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Pine Valley residents and volunteers fight
to keep fire department local
By Christy Scott
The Alpine Sun
PINE VALLEY — Many new faces were on
hand at last week’s Pine Valley Fire Protection District board
meeting, to support the current, mostly volunteer, fire
department. They were also there to show opposition of a
contract with the California Department of Forestry to bring CDF
fire fighters into the department.
The contract with CDF, which was approved by the
district board in February, would bring in state fire fighters,
beginning June 1. According to board PVFPD President Ben
Tulloch, money to pay for the contract of six fire fighters for
three years would come from $762,000 in county funds.
The PVFPD currently has two full-time paid fire
fighters and about two dozen volunteer and reserve fire
fighters, covering the communities of Pine Valley and Guatay.
Many residents oppose the move to bring CDF staff into
the department. A referendum petition, asking for the board to
repeal its decision, or put it to a popular vote, was circulated
in the community. At the March 6 PVFPD meeting the petition,
signed by more than 160 Pine Valley residents, was presented to
the board.
According to the county Registrar of Voters, 95
signatures are required to qualify the question for a referendum
vote, however, the fire district board must ultimately determine
whether to hold a vote.
No decision on a vote was announced at a meeting last
Tuesday night. Tulloch said the board is continuing to meet with
an attorney, in two closed session meetings, on April 9 and 26.
However, the contract is set to begin before the board’s next
meeting.
According to Tulloch, the CDF contract would provide
two professional fire fighters at all times, with backup if an
employee is sick or unable to work.
“The board feels it would be better service,” Tulloch
said. He said that volunteer fire fighters will still be needed,
however, some feel that they are being pushed out.
Darlene Moore, who has been a volunteer for 14 years,
said the atmosphere at the station will change with CDF fire
fighters there.
“It’s always been an open thing where the volunteers
hang out,” she said. “Now it’ll be if you’re here, you’re
working. It’s ‘yes sir, no sir.’”
The petition presented to the board reads, “[We]
believe that the Pine Valley Fire Protection District should be
preserved… We believe in local control of our fire protection
and emergency medical services… The majority of our Pine Valley
fire fighters live in the district and care about our
community.”
Darlene’s Her husband, Mike, also a volunteer
firefighter, said volunteers are quitting the department because
of tensions.
“We’re not opposed to the California Department of
Forestry,” Mike Moore said. “We work fine with them. We just
don’t want to be taken over by them. And that’s what this is, a
hostile takeover.”
Some residents were concerned about the lack of
funding, in three years time, when the CDF contract grant runs
out. Will the CDF position suddenly by empty, leaving the
community vulnerable.
“I think there’s a risk,” said John Fitch, president of
the Pine Valley Fire fighters Association. “After three years,
there’s no guaranteeing that funding will be available.”
Tulloch said he hopes the county will continue to pay
for the fire fighters, or complete plans for a regional fire
department that would include Pine Valley.
 E-mail
Christy Scott
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