Volunteer firefighters will get renewed benefits with the county

BERNALILLO — The Sandoval County Commission approved a motion to award a request for proposal for volunteer firefighter insurance benefits to HUB International Sept. 25. The commission is required to vote on the motion.

Sandoval County Fire Chief Eric Masterson presented the motion and answered questions from the commissioners.

“This was published through an RFP process at the end of August. We did a two-week posting just due to time constraints. The posting closed September 11,” Masterson said.

He said HUB International has handled volunteer insurance for more than 12 years.

“They are a reputable company that has been providing our insurance benefits for our volunteers for well over it. HUB International is very large corporation. However, HUB Southwest is a kind of a smaller piece of it, and their headquarters are in Albuquerque,” he said.

He added they thought they had one more year in the previous agreement or a one-year extension. In June, they realized that that was not the case. The previous contractor gave a three-month extension so volunteers were covered and will still be covered as the new contractor takes over.

Besides the county’s department, there are several small agencies in the county that “piggyback” off of the benefits, according to Masterson.

The insurance covers anything that can happen while volunteering. Masterson gave on-the-job injury as an example.

“So when they’re responding to calls in their volunteer status, they get injured on a scene or during a training or something of that nature is covered. It’s very similar to employee insurance in a lot of ways, but it’s specific to our volunteers,” he said.

The commission unanimously approved the motion.