RFL fire district needs funds for fire barn

By Linda Bell
Red Feather Lakes Correspondent

On May 7 the Red Feather Lakes Volunteer Fire Protection District will vote on a proposed 1.9-mill increase for construction of a replacement fire barn and additional ambulance bays to be located east of the current building.

The good news for area residents is that half the money needed to finance the $305,000 construction project was awarded to the fire district in a $152,500 grant from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs through an Energy and Minerals Grant. If the mill levy does not pass, the district will lose that grant, according to Karen Rudisaile, president of the district board.

Rudisaile said the urgency to build was spurred by two factors. The district will lose its sublease on June 1 for two ambulance bays it rents near the intersection of Red Feather Lakes Road and Dowdy Lake Road, a mile and a half from the station, she said.

"This was never a good logistical solution," Rudisaile said, "but it held us over until now."

The other factor, she said, is that the present fire barn is structurally unsound and can't hold all the equipment.

Rudisaile said they have six grants still pending for capital funding of the project and recently sold an older fire truck on eBay for $5,000 to a fire district in California.

If the mill levy passes, she said, construction on the new 8,700-square-foot building and ambulance bays would begin in May with target completion in October. The new building will house a meeting room, kitchen, bathroom, exercise room and four bays, each two deep, for fire equipment. Rudisaile said this would give the department room to grow with two bays set aside for the future.

Property owners in the fire district were notified about the mill levy vote in April. Owners of a house valued at $150,000 will pay about $26 a year more in property taxes if the 1.9-mill increase passes, Rudisaile said. The election will be at the Red Feather Lakes POA building from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on May 7.