Fountain fire and police expect to staff up in 2023
Nov. 15—Fountain's fire and police departments expect to staff up next year following the approval of a public safety property tax last week.
The Fountain community turned out in force with more than 7,000 people voting on the public safety question and about 55% approving the tax hike to hire six police officers and six firefighters. The turnout was nearly on par with a presidential election for Fountain, said Chris Heberer, the public safety director who oversees the police and fire departments.
The new staff are expected to join the department next year and will help serve the rapidly growing community, prevent future cutbacks in services and help address issues with thin staffing, particularly within the Fire Department. For example, last summer the Fire Department had to institute mandatory overtime over the summer. Mandatory overtime is both detrimental to morale and expensive, Heberer said.
He credits community education for the success of the first mill levy increase since 1990, he said. The tax is expected to raise about $1.7 million more annually for public safety.
"I am really proud of our community," he said.
Hiring for the departments will not start right away because the new property tax revenues will not start coming in until the end of 2023.
A sales tax increase would have allowed the departments to start seeing revenue sooner, but sales tax revenues are less stable and not as predictable long term, he said.
In addition and separate from the tax question, all city employees will receive a 7% cost-of-living raise at the beginning of the year to help offset the impacts of inflation. A recent survey also found the Fountain police and fire department staff are "vastly" underpaid compared to other departments in the region, Heberer said. So it's important for the town to stay competitive as the whole state battles recruiting and retention problems in the public safety sector, he said.
Fountain has funding for 38 fire staff and 35 of those positions are filled. Fountain recently did away with four part-time firefighter positions and 10 positions paid by the day to create seven full-time positions to help with consistency of staffing, Heberer said. People working by the day are typically looking for full-time work.
The Police Department is authorized for 61 people and it has five openings, with some people in the hiring pipeline, Heberer said.
To prepare for the new staff, the fire and police departments also plan to add equipment including new police cruisers and a new ambulance. The new staff will also allow the departments to be ready for a new building that could start construction in 2025 on the rapidly growing east side of town. The building would likely house both firefighters and police.
The community has a dedicated fund for public safety buildings and equipment, and by 2025, Heberer expects to have $2.5 million saved for the new building. It will likely be enough for a first phase of construction, he said.
The new positions will also be key for serving community growth in general as Fountain expects to expand from about 30,500 people to about 48,000 in about the next eight years, he said. Without additional staff, he expected to eliminate his four-person traffic enforcement team.
"I am just really grateful and happy," he said.
