Dual mergers will nearly double South Metro Fire Rescue’s reach

[natedawg1604]

Wow, so they're planning to merge Cunningham AND Littleton FD with South Metro.

Dual mergers will nearly double South Metro Fire Rescue’s reach – The Denver Post

 

[Spitfire8520]

2018 Changes for South Metro Area Fire Departments

That is quite a development. I wrote up a post for the changes happening in 2018 and was waiting to post it, but had not heard of Littleton Fire Protection District's decision until now.

2018 will be the year of change for Cunningham Fire Protection District, Littleton Fire Rescue, and South Metro Fire Rescue. All these changes should take effect January 1st, 2018.

Cunningham Fire Protection District is currently pursuing a much discussed unification with South Metro Fire Rescue. They are looking at an Authority model for unification, similar to the process Parker and South Metro went through. All personnel, equipment, and stations will be going to South Metro as part of this transition. If something should happen in the next couple of months with the unification process, Cunningham will still be going to South Metro for dispatch.

Cunningham Unification Notice Letter
Cunningham Unification Notice Talking Points
Fire Line - Fall 2017 - South Metro Fire Rescue
3 Fire Protection Agencies Could Merge Into 1 - CBS Denver

Littleton Fire Rescue's "Control" will soon be one of those names that exist only in memory. The City of Littleton, Highlands Ranch Metro District, and Littleton Fire Protection District have all decided to go to South Metro Fire Rescue's MetCom for dispatch. All dispatch equipment will be transferred and up to 6 dispatchers will be employed by South Metro in the transition. It is unknown how dispatching and operations will change.

Fire dispatch merger approved - Littleton Independent

It will be interesting to see what happens with Littleton Fire Rescue now that a third of the Littleton Fire Rescue trio has decided that they want to go to South Metro.

Littleton Fire Protection District Provides Notice That It Will Leave Fire Partnership
Littleton Fire Protection District to sever ties with city, merge with South Metro - Littleton Independent

 

[MikeyB]

Very interesting. I live in the LFPD so I'm following this intently. I wonder how they'll manage this if the city of Littleton doesn't follow in merging. While LFPD owns stations 13, 14, 15 and 1/3 of 16, there is a lot of overlap. The city of Littleton owns stations 11 and 12 and 1/3 of 16, but station 12 is first due to a very big portion of the LFPD. I wonder what LFPD has in mind for that part of the district.

Also, it would be interesting what Highlands Ranch does now. It's easy to forget that Littleton Fire-Rescue is actually the provider but that there are 3 distinct partners that it provides for.

One final note - LFPD has a very low mill rate, which will actually go up with South Metro taking over. This is quite the opposite of South Metro's merger with Parker, and their upcoming merger/absorption with Cunningham.

 

[Spitfire8520]

Very interesting. I live in the LFPD so I'm following this intently. I wonder how they'll manage this if the city of Littleton doesn't follow in merging. While LFPD owns stations 13, 14, 15 and 1/3 of 16, there is a lot of overlap. The city of Littleton owns stations 11 and 12 and 1/3 of 16, but station 12 is first due to a very big portion of the LFPD. I wonder what LFPD has in mind for that part of the district.

The City of Littleton would have to terminate their current automatic aid agreements with South Metro. If this happens, it brings up the question of who exactly will respond into Littleton once they start running out of the few units they will have left on the north side.

One final note - LFPD has a very low mill rate, which will actually go up with South Metro taking over. This is quite the opposite of South Metro's merger with Parker, and their upcoming merger/absorption with Cunningham.

LFPD's mill rate is set to go up regardless of whatever they ended up doing. Their costs have been increasing and they have been dipping into their fund balance for the past 3 years as part of an attempt to increase level of service by implementing the LFR Master Plan. The big question for past year is what that increase is going to be.

Their yearly cost is set to surpass South Metro's mill rate after this year if they were to stay with LFR. It makes little sense to attempt to ask for a higher mill rate to stay with LFR when South Metro can provide the same service for a lower cost.

 

[MikeyB]

The City of Littleton would have to terminate their current automatic aid agreements with South Metro. If this happens, it brings up the question of who exactly will respond into Littleton once they start running out of the few units they will have left on the north side.



LFPD's mill rate is set to go up regardless of whatever they ended up doing. Their costs have been increasing and they have been dipping into their fund balance for the past 3 years as part of an attempt to increase level of service by implementing the LFR Master Plan. The big question for past year is what that increase is going to be.

Their yearly cost is set to surpass South Metro's mill rate after this year if they were to stay with LFR. It makes little sense to attempt to ask for a higher mill rate to stay with LFR when South Metro can provide the same service for a lower cost.

Littleton would have to make new agreements if they ran stand-alone, they just wouldn't have the resources to run with 2 (or 2.5) stations. Actually, I don't think the station info was updated after station 19 was opened. Do you know who owns station 19? The 'city' stations are clearly not in the ideal location if they were a stand-alone department. All of the locations were based on the entire response area, not city limits. From what I've read on nextdoor, it seems like at least one member of the Littleton city council is fiercely opposed to Littleton giving up any control at all so getting them to combine with South Metro could be very difficult.

Looks like all of us in the LFPD have been getting too good a deal all these years and are going to see an increase one way or another!

I'll be interested to see how this plays out.

 

[Spitfire8520]

Littleton would have to make new agreements if they ran stand-alone, they just wouldn't have the resources to run with 2 (or 2.5) stations. Actually, I don't think the station info was updated after station 19 was opened. Do you know who owns station 19? The 'city' stations are clearly not in the ideal location if they were a stand-alone department. All of the locations were based on the entire response area, not city limits. From what I've read on nextdoor, it seems like at least one member of the Littleton city council is fiercely opposed to Littleton giving up any control at all so getting them to combine with South Metro could be very difficult.

Station 19 is a City of Littleton owned station. It is responsible for covering the odd neighborhood that is TrailMark. You can read about that whole drama in this article: Littleton to revamp relations with TrailMark – The Denver Post. It can be seen on the image included in the article and any map of the City of Littleton. This means the City owns 3 and 1/3 stations.

As for the City Council, there are 7 seats on the council so a single person will not be able to make a decision for the rest of the City. It appears that a majority of the council has some financial sense, so they will probably vote on what they feel is most appropriate.

If something should happen in the next couple of months with the unification process, Cunningham will still be going to South Metro for dispatch.

This little statement is no longer applicable as all legal paperwork to form an authority was formally signed on November 16.

 

[Spitfire8520]

Highlands Ranch has made their decision, prompted by the actions of Littleton Fire Protection District.

Highlands Ranch plans to get fire, emergency services from South Metro – The Denver Post
Highlands Ranch Metro District Board of Directors makes decision to change fire and emergency services provider – Highlands Ranch Metro District

City of Littleton will have to decide if they are going to join everyone else or go at it alone with their 3 stations.

 

[Spitfire8520]

Cunningham Fire Protection District has switched over to MetCom ahead of schedule this morning at 06:08. Anyone trying to monitor Cunningham Fire should now monitor MetCom. Audio courtesy of RadioCapture.com.

Regarding the unification stuff, it sounds like the City of Littleton is going to start talks with South Metro on what their future might look like. Here is a map to visualize all the areas that are planning to go or in discussions with South Metro.

 

[Spitfire8520]

Littleton has finally made their decision after much discussion, negotiation, disagreement, and all others things related to city government. Council has voted 6-1 to move forward with unification of their portion of Littleton Fire Rescue. Their inclusion election will be in November.

This means all of Littleton Fire Rescue will join South Metro Fire Rescue on January 1, 2019.

 

[scanlist]

After 128 years of service Littleton Fire is history.

FROM KCNC/CBS Local:

Littleton Fire Department Joins Forces With South Metro Fire Rescue

 

[greenthumb]

Yep. And there were people that lost their jobs when the administration portion, which included dispatch, was eliminated last year. That's the price of progress, but still sad to hear about.

 

[Spitfire8520]

Yep. And there were people that lost their jobs when the administration portion, which included dispatch, was eliminated last year. That's the price of progress, but still sad to hear about.

The sadder part is that the loss of any dispatcher's position was entirely preventable. South Metro's initial dispatch agreement was to bring all fully trained Littleton dispatchers aboard with no strings attached. They would have kept all seniority and would not have had to go through any application process.

Then the information of Littleton having a dispatch hiring freeze to prevent having to let dispatchers in training go during the transition made the city council hesitate just enough to strike down the agreement by a single vote. Highlands Ranch and Littleton Fire Protection District felt betrayed by this move and went to mediation with Littleton as a result.

South Metro did not stand still and continued with their business, hiring dispatchers along the way. By the time Littleton came back to the table after mediation, South Metro did not have those same dispatch positions available and reduced the number they would take to only six dispatchers who would have to go through the full hiring process of application and interview.