North Lyon Fire announced that they're reducing their daily staffing.
The fire chief says that no firefighter is losing their job, but now their daily staffing will be a new minimum of four firefighters and one battalion chief per day.
Chief Brian Bunn from North Lyon Fire says, "The reason we had to adjust the staffing is because essentially the district, previous to my arrival here as the fire chief, was spending a lot more money than we were getting in revenue, so the expenditures far outpaced the revenues."
This changes comes in response to financial challenges stemming from previous budgeting practices.
The agency say the previous administration relied heavily on one-time funding sources, such as ARPA funds mutual aid billing, but they say this wasn't sustainable for ongoing operational costs.
Now they're aiming to ensure fiscal responsibility while maintaining essential services to the community.
But as Fernley grows, so do the calls for help.
Chief Bunn says, "The call volume in Fernley has greatly outpaced the revenue, so to say. We're averaging about nine and a half calls a day, and about 80% of our calls are EMS. And its about a two and a half hour round trip for each unit, because we either have to go to Fallon or go back into Reno."
The chief mentioned that response times will not be impacted while their staffing levels are available. If they need additional help responding to calls, nearby agencies are able to help them out - though they warn there may be delayed responses in emergency situations because of this.
To help themselves with this new staffing change, Chief Bunn says North Lyon Fire is launching a Blue Ribbon Committee made up of community leaders, professionals and other experts who are going to be tasked with checking out and recommending initiatives to try and keep up with serving the community to the best of their ability.
But the chief is also looking for cities to help out.
"I think the City of Fernley has to pay their fair share. Our boundaries are on the same map, on the same location, they pay nothing for fire protection. That's all done by the fire district, there."
In return the City of Fernley said:
"The City of Fernley is strongly in support of North Lyon County Fire Protection District and the public safety services they provide within the city. At this time, no formal requests have been made or received by the city to provide funding or support for specific services or staffing pertaining to the North Lyon County Fire Protection District. We are concerned about the budgetary constraints they are facing and the change in staffing structure. Nevertheless, we are confident in the leadership of the Fire Protection District board and staff."
The chief reminds the community that the City of Fernley is going to be safe while they figure out how to move forward.
