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Humboldt Will Lobby State for Firefighting Funding, Coverage · KMUD News

• 0:00
  Speaker A: 2024 saw more than 18,000 calls for service from Humboldt county fire departments. And the Board of Supervisors wants to work with the county's Fire Chiefs association to get the state to expand its fire service areas. The association's annual report was presented by Telegraph Ridge Fire Chief Tanner spies at the December 16th supervisors meeting. Spies is a member of the collaborative Fire Services planning team, and he said the data in the annual report allows, quote, strategic planning and operational decisions to be made from measured reality and struggles with funding is one of the realities of local firefighting and emergency response. The recently passed Measure O ballot measure will help the county address roads funding with the Measure Z public safety tax continuing to contribute to firefighting needs. Asked about what the needs are, Spies said Measure Z funding requests will be based on firefighting data.
• 1:06
  Speaker B: Well, I think in general, this kind of gets back to us collecting these metrics and trying to coordinate together as a larger region. I can tell you that we are working hard to have a proactive and positive vision of how to make Humboldt County Fire services the best it can be. Make it, you know, something that we can all be proud of. So, yes, if I'm sure every one of us could stand here and give an enormous list of what we could use that money to do. But I can also say that we will have a consistent and consolidated plan for whatever support we can get.
• 1:40
  Speaker A: There was discussion about local departments responses to areas of state jurisdiction such as Route 299 and Highway 101. The funding scenarios related to the state and the county were discussed in this exchange between Spies and Supervisor Michelle Bushnell.
• 1:57
  Speaker B: We have worked on starting the process of considering legislative action on this, and that is something that we're going to continue to look into and develop to try to find whatever funding we can get. And in the case that it could potentially come from the state, try to get what funding we can.
• 2:15
  Speaker C: Thank you for the clarification to finish. I just really appreciate the departments in the district and in Humboldt county in general. All of you guys, you are responsible for a gap where Cal Fire is not there. And, you know, it's very difficult. Also, you respond to your friends and families, and that is not taken unnoticed by this board or by me especially. The funding is not a lot. There's not a lot of funding. The. The $3 million, $2 million that you get from Measure Z doesn't make up what you need. And it always is. How do we split this and who's most important? So that's also not a great feeling that you will have. To make and choose where that funding goes and which department gets it.
• 2:58
  Speaker A: Supervisor Rex Bone represents the board on the rural county representatives of California and said the organization is working on a proposal for giving tax credits to emergency response volunteers. According to the report, the county has 574 volunteer firefighters and over 100,000 hours of total volunteer time was given in 2024. Board Chair Mike Wilson noted the importance of planning efforts and funding.
• 3:29
  Speaker D: I'm also appreciative. We hadn't talked about it, but in terms of the efforts around consolidation, I want to say a shout out. I think that's really important so that we can reduce administrative burdens on everybody, especially some people's wives and other family members that have to administer for all the fun things that people are doing and the important work, of course. And then I'm all down with the legislative efforts. And I think more and more we should be dealing with that more and more around, you know, getting the timber lands and timber companies in the districts around, you know, getting the reimbursements around the highways. And this is the first time I've heard about this volunteer tax credit potential as well. So make sure to engage us. We have. I know you guys have your lobbyists with your organizations in Sacramento, met them, good people, but the more the merrier. And so please engage us.
• 4:18
  Speaker A: The report says that in 2020 four county departments responded to 238 structure fires, 369 vegetation fires, and 629 vehicle accidents. There were 9463 medical emergency responses in Eureka. For KMUD news, this is Daniel Mentz.