MISSOULA — The Missoula Fire Department recently asked the city for more funding to hire firefighters and expand services.
This edition of Current Events with Missoula Current editor Martin Kidston takes a look at how much that could cost, where the money would come from, and what timeline we could expect.
“You're going to be hearing a lot about the fire department over the next year. [The] fire department needs funding and needs to grow. It's not able to meet the current needs of a growing city, and that's going to be a lot of discussion around that topic,” Kidston noted.
The Missoula Fire Department reports that they responded to 12,000 calls.
“So, it's everything from rescues, heart attacks car crashes, to fires. And 16 years ago, in 2008, they [were] responding to 6,000 calls. That has grown to 12,000 But since 2008, they haven’t added any staff members. They haven't grown at all,” Kidston explained. “Much has changed. The fire department really hasn’t grown with the city.”
While funding for law enforcement has increased, the fire department hasn’t kept up.
“Well, the fire department gets funding for like equipment smaller things. What they really need is a new station out in the Mullan area because [of growth] that's taking place,” Kidston said. “You can't hire one fireman at a time; you have an empty station. They need to hire 20 at one time. That's a heavy lift to build a station and bring on 20 additional firefighters to meet the current needs of the city.”
The numbers being discussed add up to about $7 million annually. “If voters remember last year, the [Missoula] City Council agreed to place a bond on a November ballot to deliver 40 additional mills to fund the fire station on an annual basis — around $7 million," Kidston noted.
The levy request was ultimately pulled towards the end of the year due to taxpayer concerns but could be on the ballot this year.
Missoula has a new mayor in Andrea Davis and the city budget is being worked on with city agencies making various funding requests.
“It's going to start ramping up and this is going to be front [and] center of the conversation," Kidston said.
