Ross Could Join Fire Dept. by July 1

The will soon cover more of the Ross Valley.

After nearly two decades of considering consolidation, Ross could be joining the Ross Valley Fire Department as soon as July.

RVFD Chief Roger Meagor gave a presentation to the San Anselmo Town Council this past Tuesday, Jan. 10 and to the Fairfax Town Council the following night, Jan. 11. In it, he said the merger would improve both the safety and save money for all towns.

“I really don’t see any downsides,” said Meagor.

Merging Ross with RVFD would keep the Ross station on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard open and with its current level of staffing. However, the Ross Fire Chief is set to retire soon, so then all the stations will have one chief, share administrative costs, battalion chiefs, and share equipment, and cut down on duplicative costs.

The exact amount of savings will depend on how the costs are eventually split. Each town could save up to $100,000 a year.

The San Anselmo and Fairfax fire districts similarly merged in 1982 to create the Ross Valley Fire Department, with Sleepy Hollow (which contracted with San Anselmo for fire services) become a full member of the RVFD in 2010.

“The talk was always that Ross would eventually come in,” said Lew Tremaine, making a public comment during his first meeting no longer on the Fairfax Council.

Back in 1982, Meagor pointed out, there were more personnel on duty every day. The extra chief and battalion chief positions created by the merger were supposed to be turned into additional firefighter positions at the time, but budget cuts meant that never happened. In the late 1980s, the Assistant Chief position was also eliminated.

More recently, a fire inspector position and paramedics were added to the stations. And now, Ross Valley Fire has 27 employees with seven captains/firefighters/chiefs on duty across the three stations on any given day.

Adding Ross to the district would up the number of firefighters to ten each day. Standards require that even a simple single-family dwelling fire requires a response of 15 personnel, which includes volunteers and apprentices.

Additionally, the extra station would provide greater back-up and increased response times, said Meagor.

This is not the first time consolidation has been considered. In his presentation, Meagor went into extensive detail on past consolidation talks dating back to the mid-1980s. But, the other options involved closing stations or were not financially feasible.

Even when these discussions started in January of last year, Ross also looked to Kentfield to possibly consolidate with, but those talks went nowhere. It would have cost Ross nearly $100,000 more, not included 24-hour battalion chiefs, and have required a permanent tax transfer.

“Ross was not interested in doing that,” said Meagor.

After extensive discussions, the creation of a sub-committee, input from various groups, and a presentation to the Ross Town Council, both Meagor and Ross Fire Chief Thomas Vallee agreed it would be a merger that made sense.

The two districts share a common boundary, frequently provide back-up for each other in larger fires, and Ross already contracts with RVFD to provide battalion chiefs.

There are many details that still need to be worked out, including splitting up pensions costs and addressing liability issues. The exact split each town in RVFD would pay to the fire department also has to be fully calculated. Right now, San Anselmo pays 52.9% of RVFD’s costs, Fairfax pays 30.4% and Sleepy Hollow pays 16.7%. The new calculations would require that Ross pays the full costs of the staffing at its station. Overhead and administrative costs would be shared.

Once the details are hammered out, an amendment to the RVFD agreement would be brought to the fire district board and town councils to approve. And, Meagor thinks that can be done by July 1.

“We’ve done a lot of homework behind the scenes,” he said.

“This makes sense to me. Consolidation has been discussed again and again, now it seems like everyone’s on the same page,” said Fairfax Councilman Ryan O’Neil.