Fire department officials express concern over decreased funding

The Roosevelt County Commission has drafted an agreement that will decrease annual funding for rural fire departments by $2,000. Representatives from those departments were at Tuesday’s Commission meeting to express their concerns.

Dora Fire Chief Paul Luscumbe said his volunteers could be out of business with the reduced funding.

“Our costs have increased dramatically and the cost to provide those services has increased as well,” Luscumbe told commissioners.

“It’s getting to the point where we cannot afford to continue to do business the way we’ve done it in the past. It’s not because we don’t want to, it’s just we can’t afford to.”

Luscombe said if each of Roosevelt County’s communities stay within their own area as proposed, Dora’s call volume will increase by over 450%.

County Manager Amber Hamilton said in the Fiscal Year 2023 agreement the commission allocated $7,000 per municipal fire department. This new agreement reduces payment for each department to $5,000.

Commissioners also agreed to pay the city of Portales $175,000 for dispatch services for the rural fire departments, along with the Sheriff’s Office, for FY23 and FY24.

Hamilton said the county attorney will work on cleaning up the language some of the rural municipal departments had expressed concern with. She said if a municipality declines to enter the agreement, they choose not to accept the offered financial support from the county.

“We know this is a safety issue for all of the residents,” County Commissioner Tina Dixon told firefighters.

“At the same time we’re also having to make agreements with several different things with the city of Portales. It’s not just one spot, it’s not just EMS and not just dispatch,” Dixon said.