The Golden Gate Fire Protection District approved the second reading of its mission, vision, and values statement as well as a revised organizational chart during a regular meeting on October 19. 2023, at Station 81, 32360 Robinson Hill Road, Golden. Present were Deb Curlee, President; Niffy Ovuworie, Vice-President. Dave Primmer was excused and Steve Green was not. There was a quorum.

The Board approved the following resolution:

“The Golden Gate Fire Protection District of Jefferson County, State of Colorado (hereinafter referred to as the ‘District’), is a duly organized and existing quasi-municipal corporation and political subdivision of the State of Colorado, existing and operating under and by virtue of the Constitution and laws of the State of Colorado.

“The Board of Directors of the District has discussed and determined to approve the Mission, Vision, and Values statement created by the GGFPD firefighters and presented by Chief Benson at the September Board meeting. The Board of Directors has determined to approve the new organizational chart for the GGFPD presented in September.

“OUR MISSION

Provide exceptional fire, emergency medical, and all-hazards response as well as risk reduction and community education.

“OUR VISION

Care for the community, the environment, and each other by continually answering the call.

“OUR VALUES

We choose to serve our community with: • Professionalism • Dedication • Integrity • Compassion.”

The Board approved a motion to adopt the statement. The Board revisited the organizational chart with the Board at the top, then the fire chief, with branches into three divisions: operations division, one lieutenant in charge; a support services division; a bookkeeper. Two positions on the chart not filled are family information officer and a public information officer.

The Board approved the email communications policy without making any changes to it. Board members agree to use the District-provided email for all district business. The District email is not intended for personal items. Users must be courteous and professional in all their district communications.

Chief Benson reported that he has worked with Ember Alliance and GIS specialist Tom Neer on re-drawing our CWPP planning units for Jeffco. Tom is working on finalizing the updated CWPP map.

Benson participated in a mountain Chiefs discussion with state representatives regarding regional wildfire needs and Proposition HH. Benson met with the EMS educators at St. Anthony’s to discuss training plans for the coming year.

GGFPD will remain with St. Anthony’s/Common Spirit EMS as their training partner for 2024. Together, the organizations plan on facilitating several additional EMS training opportunities for the District in the coming year, as well as community CPR and first aid education.

Benson has been working on updating all of the District’s information for CSD pool insurance coverage. These updates serve the dual purpose of allowing a current valuation of insured district assets and a comprehensive overview of district valuation for the impact fee study.

GGFPD received a significant grant award with a total value of $32,939 for structural PPE from the DFPC direct distribution grant. Benson is in the process of submitting the first round of a grant application for the COCO-AIM grant to help offset the cost of the 2024 CWPP process. The grant is a 50 percent match and is extremely competitive, but offers the best opportunity for grant support of our CWPP update.

Digital information manager Becca Causey has been making great progress with the website update. It looks like the new website will be shared at the next board meeting.

This last month has been busier than typical with several significant calls. As of October 17, they have run 83 calls. In the past month there have been notable backcountry rescues, a small wildland fire event, a significant motor vehicle crash, and several emergent medical calls.

The week of October 10 to 17 proved to be particularly busy, with GGFPD responding to eight calls for service within seven days. The District continues to see reduced turn-out times with resident Fire Fighter McDaniel and an increased availability of our in-district Firefighters.

Two new recruits have been cleared for full duty and are now responding to calls. The remaining two are close to completion of their initial training. The operations staff continue to monitor and track resource availability, and no issues have been reported within the District.

The District has 21 operational members and five support services members currently on the roster. They have received three new applications for firefighter since the most recent hiring.

These applications will be processed on an individual basis, with the intent of onboarding accepted applicants. FF Peter Whiteneck has successfully completed his hazmat operations testing and is now a fully certified FF-1.

The District is gearing up for FF-II academy. The Academy will have 14 attendees from Golden Gate Fire, Golden Fire, Timberline Fire and Blackhawk Fire. Golden Gate is exceptionally excited to be hosting training talent from all of these agencies, as well as from Hudson Fire, Eaton Fire, and Denver Fire to make this academy a success.

The GGFPD FFI academy preparation continues with DFPC Battalion Chief Lori Brill. Chief Brill met with the prospective FF-I academy applicants earlier this month. FF-I academy will start in December. Benson will be attending several trainings over the next 30 days, including the final computer simulation training days for blue card incident command certification with other Golden area incident commanders.

The impact fee study led by Jan Snyder has made great headway towards data collection from the district. The target completion date for the impact fee study is January 1.

Treasurer Niffy Ovuworie presented the 2024 budget with committee members Dave Primmer and Chief Kyle Kociemba-Benson, as well as committee advisor, bookkeeper Chris Creech. The budget has been posted at the Grange.

Ovuworie said they had a budget committee and sat down and hashed out the budget. Highlights were on operational funds. They went line by line, allocating money where it is most needed. They removed grants not in the budget. The base salary is still the same.

Gas and electricity has gone up with the cost of propane. Ovuworie said the group was overspending, and he wants to consider switching to all-electric. Software is higher this year. Software was for fire resolutions and is a more comprehensive system.

They are looking at replacing the kitchen in Station 8. Office equipment expenditure is for computers and upgrading the phones. Fire fighters want to build a gym for $5,000 at Station Two. They hope to use a grant match. In communications, they have budgeted for two new radios.

Ovuworie wrote a summary budget letter and wrote that significant changes included the deletion of grant revenue, donations, permit and fee line items. Revenue from these sources is unpredictable,

Addition of FPPA Contribution includes shifting funds from Social Security to FPPA. The transfer from the reserves will only be allocated to Capital Expenditures.

Operations will continue to be funded with 2024 tax revenue. The Reserve Account balance was discussed in detail at the May 2023 Board Meeting.

The Golden Gate Fire Protection District provides EMS and fire-related services to approximately 660 parcels, 1,200 residents, and covers a 50-square mile area. They also serve various recreation areas, including Golden Gate Canyon State Park, Centennial Cone Open Space Park, White Ranch Open Space Park, Mount Galbraith Open Space Park, and Colorado Department of Wildlife lands.

The department is all-volunteer except for the paid Fire Chief. The allocated reserve spending in the 2024 proposed budget is intended for strategic updates to both physical and institutional assets.

The plan includes capital improvements to all three stations to upgrade items such as flooring, painting, cabinetry, appliances, and drainage issues. These improvements are designed to address deferred maintenance at the stations, not as a drastic overhaul or remodel. The other capital spend includes replacement of the non-operating UTV, a critical piece of response equipment for the district, as well as the hopeful acquisition of another utility vehicle from the Colorado State Patrol for duty officer use.

The proposed budget has allocated for the update of the District’s computer equipment, including station laptops and cellular-enabled tablets for officers and Chief staff. Additionally included is the acquisition of two VHF Bendix King radios that are critical to their ability to respond to wildland fire incidents.

Finally, they have allocated for the completion of our Community Wildfire Protection Plan update based on initial quotes from the nonprofit consultancy, Ember Alliance. The District’s CWPP needs significant updates, which will provide the backbone for the District’s mitigation and wildland fire protection efforts moving forward into the next decade of its operation.

The Board approved the budget and said they have many deadlines to meet. The election is November 7. The deadline to adopt the budget is December 15.

Next Regular Board Meeting is November 16, 2023, at 7 p.m., Station 82 - 7181 Crawford Gulch Road, Golden, Colorado 80403.