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BERNALILLO — The new fire chief for Sandoval County made it his first business to consolidate all volunteer fire districts into one.
First, Chris Bagley had to request that the districts be dissolved at the regular county commission meeting July 23.
“I can assure you that this is only an administrative procedure and will have no operational impact to the existing fire districts. It is an action that is highly encouraged by the State Fire Marshall’s office, will help improve efficiency and streamline delivery of service,” he said.
He reassured the commissioners and the community that nothing will change operationally.
“Instead of eight smaller budgets, which will increase our ability to undertake countywide projects that benefit all of the districts. In addition to that, we will only receive one ISO rating for the entire county, which would almost certainly bring down ratings on our mobile remote districts,” he said. “Not only will this potentially lower insurance rates for the citizens of Sandoval County, that would also have an increase in our overall fund allocation from the state that gives us the ability to give back more to our districts.”
Commissioner Katherine Bruch thanked Bagley for informing all the districts in advance, but she also wanted to make sure the public knew that the potential improvements from this change can be significant for those homeowners that are having trouble getting coverage. Bagley agreed.
“This is definitely going to benefit the entire county as well as our fire department,” he said.
Despite the item being one of Bagley’s first priorities, he said this has been in the works before he became chief.
