Vote YES for Elk Creek Fire Protection District's November 2019 Mill Levy

Not to scare y'all, but earlier today, Elk Creek Fire had 3 simultaneous medical emergencies that all required substantial time on scene. They are stretched so thin that they had to request mutual aid from nearly every other area dept (all but Indian Hills) to help respond to those calls, and at one point Jeffcom couldn't get hold of anyone at Elk Creek and the dispatcher decided to call in Inter-Canyon for assistance. Platte Canyon itself was on multiple calls at the time as well.

Even helping each other out, it's not enough for the amount of emergencies that get called in each month now because almost all the departments face the same under-staffing problem combined with our aging mountain population, increased development, and increased through-traffic. If you want them to be able to maintain a swift response time and the same (or, deservedly, better) level of service, they need our help. They need volunteers and they need funding to add more EMT/paramedic/firefighter positions, ambulances, and engines. They need stations that can house staff and volunteers (the only station in ECFPD with living quarters is Station 1 of the 4 stations).

Growth in inevitable in our mountain corridor. Yes, it absolutely needs to be better managed; we need our commissioners and our Planning & Zoning department to understand our challenges and work with us to build safer homes and neighborhoods, and allow that growth to pace our infrastructure and services, but already our departments struggle to keep up with what's already developed and the increase in tourism traffic which will not abate. Our Chief has gone to bat for us before the Planning Commission and Board of County Commissioners, the Elk Creek Fire Board of Directors has sent a letter to the county calling for a moratorium on development, and asked for impact fees on new developments; but, in the end, it's up to you, the residents of Elk Creek Fire's district to decide whether you want to support your fire department's current level of service or not. As the Chief said in his testimony to the Planning Commission: "We'll do what we can, but we can't keep adding more and losing funding. There already are times when you call 911 and nobody is there to come. That's just the reality of being a rural area and having the funding issues that we've had" - Chief McLaughlin (~17:00 mark)

"This is a problem. I don't know that I've ever, in my seven years of reviewing cases at this dais, had the fire protection district tell me that they couldn't provide service." - Planning Commission Leader (~20min mark)

Planning Commission Hearing Testimony:


Please vote yes on Elk Creek Fire's mill levy this November.