File photo / Post Independent
As funding drops, Colorado River Fire Rescue plans to ask voters for the second time in two years to bolster funding through property taxes.
Though annual funding has dropped by more than $2.5 million since 2017, call volume for the Colorado River Fire Rescue district continues to increase, said a fire official.
In May 2020, a measure to add 6.099 mills to the current levy, which would have generated $4.72 million to help balance the fire district’s budget, was defeated by the voters. The outcome meant the district was forced to close Station 43 in south Rifle.
Over the course of 2020, in fact, the district that covers 851 square miles east of New Castle and west of Rifle has seen a 6.1% increase in 911 calls since 2019.
A bagpipe ceremony commences during a change of command ceremony Saturday at Station No. 41 in Rifle. Ray Erku / Post Independent
Before an enormous American flag draped across the wall, outgoing Colorado River Fire Rescue Chief Randy Callahan took the department’s fire engine red flag with a distinct sense of decorum and handed it to newly sworn-in chief Leif Sackett.
Adorned in traditional firefighter dress uniforms in front of cohorts and family inside Station 41 in Rifle on Saturday, the two chiefs would carry out the first official change of command ceremony in CRFR history.
“The time has come for me to climb down the ladder,” Callahan said during a speech prior to Sackett being sworn in.