Cortez to add full-time firefighters

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Cortez to add full-time firefighters

$555K grant brings money into fire district

By Kimberly Benedict Reporter

Tuesday, July 31, 2012 6:01 AM

Updated: Tuesday, July 31, 2012 2:58 PM

The Cortez Fire Protection District will add full-time firefighters to the firehouse on Ash Street for the first time in its history, thanks to a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The district’s board of directors voted to accept the $555,258 grant on Wednesday, July 18, a move that brings the station one step closer to employing full-time firefighters.

“Our department has been trying to go full time and this funding will allow us to start that program,” said Cortez Fire Chief Jeff Vandevoorde. “We are really excited that this funding will allow us to move in that direction.”

The announcement of the grant’s approval and acceptance comes just two months after a ballot issue for a 3.5 mill property tax increase for the district was turned down by voters, with 1,0471 voting against the tax and 1,075 voting in favor.

The revenue from the tax increase, an anticipated $500,000, would have gone to firefighter protective gear, new truck and additional staffing of paid firefighters. Now, thanks to the federal funding, the department will be able to move forward with staffing increases without community financing.

“We don’t have any full-time guys right now,” Vandevoorde said. “All of our firefighters we have on duty are part-time and volunteer.”

The fire protection district intends to offer the six positions to current firefighters within the department, in an effort to provide career advancement to those who have already dedicated themselves to service in the community. Currently, 25 part-time and volunteer firefighters are part of the local department.

“The benefit to these firefighters is this is a career position for them,” Vandevoorde said. “With career positions, hopefully they will stay for 20 years. The grant will allow for full benefits and a pension.”

The first full-time employees will start at a salary of $30,000 annually.

To apply for the position, interested firefighters will have to “test” for the job. The application process includes a 100-question written test, a seven-minute physical ability test involving ladder climbs and weighted dummy pulls, and an oral interview before a five-person board.

“It is intensive, but worth it,” Vandevoorde said.

The benefit of the grant extends beyond career opportunities for individual responders, however, and also benefits the community though better response time in emergency situations, the ability of the fire department to attend to multiple calls at once, and more specialized attention.

“(The grant) is going to change what the community sees and what we are able to do,” said district board chairman Jim Bridgewater. “We are going to be able to put two full-time firemen and two reservists on every 24-hour shift, instead of the three reservists we have now. That will allow us to double cover everything.”

Four firefighters on duty as opposed to three will allow pairs of two to respond to separate calls and enable he fire engine to be reserved for fires, while a smaller rescue truck can be used for calls such as car accidents and other non-fire related emergencies.

Bridgewater said the number of calls coming into the protection district has been increasing in the past few years and the additional staff will allow the department to operate more efficiently.

“(Wednesday, July 11) the board had our regular meeting and in the two hours we were meeting the guys have five calls,” he said. “With only three guys it was a fast and furious as they could go. This will alleviate some of that.”

The national grant, which the district applied for after the mill levy was voted down, was awarded to less than 10 percent of applicants. In Colorado, FEMA awarded $3.8 million dollars to fire protection districts and rescue authorities. In addition to Cortez, South Metro Fire Rescue Authority in Centennial received $1,549,646, Durango Fire and Rescue Authority received $1,275,552, Fairmount Fire Protection District in Golden received $264,984 and Larkspur Fire Protection District received $180,966.

“We are very fortunate to be able to get this funding and the important thing to know is it is going to better the department and it is going to provide jobs for people in the community to help them stay in the community,” Vandevoorde said. “It has been our goal to go full time in 2014. We were fortunate to get this grant ahead of time and take this step in the direction we have been going towards.”

Firehouse is ‘my history’

Justin Lindsay grew up in the firehouse on Ash Street. As much as anywhere else, this is his home.
Walking through the halls of the firehouse is like walking through a living scrapbook for Lindsay. The son of Kent Lindsay, Cortez Protection District’s last volunteer fire chief, Justin can remember washing the engines with the volunteer crew, hanging out in the station when he wasn’t in school and riding in the big red trucks during community parades.
The fire station is his childhood.
It also may be his future.
A full-time EMT at Southwest Memorial Hospital and part-time firefighter with the local fire protection district, Lindsay is contemplating testing for a full-time paid position with the district, the first time such an opportunity has been available in Cortez.
Lindsay believes the opportunity to add full-time firefighters in Cortez is a huge benefit to the community.
“I believe it is the next step in increasing what we offer,” he said. “We took the step from completely volunteer to a combination status with volunteers and reservists and now we will be able to put on full-time people and have a continuation of leadership and information. We will be able to be more productive, that is how I see it.”
For Lindsay, the opportunity to go full-time with the department means his journey from “fire kid” to full-fledged firefighter will come full circle.
“I started in the department as a volunteer in 2007, but I basically grew up on the fire department,” he said. “I’ve been around it my whole life and, you know, it gets in your blood. You know in a very short time if this is something you want to do.”
After graduating from Montezuma-Cortez High School in 2005, Lindsay joined the National Guard, where he served until 2011. Upon leaving the military, he looked for opportunities that would allow him to use his training and operate again in a high-paced environment.
His brother and father encouraged him to consider the fire department, where he was already volunteering.
“It’s just been nonstop ever since,” he said. “I got my first responder certification, then my EMT and my fire certification. Now I’m even teaching classes here and there.”
Lindsay said there is a great responsibility associated with being the one who interacts with individuals on their worst days, and it is a feeling that pushes him to be better for the sake of his community.
“You just have the desire and drive to continue doing better so you can help your neighbor,” he said. “In a community like this, that’s really what it is, you are helping your friends, people you know. I’ve helped several of my neighbors multiple times and it is a satisfying feeling that you are able to be there and help them out. The department gives a lot to the community, but we get it back by knowing we’ve helped.”
Regardless of whether or not Lindsay moves up in the local department as a full-time member of the crew, the Cortez Fire Protection District will always be part of his life.
“It’s who I am, I guess,” he said. “It’s my history.”