Hannah Ward
Casper Star Tribune, Wyo.
(TNS)
Natrona County commissioners recently approved a $500,000 advance to the Natrona County Fire Protection District to help with operational costs and equipment, including the early arrival of three new fire trucks.
Overtime from wildfire season and the unanticipated early delivery of new fire trucks had the Fire District facing a budget deficit and forced it to spend $1.1 million from its savings, said District Fire Inspector Brian Oliver in a September meeting.
The fire district ordered the new trucks in 2020, when a backlog of materials pushed the estimated readiness to be three to four years out and with the assumption it would have the revenue by the delivery date, Oliver said in the meeting. Many fire departments canceled their orders between then and now, and Natrona County’s order was pushed to an earlier date, he added.
“This is not necessarily something that has taken us by surprise,” Oliver said.
The county will prepay the district’s allotted $250,000 from the 1-cent sales tax, and Anticline mineral royalty funds will provide the other half.
The state of Wyoming levies a 4% sales tax, and counties can opt in to issuing an additional percent to help pay for improving and maintaining equipment, infrastructure, and vehicles—such as fire trucks.
The down payment for two of the fire trucks and the first payment, due in January, will be covered by $320,000 of the advancement. The remainder will go to repairing a septic drain system.
The county is set to receive around $43,000 from the Industrial Siting Council through next spring, and this money will be used to reimburse the general fund, said Dave North, chairman of the Natrona County Board of County Commissioners, in an interview.
The Industrial Siting Council looks into environmental and socio-economic impacts of major industrial projects and helps companies determine what permits they may need.
Oliver said the large sums due for retirement payments, overtime and insurance before and after the turn of the fiscal year each summer makes it difficult to avoid pulling from savings because of tax revenue checks from the county coming each month, rather than a lump sum like many other fire departments.
To ease the financial pressures, the district has temporarily reduced staffing to eliminate overtime costs and closed its fire station to the east of Casper for a 48-hour period, officials said in a statement Monday.
“These steps ensured we could maintain service while addressing budget issues and are still in place as of this release,” officials said.
Officials noted the fire protection district and Natrona County Commissioners are discussing options on how to prevent a similar issue in the future.
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