According to the mission statement of the fire and emergency services found on the U.S. Naval Station GTMO website, The GTMO Fire, Crash and Rescue Department has the primary responsibility of both life safety and property protection. The department diligently prepares and executes these services on behalf of all community personnel.

To confront the life and property threat that is present at all times, a relentless pursuit of prevention as the optimum solution to this threat is the foundation for all endeavors. The performance of these duties directly impacts the ability of this command to meet their primary mission.

Some of the firefighters were certified prior to their arrival at GTMO; others have been trained here upon being accepted to the department. Certified instructors are brought to GTMO to conduct a fire academy for new recruits, there are also online certification courses, which accommodates additional classifications needed through the Air Force.

"This month a new class of approximately 25 firefighter candidates will start the academy," said Orain Thompson, a firefighter with house four since 2013 and former police officer in Jamaica. "The instructors will be provided by the University of Maryland to conduct the academy here on GTMO."

Since the proposed station was rejected by a 3-2 vote in December, public discussions have involved numbers for call volumes, types of service calls, call response times and whether the city should purchase the land where the station will be built rather than commit to a perpetual lease with the Lompoc Airport.

But new financial data released late last week is expected to focus Tuesday night's council discussion on a different set of numbers -- the amount of cash in the city's operating reserves.

The data released by staff shows that paying for the proposed new fire station -- at a total cost of $29.8 million over a 30-year period -- will deplete city general fund reserves for a period of six years, from 2020 through 2025, according to Dean Albro, the city's accounting revenue manager.

To balance the budget in those years, the city anticipates it will need to dip into a $2 million Economic Uncertainty Fund, a permanent cash reserve created in 1994 to be used for "the continued operations of the city when severe economic conditions deem it necessary."

For three years, 2022 through 2024, staff projects the city will have less than $500,000 in cash reserves if the proposed project is approved, Albro confirmed.

The dip into general fund reserves to balance the city budget is largely due to factors unrelated to the construction of new fire station.