we
have, since about 2011, Ibelieve is when we started the
wildfire team. We have a groupof employees, about 30
employees that are, that havehigher level certification in
(32:32):
wildland firefighting. And ,um, those employees we also
deploy out to other fires. Andso, and there's a reason we do
that. I'm glad you asked thequestion 'cause sometimes
people don't understand why wedo that, but if there is a
wildfire , uh, in an area, thenthe local fire department is
first on the scene and they'regonna do what they can to put
it out. But at some point, ifthe fire is too , is too big or
(32:55):
is continuing to get bigger,then they will have to ask for
assistance. And it usually thefirst step is to ask to ask for
assistance through the countythat opens up , um, state
funding to help with the fire.
And then it might, then thefire might just be a state
fire. And so then you'll startto get , um, responding units
from across the state. Um, butif it continues to grow, then
(33:18):
it'll turn into a federal fire.
And then that brings in federalresources, resources from all
across the country. And so ourwildland firefighting team, we
deploy them , uh, during thewildland season to help other
agencies with those type offires. So our team , uh, and we
only send four people at timeon one unit. So , um, they've
been all over the west , uh, inthe time that they've been in
(33:41):
existence. Um, uh, California,Idaho, Montana, Washington, all
of all of those, we getcompletely reimbursed for all
of that. So the , our costsfrom the, from , uh, for
sending the team, we getreimbursed for through the
state and in turn through thefederal government. Um , but
what that brings us is itbrings our firefighters the
(34:02):
experience to work in a largeincident like that and how that
works, the whole command tocontrol , um,
Speaker 2 (34:08):
Invaluable for them to bring that back here
Speaker 3 (34:11):
And , and they bring that back. But then it also
allows, you know, if we havethe large incident, then we
are, then we're on thereceiving end of that, you
know, so, and we have had largefires here, not necessarily
right in the city area, butjust outside of the city , um,
um, where we've had largeincidents and units from all
over the country have come tohelp us. So it is a shared ,
(34:33):
um, uh, way to fight firesacross the, the region and
across the country.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
And are those crews provided with vehicles that are
locally based ? Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
Also ? Yeah. They take our, our vehicles. We have
, um, essentially , um, threewhile land firefighting , uh,
uh, brush trucks basically. Andthey will take , uh, one or two
of the trucks. We always keepone of them here in case we
have a fire here. Um, and, andit's kind of rare for us to
send two teams out at the sametime. Mostly we send one team,
(35:05):
but if it is a , if it is a badfire season, then sometimes we
will see send to , um, we alsoget reimbursed for the truck.
And so the, the , uh, state ofthe federal government rents
the truck from the city, and sowe get reimbursed for our, you
know, cost for sending thetruck. And so that actually
provides some funding thatcomes back to support the team
(35:25):
. Um , our second brush truckthat we bought for the team was
basically paid for withreimbursements for fires that
they were on the couple seasonsbefore . So it's a good use of,
it's a good use to bring infunding, help the team, and
then in turn that helps the,our local community because we
have that, that those trucksright here for service also.
Mm-Hmm . .
Speaker 4 (35:47):
Um, on that same note, as far as multi-agency
response , um, grand JunctionFire Department's, the largest
fire department in the Valley.
Uh, but you guys often willrespond with , uh, lower Valley
or Clifton. Um, what does thatlook like? And do you guys do
some training with thosedepartments and then just
speaking forward, you know,five, 10 years from now, what ,
(36:09):
what do you see the valley,how, how that shapes up? Is
there gonna be one largedepartment in any given point,
or do you just see, see itstaying , how it's,
Speaker 3 (36:18):
Yeah. Um, so we do train together , um, for , um,
so it, it really boils down toa couple agreements that we
have , um, which are notuncommon , um, in the fire
service across the country. Soif you think about it, a , um,
a fire department really can'tstaff up , um, or have enough
apparatus for the largest eventthat could happen. There's
(36:41):
just, you know, it justwouldn't make sense to do that.
And so across the , uh, UnitedStates fire departments use
mutual aid and automatic aidagreements to , um, have the
support for those largeincidents , um, or when , uh,
either the large incident orwhen the call volume is so high
that they are having a hardtime keeping up with it. So
that, and that happens righthere in Mesa County. So we have
(37:03):
a countywide mutual aidagreement that all of the fire
departments are signers on ,uh, including the airport fire
department, which isinteresting. So if we have a
large event , um, then we wouldget support from, basically
what the agreement says iswe're gonna send , uh, units
and firefighters to help aslong as we can provide it from
what's going on in our ownjurisdiction. Um, we also have
(37:25):
two automatic aid agreements,which means, and that's with ,
uh, lower Valley and Fruita andwith Clifton. And those are
basically says that if theyhave this type of incident,
then we're automaticallysending people. And so those
are set up, preset up so wedon't have to worry about
anything legally or , um,liability wise . Um, but there
is a lot of that that goes onevery day . And so , um, um,
(37:49):
either we're providing serviceto another agency or an agency
might be providing service tous. Um, that's less, you know,
usually we're providing theservice 'cause we are the
larger department, we have moreunits available , um, to go
help the other departments. Um,that's how that system works.
Um, to your question, to yourlarger question about where do
I see it going in the fireservice , um, there's been a
(38:11):
lot of consolidations. Thefront range is a great example
of that where , um, a lot ofdepartments have merged
together. Um, it's goodgovernment to take a look at
that, I think , um, try toprovide less layers of
government. Uh, it's moreefficient to do it that way.
Um, however, there are someparameters that make it
difficult to do so. Um, thecommunity might remember that
(38:33):
last year we spent basicallythe entire year looking at
whether we should , um,essentially merge with Clifton.
That's really not what we werelooking to do. We were looking
to , uh, provide a serviceagreement for Clifton , um, and
then we would be , uh, workingtogether , uh, for a response.
But that came to fruition whereit just wasn't quite right for
(38:55):
the time for that to happen. SoI think everything is , uh, you
know, when's the right timingto do something like that.
There's politics involved,there's finances involved,
there's people involved. Um,and so , um, I think , uh, at
some point in the future thatcould happen, you know , um,
we've had a couple smallconsolidations with, with small
fire departments that haveconsolidated together here in
(39:16):
Mesa County. Um , but I thinkthe trend will be to, to try
and merge, move that way overtime because it , it does make
sense and it is probably moreefficient for , uh, to provide
the service in that way.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
Yeah . As we , um, as we're wrapping up Ken , um,
what do you think are thebiggest challenges facing your
department right now? And, andmaybe it's , uh, fire
departments in general, ormaybe it's your specifically,
what do you see this year?
What, what are you worriedabout besides wildlife and fire
?
Speaker 3 (39:51):
Yeah . Well, well I , I mean, we always have
challenges certainly, but , um,we also always have
opportunity. And so , uh, Ithink we gotta keep that in
mind. So I'm excited about thenew fire station , um, getting
that , uh, construction startedand built so we can provide
service in that northwest northarea for the community. Um, a
challenge that we do see , um,we do have some recruiting
(40:13):
challenges. Um, it's , uh, wedo get quite a, quite a number
of people that apply for thejob, but once we get down
through the whole process, thenwe end up with a limited number
of qualified candidates. And so, um, you know, back in the
day, , uh, we used toget hundreds and hundreds of
applicants for a firefighter.
When I was hired as afirefighter , um, I tested
(40:33):
against 700 people for fivejobs. Wow . So , um, it's not
quite like that anymore. Um ,some of the larger departments,
Denver, la , they would getthousands of people that would
apply. And, and so that's alittle bit of a challenge. So ,
um, for us as a fire, as a firedepartment service , um, we
need to get our message outbetter about what the job is
(40:55):
because I think people havesome misunderstanding about the
job. Um, the job is safe, itpays well, it has good
benefits. Um, it's a greatfamily friendly job. One of the
things we hear is it's notfamily friendly because of the
schedule , um, but it really isfamily friendly. Um, so that's
one issue that I think that ,um, we need to work on just
(41:15):
getting those applicant numbersup. Um, we have an issue like a
lot of businesses or , uh,industries right now with
supply chain that is reallycausing us issues with , um,
actually purchasing our, whatwe call fire apparatus, which
is fire trucks , uh, andambulances and that kind of
thing. So , um, it's the samething that other , uh,
(41:36):
businesses are seeing whereeither there's certain parts
that are being delayed orMm-Hmm . . And so
we used to be able to, if I wasgonna buy a new firetruck, I
used to be able to turn in anorder for a firetruck and I'd
see it within a year or so. Um,we just met with our
manufacturer and our, our fireapparatus dealer. And , uh, for
the type of fire truck that webuy right now, which all of our
(41:58):
trucks are custom , uh, we'relooking at 52 months from the
time that we order to the timewe get it. Wow . That is really
unacceptable. We can't waitthat long. Um, you know, we
need to be able to get back tosome timeframe of a year to two
years when we order a firetruck . And it's a really
challenge because , um, youknow, we're tying up money ,
(42:21):
um, to buy that truck that itcould be used for other
purposes. And so we're tryingto figure out a way to , um,
make sure we can get the trucksordered and get 'em, you know,
online and, and , uh, soworking with working with , uh,
our dealer for that. Um, seesome other challenges. I see.
Um, finances is always gonna bea challenge, I think for
(42:41):
government. Um, there's always,everybody wants a lot of things
to happen. And so , um, thefirst responder tax is, while
it's been a great , um, it'sjust been a godsend for the
fire department to get the newstations and the people we
need, but it's what I wouldcall plateauing out. And so
it'll, it'll continue to payfor , um, these personnel in
(43:04):
these stations that we'rebuilding, but we're gonna need
additional stations in thefuture and we'll need more
people in the future as thiscommunity grows. And so , um, I
don't, you know, right now itdoesn't look like the first
responder tax would be able topay for much more expansion.
And so , um, we'll have to comeup with, you know, the city
will have to work and figureout how do we continue to
afford expansion of , um,certainly public safety
(43:27):
services, but all the servicesthat the city provide. Um, so
Speaker 2 (43:32):
It's a lot. So yeah.
People watching listening , uh,feel free to , uh, jump in city
council, county commissioners,right. , don't
complain. Unless you've been ,uh, involved in making the
decisions, it's reallychallenging to figure out a
budget and make everything flowand make sure everybody's safe
in our community. Well, wethank you , uh, Mr. Watkins for
(43:52):
, uh, chief Watkins, I shouldsay , um, for joining us today
and , and sharing a lot of yourexpertise , um, for Reese. You
wanna close us out?
Speaker 4 (44:01):
Yeah. Thank you for coming today. It's been really
fun seeing the, the growth inthe fire department and , uh,
it, it always puts a smile onmy face when I see a fire
apparatus out there, so, yeah .
Yeah. Thanks for all you guysare doing.
Speaker 3 (44:13):
Well, thanks. Um, if I could just close with them ,
one thing, I, I got a greatjob. I got a great team. So ,
um, I go to work every day andthe best thing that happens to
me in my day is when I hearfrom a citizen about a service
that our folks have provided,99% of the things I hear are
good and they're reallypositive. So , um, I just
(44:34):
appreciate , uh, the team thatwe have here and the work that
they do every single day andkeep things , uh, our community
safe. So.
Speaker 2 (44:40):
Wonderful. Thank you. Thank you. Again, this is
Christie Reese and Ree Stanleysigning off for the Full Circle
podcast. We'll see you nexttime . Thanks . Thanks for
listening. This is ChristieReese signing out from the Full
Circle Podcast .
Speaker 2 (00:06):
The Full Circle podcast, compelling interviews
and incredible tales fromColorado's Western Slope, from
the mountains to the desert.
Christy Reese and her team herefrom the Movers Shakers, and
characters of the Grand Valleyand surrounding mountain towns
that make the Western slope theplace we all love. You'll
learn, you'll laugh, you'lllove with the full circle.
Hello everyone, I'm KristiReese. Welcome back to the Full
(00:28):
Circle Podcast. I'm here withmy co-host re Stanley today.
Welcome Reese.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Thank you Kristi .
Speaker 2 (00:34):
And we are excited to have as our guest , uh, fire
chief for City of GrandJunction, Ken Watkins. Welcome,
Ken.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Oh, thank you.
Excited to be here and to dothe podcast with you. Yeah .
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Um, so usually we start off when , uh, uh, with
our guest , talking about kindof how you ended up in Grand
Junction. How long have youlived here?
Speaker 3 (00:54):
I've lived here almost 17 years. Um, I have a
little family history herethat's kinda what brought me
here. But , uh, my mom and herside of the family , uh, was
raised in Quebec. Oh,
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Wow. Not a lot of people can say that.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
No,
when she was 18, and so I grewup in Denver. Uh, what brought
me back here, well, brought ,brought me here was , um, I was
interested in becoming a firechief. I was already working
for quite a while for a firedepartment on the front range,
and I wanted to be a firechief, so I applied for the job
(01:27):
here in Grand Junction, and Ihad the family ties. Um, and so
I also had a family that , uh,an aunt that I was close to
that , um, had some medicalissues that I wanted to come
over and help take care of. Sothose few things brought me
over here to Grand Junction.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
What was it, what's the difference, the major
difference between being afirefighter and a fire chief
that made you seek thatposition?
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Sure. So , um, um, I started out as a , as a
firefighter, went up throughthe ranks. Um , essentially
worked in every position on thefire department, but at some
point I decided I wanted to getinto leadership and management.
And so I went back to collegeand finished , uh, uh, my
bachelor's degree and then amaster's degree also. And then
(02:10):
, uh, that basically set me upfor a fire chief's position.
So, you know, the positionitself is , um, is leadership
management. It's anadministrative job. Um, people
ask me all the time, you know,how often I go out , out on
fire. It's pretty rare for meto go on a fire. I mean, if I
go out on a fire two or threetimes a year, that's a lot. So,
you know, we have , uh,excellent staff that cover all
(02:32):
that. And if it's a largeincident or something like
that, that I might end up on afire. But , uh, really that's
up to the operational chiefsthat are on the department.
Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
And , um, you mentioned before we got started
recording , um, that your firedepartment is city based , but
you also contract out with therural fire areas. Can you
explain how that works?
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Sure. And maybe it helps to understand the county
itself maybe. So, Mesa Countyhas , uh, 10 different fire
departments. Um, most of themare in the Grand Valley. Of
course, there's a firedepartment. Uh, Quebec has its
own fire department , um,plateau Valley, which is up on
, uh, covers Powder Horn in theMesa. Um, and so Grand Junction
itself, we cover the city ofGrand Junction, all the city
(03:16):
limits. And then we've had acontract agreement for service
with the Grand Junction RuralFire Protection District for a
long time, since 1944. So it'sbeen in , yeah, so they don't
have , uh, fire stations orpeople or fire trucks . And so
we provide all that for themunder this service contract.
And that essentially is , um,three different sides of the
(03:38):
city. They surround us on threedifferent sides , uh, up north.
A lot of the areas in theRedlands is the rural district,
and then some of the areas inOrchard Mesa. Mm-Hmm,
Speaker 2 (03:48):
And what year was it when , uh, the fire department
took over a lot of theemergency services that were
happening with ambulances alonewith ambulance contractors?
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Yeah. Thanks for the question. So , um, that was
right before I came. Um, so in, um, what set up that change
was in 2004, the county wrote a, uh, emergency medical service
resolution. And that set , uh,basically what it did is
divided the county intoambulance service areas, and
they roughly followed the firedistrict boundaries. And so the
(04:22):
county wanted to do thatbecause there was some concern
about the , uh, coveragethroughout the county for
medical services. So by , uh,basically dividing the county
up into area , uh, serviceareas that provided that , uh,
ability to provide ambulanceservice in those areas. Um, in
2006 is when the city , uh, inthat resolution, the city had
(04:45):
the ability to select who theservice provider would be in
the city. So in 2006, theyselected the fire department to
provide that service. And so ,uh, the Grand Junction Fire
Department has been providingambulance service since then. A
lot of people don't realizethat the fire department had
ambulances before then. Uh,just they served as a backup to
the ambulance providers thatwere already here. Um, and so
(05:08):
it's, it's not new to the firedepartment. We were providing
that service. We hadparamedics, we had EMTs, all
that. So,
Speaker 2 (05:15):
And Reese, you were on the fire department for a
number of years?
Speaker 4 (05:19):
I was, yeah. I was under Chief Watkins leadership
as well as , uh, a lot of theother great employees over
there for just shy of fiveyears, both as an EMT and a
firefighter. Mm-Hmm .
the, the department for 17years, you said Chief, just
about, yeah. I , I imagineyou've seen a lot of changes
both in, you know, the size ofpersonnel, how many stations ,
(05:43):
uh, call volume, all thosethings. What does that look
like in, in your time as , asas chief?
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Yeah, it's been exciting, really. And , uh,
I'll just start by saying,Reese, we miss you
, um, if when you want to comeback, let me know. No , no .
uh, we hate to see peopleleave, but we always wanna
support people's passions. So ,um, yeah. So in my time, I came
in 2007, right after theambulance , uh, service started
(06:10):
for the city. Uh, thedepartment at that time was
around a hundred employees. Um,we had , um, five fire
stations. We had recently builtFire Station five in the
Redlands. Um, and so , uh, nowwe are 185 employees , uh,
seven stations. We're , we'rejust getting ready to build the
eighth station, actually. Uh ,we're going through the design
(06:31):
process right now. So , um,when I arrived here, I
recognized right away that wewere short of fire stations ,
um, be based on the call volumeand the size of the city. So we
attempted to do that earlier onthan when we're currently doing
it. But we needed to secure thefunding. And so that funding
was secured in 2019 with thefirst responder tax, thanks to
our, our , uh, grand Junctioncitizens that voted for that.
(06:55):
Um, so yeah, a lot of changewith the additional stations ,
uh, additional personnel , um,additional apparatus. Um, uh,
budget wise , my budget, thefire department budget has
grown from who, I'm trying toremember what it was when I got
here. It was around maybe 10million, eight to 10 million
this year. My budget is 33 anda half million to run the fire
(07:17):
department. So that's a bigbudget. Um, you know, most of
our budget is , uh, people,'cause we're a service agency.
So , um, and then the callvolume, like you mentioned, the
call volume's gone from about ,uh, uh, 10,000 calls to , uh,
last year we ran just under22,000 calls. So
Speaker 2 (07:37):
I have a couple of questions. Number one , um, I'm
sorry to say that I'm not , uh,up to speed on that. The tax ,
uh, is that ongoing fundingfor, I mean, that's consistent
ongoing funding for the firedistrict?
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Yeah, yeah. So it's a half cent sales tax. And so
when people shop in GrandJunction and buy something,
then um , it's , uh, additionalhalf cent over our , uh,
existing sales tax that we had.
Um, but it is ongoing and thereason it's ongoing is , um,
because it is the main purposeof the, of the funding is to
pay for the personnel , uh,that we've hired for those fire
(08:15):
stations. And then the otherpart of the first responder tax
is for the police department.
So it's a shared tax , um, the,it's same kind of thing that
it's to , uh, pay foradditional police officers ,
um, civilian personnel at thepolice department also.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
And is the expansion driven by a number of factors?
Is it population based ? Is itcall based ? Is it , uh,
geographically based ? I mean,you can only cover a certain
area with one fire station.
Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Yeah. So for us, for the fire department, the fund
or the , uh, growth, I'm sorry,could you repeat that again? I
think I went down the wrongpath.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
No. Um, so the expansion of , um, you know,
new structures and things likethat and hiring more people,
how do you , um, what do youbase that on? Is it because of
the volume of calls? Is itbecause of this population? Is
it because of these geographyof the, where the station sits?
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
Yeah. Let me go back to , um, when I arrived here in
2007 and started to look at theservice that we were providing
, um, with my experience that Icame , I, I was with , uh,
another fire department for 25years. I was the deputy chief
of , uh, administration when Ileft there to come here to be
the chief. So I had a lot ofexperience already. Um, and I
started to look at the volumeof calls that we were running
(09:32):
and also where we were runningthem from. The issue that we
had here in Grand Junction atthe time was we were a , and
it's, it's not unlike othercommunities that have grown,
basically , uh, all of our firestations were in basically a
core circle area of theexisting community. But the
city had grown exponentiallyoutside of that circle.
(09:52):
Basically, station five wasbuilt, so that was fine. It
was, it was helping to coverthe Redlands, but we really
didn't have any close firestations up to the north , um,
or out toward Orchard Mesa, wehad a station, station four
that was kind of in Orchard.
Mesa is right on the edge ofit. Um, and so the issue with
that is response times. So whenwe have a critical call,
(10:13):
cardiac arrest , uh, majoraccident, you know, something
that we really need to getthere quick, we had , um,
response times that we reallycouldn't affect because our,
our locations were too faraway. Um, as the community
grows, the , the call volumegoes up, which, you know,
creates a kind of a , itexponentially , uh, makes that
an issue because then as unitsare going out of the area to
(10:37):
cover other areas, then theirareas are getting uncovered. So
, um, so we started looking atwhere do we need the additional
fire stations. The other thingthat we look at for fire
station location is we , um,just about everything that we
do in the fire service is underguidelines from the National
Fire Protection Association.
And so they have guidelines for, um, how fast we should
(10:59):
respond on a call based on thesize of our community, the type
of community. Um, that's all ofour response times. And
there's, you know, there'sdetail related to that. Um, and
then we also try to fit intowhat is called the Insurance
Service Office regulations,which affects , um, communities
fire insurance rating and inturn affects people's insurance
(11:22):
premiums. And so that agencywill also say, you need a fire
engine to respond within thisdistance, or you need a ladder
truck to respond within thisdistance. So we put all that
together and decide, okay,where's the best location for a
fire station where we can meetthese criteria to improve this,
(11:42):
the , uh, service that weprovide to the community?
Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 4 (11:46):
Yeah. Um, to speak to that point about expansion,
where is the new , uh, firestation located that you guys
are gonna be
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Building? Yeah, so this is our Northwest station.
It's at , uh, 2351 H Road.
Okay. Uh , right on the cornerof 23 and a half . And h
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Lot , lot of new residents out in that area.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
Yeah, exactly. We actually , uh, did a heat map a
couple years ago. We did a heatmap , um, of where all the
predicted growth was gonna be ,and the two areas were
northwest and southeast. Webuilt Station eight , um, uh,
la we opened it last year. It'sin the southeast area. And so
it's covering that growth andthen this will cover the
Northwest growth.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Awesome. And are you having to go and , and maybe
it's a combination of both. Areyou having to go acquire
properties as well as , um,have some that are owned by
City County? Or does the, hasthe fire department been
planning for a long time andhave parcels around the valley?
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Yeah, good question.
We do all of that
examples of what we've donewith that. Um, 'cause I think
we've been pretty creative andwe really try to save taxpayer
dollar when we're looking for ,uh, property or , um, when
we're trying to build thesestations. So , um, station six,
which was the first stationthat we built under the first
(13:03):
responder tax was , um, um,part of a , uh, the city owned
park property that wasundeveloped up on 27 Road
Mm-Hmm .
know, we met as a cityleadership team. I talked about
, uh, the need to have a firestation in that area. You know,
talked one-on-one with the parkdirector, could we carve off an
(13:24):
acre and a half , uh, for afire station on that park site.
That seemed to work well withtheir master plan for that park
too. So that's how we, that'show that location was decided,
you know, so there was no costto the community. Um, the park
ground had originally, youknow, it had been in the city's
, um, inventory for a longtime. So , um, station, the la
(13:46):
the station we just opened, weactually purchased the property
from a private owner or workedwith them in a negotiation. Um,
well actually the last twosites we've bought, we , um,
purchased through , um, throughbuying through a private owner.
Mm-Hmm ,
not part of the first respondertax, but we did build a new
station to replace an oldstation , um, that was a , um,
(14:09):
a land swap agreement with theschool district. So there was
no money that changed hands,but the school district had
property right there that theywere using as a parking lot.
And it made sense that we putthe fire station on the parking
lot , and then we, in turn,what we did was we , uh, built
a new parking lot for theschool for Pomona Elementary.
So,
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Wonderful.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
And just to finish that, I guess we do try to plan
in advance, you know, so if Iknow , um, we have a station
coming up or some , then it'slike looking out in advance way
before we're gonna build astation a couple years before,
you know, where's the landavailable? Where do we need the
land ? You know, what locationdo we need to look for? Um,
this station that we are justgetting ready to , um, that
(14:49):
we're in the design phase forright now. We, we looked at ,
uh, six or eight sites in thatnorthwest area. We did have a ,
we were working with an OUTTAstate developer for a while on
a, on a land donation that fellthrough. But that was another
option. We were trying to movedown the path of , uh, getting
the developer to donate land ,uh, for the station. Yeah .
Speaker 4 (15:10):
And then obviously with additional stations
requires additional personnel.
What does the recruitmentefforts around that look like?
And then what, what does thattime period look like for
bringing on new , uh, newemployees in , in , in those
roles?
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Yeah, great question. 'cause um, that's a
struggle I think for , um, manybusinesses. Um, and in
including the government , um,you know, government in the
city. And so , um, so we have a, uh, ratio that we look for,
for the number of employees, weneeded a fire station. So
obviously a fire station is a24 7 operation, 365 days a
(15:46):
year. So , um, if we're gonnaput a fire engine or ladder
truck at a station, then we ,um, have a certain number of
people that we need to staffthat with. Uh, and if we're
putting an ambulance at thestation, same thing, certain
number of people to staff thatambulance with. So we look for
21 people for each of these newstations, because that's what
(16:06):
we need for both a fire truckand an ambulance. Um, and the ,
when I say 21 people, that'sfor the, around the clock, 365
days. That doesn't mean there'sthat many over there every day
, every day . There might beanywhere from five to seven
people , uh, in that station,but ultimately we need 21
people. Mm-Hmm .
(16:28):
uh, fire academy. So inColorado , uh, fire academies
are, are a local effort.
There's some states they havestate academies that do all the
, uh, recruit training, but notin Colorado. So , uh, so that's
a piece that we , that we alsowere involved in. But going
back to recruiting, so we willopen up a recruitment for
firefighter , uh, if we'regonna do a , uh, spring
(16:52):
Academy, which is what we havegoing on right now , um, we
start recruiting around May,the May before we open up
recruitment. 'cause it doestake about four to five months
to get through the recruitingprocess. Um, as you can
imagine, it's , uh, there's alot of steps to go through the
recruiting , uh, there'sphysical requirements, there's,
you know , um, uh, backgroundrequirements , um, uh, we do
(17:16):
interview processes, all thosethings. But , uh, so we try to
get through that process , um,sometime in late fall and make
job offers to people so thatthey know, you know, when the
academy's starting, especiallythese last few academies, we've
had a number of people that arecoming from outta state. So we
wanna make sure that we'rebeing, you know, aware that
(17:38):
they need to move, you know,and find a place to live and
all that kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Obviously , um, some of the roles are very , um,
demanding physically. And you ,so they have to go through a
physical test as well, correct.
That's part of the academy.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
It's actually part of the recruitment. So , um, we
are using , uh, a national ,uh, sanction test. That's
probably not the right languagethat I'm using, but it's called
CPA, it's a candidate physicalability testing for
firefighter. It's a recognizedtest that is used all over the
country. There are a number ofstandards, well, first of all,
(18:15):
we have to be certified to evenrun that test. So we have , um,
uh, people on the departmentthat have passed certification
to run that test. Um, thebeauty of that test is someone
can take our test or a testsomewhere else, and if they
have their certificate, theycan just bring it and show that
they've proven that they can dothat test. But , um, there are
parameters that we have tooffer. We have to offer , um,
(18:37):
practice sessions to thecandidates , uh, before they're
actually tested. So they arefamiliar with the test, and
then they run through the test.
The test essentially is , um,testing someone on firefighter
skills in a way that you, youdon't have to have the
experience as a firefighteryet, but you have to show , you
have to demonstrate that youcan do , uh, firefighter
techniques to pass the test.
(18:58):
Um, and so that's part of therecruitment as I was, as I was
saying. And then , uh, oncesomeone gets into the academy,
it's extremely physical. Ithink Reese can probably help
answer that question from hisacademy. But , um, uh, physical
fitness is a critical part ofbeing a firefighter. I don't
know how many people realizehow physically demanding the
job is when you're actually ona fire scene. It's a , it's a
(19:20):
different environment becauseyou were , you were doing so
much physically in such a shorttime to make a difference on a
, on a fire. And so , um, andwhat it really, what's really
important about it, if you'regoing to be a firefighter, is
you have to adopt a , uh,fitness lifestyle. You can't
just pass the test and get onthe fire department and then
(19:43):
not do it. So you have to,fitness has to be part of your
lifestyle every single day. Andwe encourage that. Uh , all of
our fire stations have gymequipment. Uh, we have , uh,
you know, we, under ourstandard operating procedures,
there's a , a certain amount oftime that people have to, that
are allowed to work out onduty. Um, and then they, we
(20:04):
have testing , uh, you know,for our incumbent people,
making sure they're, yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Ongoing.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Mm-Hmm . Ongoing.
Yeah .
Speaker 2 (20:11):
You didn't , if you didn't fail one of those , uh,
ongoing tests .
Speaker 4 (20:14):
No. Thankfully it never fails on of those tests
having to stay physically fit,you know, there's firefighters,
well , you guys have some , uh,a couple young firefighters
now, right? I think I heard youguys hired like maybe a
20-year-old or something, whichisn't real common in , in the
department, but upwards of, Ithink when I was there, there
(20:37):
was a , an engineer that was 62when he left. So, and all of
all the personnel have to passthat test, right? Right. So it
doesn't matter what positionyou're in, if you're gonna be
out on the fires, you gotta,you gotta be able to be fit
Speaker 2 (20:51):
In
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Addition . It feels like when I, when I see the
young, it's like they're 12when I see
Speaker 4 (20:55):
Goodness. Yeah. I walk by college campus and like
middle schoolers,
Speaker 3 (20:59):
Speaker 2 (21:00):
That's great. Train training 'em early though. It's
gotta feel good to get some ,um, folks in there that have
that dedication at an early ageand Yeah . Wanna be in that
role. Uh, in addition tophysical fitness, you , uh,
firefighters also havereputation for being great
cooks. You do a lot of cookingwhile they're on the job,
right?
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Yep . So not everyone understands that
environment. But , um, so ourfirefighters work , um, well
now they work a 48 hour shift.
So that's a fairly, well, Ishouldn't say fairly new, but
it's a shift that we moved to afew years ago. So
Speaker 2 (21:32):
From, what, what was it before?
Speaker 3 (21:34):
We had a 24 hour shift where they worked 24 on,
24 off for three days in a row.
And then they had , um,additional days off the , um,
we moved to what's called the48 96 shift, which is 2 40, 2
24 hour days in a row , uh, onduty. And then they get four
days off. It's essentially thesame amount of hours they were
working before. But it allows,it's a , uh, it allows the
(21:57):
firefighter the ability to havemore weekends , uh, with their
family. Mm-Hmm .
know, the weekends werebasically always broke up. You
were either working a Saturdayor a Sunday. So, so that's a
helpful thing for families. Um,it's, it , this doesn't affect
us very much, but , uh, a lotof fire departments move to it
, uh, for commuting purposes,or a lot of the mountain
(22:18):
departments use it becausepeople can , people , people
can't afford to work as afirefighter and live in Vail
or, you know, so they commutefrom a farther distance away.
Um, but that can be, you know,so you're on duty 48 hours, so
obviously you're gonna eat. Um,contrary to what some people
(22:38):
might believe, the city doesnot pay for the food.
the firefighters supply theirown food. Um, and so they will
go shopping on duty. So you maysee our fire crews at the store
shopping. I have
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Seen, yes. Yeah .
I'm always curious about whatthey're, what they're making
too. Yeah . What are
Speaker 3 (22:54):
They buying? And , uh, and to your question,
Christy , yeah, they , uh, wedo have some really good cooks
or , and , uh, even people thatmaybe haven't cooked, but they
get to be good cooks. And , um,re this is another question
that Reese can probably answer.
I can talk about it from mydays in the firehouse, which
are a while ago. But when I wasin the firehouse, you know, if
you, if you were good at aspecialty, then you cooked your
(23:15):
specialty. Um, so it's notalways the same person cooking.
It just depends on, you know,what the crew wants to have
that day. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
I wanna , um, talk a little bit about , um, safety
aspects of your job and how ,um, how we can inform our
citizenry in , in GrandJunction and Mesa County to be
more safe with fire and all thethings that can potentially
cause a fire and focus maybe onfire as opposed to, you know,
(23:44):
the, the ambulance type callsthat you go on. So there's a
lot of reasons for that, buttalk a little bit about fire
safety and what people can bedoing better.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
Yeah, thanks. Um, I think still , um, probably, I,
I haven't seen our statisticsyet 'cause we're working on ,
on our annual report, but if Ihad to guess, I would say our
normal, our most common firecause is probably still kitchen
fires. That's pretty muchacross the country. Um, you
know, safety in the kitchen ,uh, food on the stove, fires,
(24:14):
those kind of things. Um,sometimes those are minor , um,
you know, someone realizes itand calls and we get it out
quick. Sometimes it takes offfrom there. But , um, yeah,
most of our fires are gonna be, um, human caused either
through, you know , um,something that happens like
that. Maybe it's carelessness,not paying attention, those
(24:35):
kind of things. Certainly we dogo on fires that are related to
, uh, maybe an electrical fire,some kind of electrical
problem. Those happen too . So,but , um, when you really think
about safety, I think ourcitizens really have a lot to
do with that. And a lot of thatis, you know, paying attention.
Um, if you're burning candles,making sure those are out. Um,
being careful around the stove.
(24:56):
Um, we do have some fires thatare caused outside , um,
sometimes , um, smoking wherepeople are , um, throwing a
cigarette into, into , um,landscaping material next to
their house. And then we have afire on the outside of the
house. Um, just trying to thinkof some other examples that
happen that are fairly commonthat our folks see. But those
(25:16):
are, I would say those are themost of we and other types of
smoking fires too, you know,smoking in the house, those
kind of things. Mm-Hmm .
Speaker 2 (25:22):
And obviously good working smoke and fire alarms
are super important and I know, um, uh, the local Red Cross
helps with that. Um, fireextinguishers also. What other
, um, things can people do tomake sure they have the
equipment available to helpthem if a fire starts?
Speaker 3 (25:41):
Yeah. For , um, number one is smoke detector,
because a smoke detector, ifyou do have a fire, and
especially at night, you know,you want to be able to be
alerted to get out. So , um,making sure you have a working
smoke detector that has workingbatteries. Um, smoke detectors
mostly are rated for 10 years.
There are , uh, bettertechnology smoke detectors now
(26:02):
that , um, where you don't haveto change batteries. And so if
you're changing your smokedetector, I'd recommend looking
into those. Um, but yeah, onceyou have that , uh, certainly
fire extinguishers , um, um,around the kitchen area, garage
area is always good to have.
Um, another important thing tothink about is a exit plan for
your home, especially if youhave a family. And so sitting
(26:24):
down with your kids and havinga discussion about, okay, if we
had some, if we had a fire orsomething happen , how would we
get out and where is ourmeeting place so that we know
where to go. Um, so , um, ourfolks that work in , um,
community outreach, they areconstantly going out to schools
and other facilities to, tomake sure people understand
(26:44):
these , um, ways to keepthemselves safe.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
I feel like that's something that we could talk
about with our clients. Youknow, like, I don't know how
many of our clients do have aplan for exiting their home. I
don't, yeah . Yeah.
Speaker 4 (26:58):
Um, they , bringing you back to real estate a
little bit and , and the waythat we intertwine with the
fire department. Um, how do youguys play a role in like, new
developments and fire code and,you know, just building con uh
, construction as a whole, youknow, where the fire hydrants
are placed? How do you guysplay into that?
Speaker 3 (27:16):
Yeah, great question. Um, a lot
so under the fire code , which, um, is adopted basically
every three years, it changes,but we adopt it every six
years. Um, uh, there are anumber of requirements that are
related to , um, both, youknow, the built the built
environment, I would say. Um,and then to the , um, to the
(27:38):
neighborhoods as far as access,those kind of things. So I'll
start with that. So the firstthing that happens, let's say a
, a new neighborhood's going togo in or a new , um, commercial
building or something's gonnacome in. So our, we have a fire
prevention bureau , um, numberof employees there, six
employees that , um, that we'llmeet with the developer or the
, um, builders which whichever, um, that project is being ,
(28:03):
uh, managed by. And they'llstart to talk about access. How
do we make sure that we haveaccess into that , uh,
neighborhood for firetruck? Sothere are requirements how wide
a street can be. Um, you know,if the, if, depending on the
development, if they're tryingto make it more of a, what we
call a skinny streetdevelopment, which happens
sometimes, then there's otherrequirements that the , the
(28:23):
developer will have to meet,which could be turnarounds or,
you know, places for thefiretruck. 'cause we have to be
able to get the trucks inMm-Hmm .
be able to get 'em out. And so, um, so that's part of the
process. Fire hydrants also ,um, if there's regulations for
how far a fire depart , a firehydrant should be from the next
fire hydrant, how far from thestreet, those kind of things.
(28:44):
So that all gets looked atearly on in the process before
anything is ever built. Um, ifit's a residential development
, um, then really we kind ofback off from that. So there's
, um, certainly the buildingdepartment has the building
code and that's , uh, we herein Mesa County, we're under a
county , uh, building codethrough Mesa County Building
(29:04):
Department. And our fireprevention people will
certainly work with them. But ,um, uh, they basically , um,
have all the regulations forthe building itself. Um, if
it's a commercial building, weget involved again with, if
there are , um, we get involvedwith , uh, exiting somewhat,
but that's also part of thebuilding code. The main thing
(29:25):
we get involved in is , um,fire protection systems. So if
it's a commercial building andit's gonna require fire
sprinkler systems or um, um,fire alarm system , uh, if
it's, you know, some kind of aspecial process, some kind of
hazardous materials process,then we get involved in that.
Um, even like it rooms where weget involved in those. 'cause
(29:46):
sometimes those systems arepretty complicated.
Speaker 4 (29:50):
Yeah. And then the, the fire department constructs
annual , uh, fire inspectionsongoing from there. Right. Um,
which allows for thefirefighters to familiarize
with those buildings in theevent that they were to respond
to an event there. Um, and, andhow often do the buildings have
to be inspected? Is that everyyear or
Speaker 3 (30:10):
It , um, it depends.
So yeah, you're correct. We dohave , uh, uh, an inspection
program. So for our inspectionprogram we don't do residential
inspections, so a lot of peopleare maybe confused with that.
So we have a , um, a voluntaryresidential inspection program.
Um, so if someone wants us tocome to their house and do a
fire inspection and basically asafety review, we will offer
(30:31):
that and we will do that. But ,uh, that in the fire code, we
don't require that. Um, but incommercial businesses where
there's gonna be people thatare coming in and out of the
business , um, you know, thatdon't live there, then uh, we
do get involved in that. And soour inspection program is based
on , um, uh, the danger, Iguess involved in the occupancy
(30:53):
and the operations going onthere. So some businesses are
inspected every year. Um, thoseare gonna be businesses that
have , um, like , uh, assemblyareas where there's a lot of
people congregating. And youcould have an incident there
that , um, you know, a lot ofpeople could get harmed. Um,
they're gonna be the ones thathave a hazardous material
operation that has a higherchance of a fire. Um, a lot of
(31:15):
our hospital assisted livingwhere you have a population
that can't get out on theirown, those are gonna be the
ones that we inspect , uh, morefrequently. And then all the
way down to like , um, just theoffice areas where the only
thing we really are looking atis , um, its , uh, exit lights,
signage , um, extension cords,those kind of things. That
(31:37):
might be every three years.
Okay . So
Speaker 2 (31:41):
I wanna shift , uh, a little bit and talk about
wildfires and what are you all, uh, how are you involved in
the wildfire fighting andwhat's your role? Yeah,
Speaker 3 (31:50):
Great. Um, 'cause we are Western Colorado where we
see a lot of wildfire
'cause when I arrived here ,um, one of the questions that I
was asked by my boss,
keep me up at night? And Isaid, well, wildfire keeps me
up at night. Is one of thethings, because we didn't have
an organized wildfire responseteam in Grand Junction, which
(32:12):
surprised me coming from thefront range. I thought for sure
there would be a organizedwildfire team. Um, and so all
of our firefighters are trainedto fight wildfires. But we
have, since about 2011, Ibelieve is when we started the
wildfire team. We have a groupof employees, about 30
employees that are, that havehigher level certification in
(32:32):
wildland firefighting. And ,um, those employees we also
deploy out to other fires. Andso, and there's a reason we do
that. I'm glad you asked thequestion 'cause sometimes
people don't understand why wedo that, but if there is a
wildfire , uh, in an area, thenthe local fire department is
first on the scene and they'regonna do what they can to put
it out. But at some point, ifthe fire is too , is too big or
(32:55):
is continuing to get bigger,then they will have to ask for
assistance. And it usually thefirst step is to ask to ask for
assistance through the countythat opens up , um, state
funding to help with the fire.
And then it might, then thefire might just be a state
fire. And so then you'll startto get , um, responding units
from across the state. Um, butif it continues to grow, then
(33:18):
it'll turn into a federal fire.
And then that brings in federalresources, resources from all
across the country. And so ourwildland firefighting team, we
deploy them , uh, during thewildland season to help other
agencies with those type offires. So our team , uh, and we
only send four people at timeon one unit. So , um, they've
been all over the west , uh, inthe time that they've been in
(33:41):
existence. Um, uh, California,Idaho, Montana, Washington, all
of all of those, we getcompletely reimbursed for all
of that. So the , our costsfrom the, from , uh, for
sending the team, we getreimbursed for through the
state and in turn through thefederal government. Um , but
what that brings us is itbrings our firefighters the
(34:02):
experience to work in a largeincident like that and how that
works, the whole command tocontrol , um,
Speaker 2 (34:08):
Invaluable for them to bring that back here
Speaker 3 (34:11):
And , and they bring that back. But then it also
allows, you know, if we havethe large incident, then we
are, then we're on thereceiving end of that, you
know, so, and we have had largefires here, not necessarily
right in the city area, butjust outside of the city , um,
um, where we've had largeincidents and units from all
over the country have come tohelp us. So it is a shared ,
(34:33):
um, uh, way to fight firesacross the, the region and
across the country.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
And are those crews provided with vehicles that are
locally based ? Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
Also ? Yeah. They take our, our vehicles. We have
, um, essentially , um, threewhile land firefighting , uh,
uh, brush trucks basically. Andthey will take , uh, one or two
of the trucks. We always keepone of them here in case we
have a fire here. Um, and, andit's kind of rare for us to
send two teams out at the sametime. Mostly we send one team,
(35:05):
but if it is a , if it is a badfire season, then sometimes we
will see send to , um, we alsoget reimbursed for the truck.
And so the, the , uh, state ofthe federal government rents
the truck from the city, and sowe get reimbursed for our, you
know, cost for sending thetruck. And so that actually
provides some funding thatcomes back to support the team
(35:25):
. Um , our second brush truckthat we bought for the team was
basically paid for withreimbursements for fires that
they were on the couple seasonsbefore . So it's a good use of,
it's a good use to bring infunding, help the team, and
then in turn that helps the,our local community because we
have that, that those trucksright here for service also.
Mm-Hmm .
Speaker 4 (35:47):
Um, on that same note, as far as multi-agency
response , um, grand JunctionFire Department's, the largest
fire department in the Valley.
Uh, but you guys often willrespond with , uh, lower Valley
or Clifton. Um, what does thatlook like? And do you guys do
some training with thosedepartments and then just
speaking forward, you know,five, 10 years from now, what ,
(36:09):
what do you see the valley,how, how that shapes up? Is
there gonna be one largedepartment in any given point,
or do you just see, see itstaying , how it's,
Speaker 3 (36:18):
Yeah. Um, so we do train together , um, for , um,
so it, it really boils down toa couple agreements that we
have , um, which are notuncommon , um, in the fire
service across the country. Soif you think about it, a , um,
a fire department really can'tstaff up , um, or have enough
apparatus for the largest eventthat could happen. There's
(36:41):
just, you know, it justwouldn't make sense to do that.
And so across the , uh, UnitedStates fire departments use
mutual aid and automatic aidagreements to , um, have the
support for those largeincidents , um, or when , uh,
either the large incident orwhen the call volume is so high
that they are having a hardtime keeping up with it. So
that, and that happens righthere in Mesa County. So we have
(37:03):
a countywide mutual aidagreement that all of the fire
departments are signers on ,uh, including the airport fire
department, which isinteresting. So if we have a
large event , um, then we wouldget support from, basically
what the agreement says iswe're gonna send , uh, units
and firefighters to help aslong as we can provide it from
what's going on in our ownjurisdiction. Um, we also have
(37:25):
two automatic aid agreements,which means, and that's with ,
uh, lower Valley and Fruita andwith Clifton. And those are
basically says that if theyhave this type of incident,
then we're automaticallysending people. And so those
are set up, preset up so wedon't have to worry about
anything legally or , um,liability wise . Um, but there
is a lot of that that goes onevery day . And so , um, um,
(37:49):
either we're providing serviceto another agency or an agency
might be providing service tous. Um, that's less, you know,
usually we're providing theservice 'cause we are the
larger department, we have moreunits available , um, to go
help the other departments. Um,that's how that system works.
Um, to your question, to yourlarger question about where do
I see it going in the fireservice , um, there's been a
(38:11):
lot of consolidations. Thefront range is a great example
of that where , um, a lot ofdepartments have merged
together. Um, it's goodgovernment to take a look at
that, I think , um, try toprovide less layers of
government. Uh, it's moreefficient to do it that way.
Um, however, there are someparameters that make it
difficult to do so. Um, thecommunity might remember that
(38:33):
last year we spent basicallythe entire year looking at
whether we should , um,essentially merge with Clifton.
That's really not what we werelooking to do. We were looking
to , uh, provide a serviceagreement for Clifton , um, and
then we would be , uh, workingtogether , uh, for a response.
But that came to fruition whereit just wasn't quite right for
(38:55):
the time for that to happen. SoI think everything is , uh, you
know, when's the right timingto do something like that.
There's politics involved,there's finances involved,
there's people involved. Um,and so , um, I think , uh, at
some point in the future thatcould happen, you know , um,
we've had a couple smallconsolidations with, with small
fire departments that haveconsolidated together here in
(39:16):
Mesa County. Um , but I thinkthe trend will be to, to try
and merge, move that way overtime because it , it does make
sense and it is probably moreefficient for , uh, to provide
the service in that way.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
Yeah . As we , um, as we're wrapping up Ken , um,
what do you think are thebiggest challenges facing your
department right now? And, andmaybe it's , uh, fire
departments in general, ormaybe it's your specifically,
what do you see this year?
What, what are you worriedabout besides wildlife and fire
Speaker 3 (39:51):
Yeah . Well, well I , I mean, we always have
challenges certainly, but , um,we also always have
opportunity. And so , uh, Ithink we gotta keep that in
mind. So I'm excited about thenew fire station , um, getting
that , uh, construction startedand built so we can provide
service in that northwest northarea for the community. Um, a
challenge that we do see , um,we do have some recruiting
(40:13):
challenges. Um, it's , uh, wedo get quite a, quite a number
of people that apply for thejob, but once we get down
through the whole process, thenwe end up with a limited number
of qualified candidates. And so, um, you know, back in the
day,
applicants for a firefighter.
When I was hired as afirefighter , um, I tested
(40:33):
against 700 people for fivejobs. Wow . So , um, it's not
quite like that anymore. Um ,some of the larger departments,
Denver, la , they would getthousands of people that would
apply. And, and so that's alittle bit of a challenge. So ,
um, for us as a fire, as a firedepartment service , um, we
need to get our message outbetter about what the job is
(40:55):
because I think people havesome misunderstanding about the
job. Um, the job is safe, itpays well, it has good
benefits. Um, it's a greatfamily friendly job. One of the
things we hear is it's notfamily friendly because of the
schedule , um, but it really isfamily friendly. Um, so that's
one issue that I think that ,um, we need to work on just
(41:15):
getting those applicant numbersup. Um, we have an issue like a
lot of businesses or , uh,industries right now with
supply chain that is reallycausing us issues with , um,
actually purchasing our, whatwe call fire apparatus, which
is fire trucks , uh, andambulances and that kind of
thing. So , um, it's the samething that other , uh,
(41:36):
businesses are seeing whereeither there's certain parts
that are being delayed orMm-Hmm .
we used to be able to, if I wasgonna buy a new firetruck, I
used to be able to turn in anorder for a firetruck and I'd
see it within a year or so. Um,we just met with our
manufacturer and our, our fireapparatus dealer. And , uh, for
the type of fire truck that webuy right now, which all of our
(41:58):
trucks are custom , uh, we'relooking at 52 months from the
time that we order to the timewe get it. Wow . That is really
unacceptable. We can't waitthat long. Um, you know, we
need to be able to get back tosome timeframe of a year to two
years when we order a firetruck . And it's a really
challenge because , um, youknow, we're tying up money ,
(42:21):
um, to buy that truck that itcould be used for other
purposes. And so we're tryingto figure out a way to , um,
make sure we can get the trucksordered and get 'em, you know,
online and, and , uh, soworking with working with , uh,
our dealer for that. Um, seesome other challenges. I see.
Um, finances is always gonna bea challenge, I think for
(42:41):
government. Um, there's always,everybody wants a lot of things
to happen. And so , um, thefirst responder tax is, while
it's been a great , um, it'sjust been a godsend for the
fire department to get the newstations and the people we
need, but it's what I wouldcall plateauing out. And so
it'll, it'll continue to payfor , um, these personnel in
(43:04):
these stations that we'rebuilding, but we're gonna need
additional stations in thefuture and we'll need more
people in the future as thiscommunity grows. And so , um, I
don't, you know, right now itdoesn't look like the first
responder tax would be able topay for much more expansion.
And so , um, we'll have to comeup with, you know, the city
will have to work and figureout how do we continue to
afford expansion of , um,certainly public safety
(43:27):
services, but all the servicesthat the city provide. Um, so
Speaker 2 (43:32):
It's a lot. So yeah.
People watching listening , uh,feel free to , uh, jump in city
council, county commissioners,right.
complain. Unless you've been ,uh, involved in making the
decisions, it's reallychallenging to figure out a
budget and make everything flowand make sure everybody's safe
in our community. Well, wethank you , uh, Mr. Watkins for
(43:52):
, uh, chief Watkins, I shouldsay , um, for joining us today
and , and sharing a lot of yourexpertise , um, for Reese. You
wanna close us out?
Speaker 4 (44:01):
Yeah. Thank you for coming today. It's been really
fun seeing the, the growth inthe fire department and , uh,
it, it always puts a smile onmy face when I see a fire
apparatus out there, so, yeah .
Yeah. Thanks for all you guysare doing.
Speaker 3 (44:13):
Well, thanks. Um, if I could just close with them ,
one thing, I, I got a greatjob. I got a great team. So ,
um, I go to work every day andthe best thing that happens to
me in my day is when I hearfrom a citizen about a service
that our folks have provided,99% of the things I hear are
good and they're reallypositive. So , um, I just
(44:34):
appreciate , uh, the team thatwe have here and the work that
they do every single day andkeep things , uh, our community
safe. So.
Speaker 2 (44:40):
Wonderful. Thank you. Thank you. Again, this is
Christie Reese and Ree Stanleysigning off for the Full Circle
podcast. We'll see you nexttime . Thanks . Thanks for
listening. This is ChristieReese signing out from the Full
Circle Podcast .
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