RIPON, Calif. — The Ripon Consolidated Fire District is in dire need of firefighters and staff to keep up with a growing community.
The fire district is eager to hire more firefighters and staff, and they’re asking for help in paying firefighters the wages they deserve.
"Staffing is our biggest concern because the community is getting bigger — both inside the city limits and outside population in the rural areas and incorporated areas — and we still have just one station," said Ripon Fire Chief Dennis Bitters.
Bitters says the main reason they're having trouble hiring or keeping employees is because they can't compete with pay in other areas. Ripon Fire hasn’t seen a funding increase since a 1985 special district tax. The brand-new fire station for the Ripon Consolidated Fire District has had to sit empty for more than five years.
"We pay our firefighters $24.13 cents per hour, and we simply cannot compete with other surrounding departments within the Bay Area communities, north up in Sacramento, and so we lose staff to those other agencies," said Sheri Coburn, chairperson for the board of directors.
The fire district is so understaffed that crews had to wait to go inside a home to put out a house fire Saturday.
"There were concerns that there's not enough staffing to be there to be able to sufficiently fight the fire and to support the suppression operations," said Ryan Mackey, boardmember for Ripon Consolidated Fire District.
He also saw the fire form his home and volunteered to help fight it.
The fire station serves a population of 22,000 people and they run over 2,000 calls per year. Around 500 of them are concurrent calls, meaning they happen in and around the same time.
The Ripon Fire board plans to announce a proclamation resolution to initiate the measure at its April board meeting. A single-family home could see an additional assessment of $21-23 a month, depending on the square footage.
"I think it's really about multi-funding areas right, so we can't just depend on one area for funding," said Coburn. "We have to look up multiple ways to do that, and I think Proposition 218 will create $1 million additional funding in this community to help open up this station."
The board meeting will be held at 2 p.m. April 11 at Fire Station #1. The whole community is invited to attend. Once it's announced, ballots will go out and there is a 45-day period to vote.
