Latest news with #JasonCaughey
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
LCFA awarded $180,000 from Wyoming to rebuild Fire Station 74
CHEYENNE – Wyoming's top five elected officials voted Wednesday to award $180,000 in emergency mineral royalty grant funding to the Laramie County Fire Authority to rebuild a fire station that burned down in mid-January. LCFA Chief Jason Caughey told state officials a staff member was welding one of the fire trucks in Fire Station 74 a few hours before the fire was spotted. The staff member went home around 4 p.m., three-and-a-half hours before the witnesses driving down Yellowstone Road spotted the fire. 'It appears that where he was welding, it was the ignition source,' Caughey said. Last week, Caughey approached the State Loan and Investment Board (SLIB) to ask for $250,000 in emergency MRG funding. This amount made up the 32% of construction costs to rebuild the fire station that wasn't covered by insurance. The Office of State Lands and Investments, which oversees this grant funding, found this project did not meet the 'emergency' threshold. It deferred the LCFA's application for regular mineral royalty grant (MRG) funding, which would be approved during the board's special meeting in June. The state fire marshal and Wyoming forestry division echoed this recommendation. However, Caughey said LCFA couldn't wait that long for funding. The Laramie County Planning Department utilizes an emergency building permit program in the event of a natural disaster or fire. If the facility is rebuilt within one year, 'it doesn't have to jump through all of the same hoops that a normal building process would.' 'By not being able to complete this project within one year, it's going to cost us and the taxpayers a significant amount more money,' Caughey said. 'To rebuild that same existing station today, I anticipate 25% more.' Without the emergency grant funding, Caughey said the county fire authority would have to take out a loan, and the interest would be paid for by Laramie County taxpayers. An OSLI staff member said during last week's SLIB meeting the application was incomplete, missing two documents. SLIB members agreed to hold an emergency meeting on Wednesday to discuss the matter, once the documents were submitted. In both meetings, State Auditor Kristi Racines asked Caughey if a $100,000 grant would be sufficient. Caughey answered that partial funding 'would be greatly appreciated.' 'It allows us to continue this project moving forward without throwing the bigger wrench of no (state) funding into this project,' he said. State Treasurer Curt Meier asked about the details of the newly constructed fire house, such as installing a fire alarm system that's tied into a central system. Caughey said a centralized monitoring system will be installed, 'which will give us early detection of any events that happened in that building.' Racines moved to grant $180,000 in emergency MRG funding, which passed the board. Caughey later told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle the LCFA will be able to absorb the remaining $70,000 into its current funding mechanisms, without any impact on local taxpayers. 'We're grateful for the support of the State Land Investment Board today, for funding the additional $180,000 toward the rebuild of Station 74,' Caughey said. 'We don't believe the difference that's remaining will have any impact on the project.'
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Fire chief waits hours on empty stomach to fight for state funds to rebuild Station 74
CHEYENNE — The Laramie County Fire Authority needs $250,000 in emergency mineral royalty grant funding from the state to rebuild a fire station that burned down in mid-January. But whether it gets that money depends on the outcome of an emergency meeting of the State Loan and Investment Board (SLIB) next week. LCFA Chief Jason Caughey waited nearly nine hours Thursday on an empty stomach — minus a handful of City Drug popcorn provided by the governor — to sway the state's top five elected officials to approve the application. A staff member from the Office of State Lands and Investments told SLIB members a few documents were missing from LCFA's application — but Caughey assured members the missing documents were available. SLIB Chairman Gov. Mark Gordon proposed holding an emergency meeting next week to review the application once all the documents are collected. For Caughey, time is money. The construction process for Fire Station 74 has already begun with the funds supplied by the insurance company, Caughey said. But insurance only covered 68% of total construction costs, and the county fire authority depleted its reserves to replace machinery lost in the fire. If the state doesn't provide the emergency funding, then LCFA will have to take out a loan, which means paying an additional 5.5% to 7% interest rate, Caughey said, and local taxpayers will be burdened with the cost. Why now? The Laramie County Planning Department utilizes an emergency building permit program in the event of a natural disaster or fire, Caughey said. If the facility is rebuilt within one year, 'it doesn't have to jump through all of the same hoops that a normal building process would.' 'By not being able to complete this project within one year, it's going to cost us and the taxpayers a significant amount more money,' Caughey said. 'To rebuild that same existing station today, I anticipate 25% more.' In mid-January, Laramie County firefighters responded to a structure fire at one of their own stations, Fire Station 74 on Yellowstone Road. Three wildland firefighter trucks were lost, along with the station itself. Caughey submitted an application for emergency mineral royalty grant (MRG) funding a week before the deadline. The Office of State Lands and Investments (OSLI) approved the LCFA's project application but found it did not constitute 'emergency' MRG funds. The OSLI recommended deferring the fire authority's application for regular MRG funds, which would be approved during the SLIB's special meeting on June 20. The Wyoming State Fire Marshal's Office and Wyoming State Forestry Division also did not believe the application qualified for emergency funding from the state. In a combined letter to SLIB members, these officials found the cost of this project 'appears to fall within the funds available to the district to construct without additional financial assistance,' among other reasons to disqualify it for emergency funds. But, according to Caughey, the LCFA is 'pinching pennies.' Aside from their depleted reserves, the LCFA took a major hit from a new property tax cut bill that was recently passed by the Wyoming Legislature. 'This year, we've lost 25% of our revenue from property tax,' Caughey said, 'which doesn't sound significant, but it's $250,000 out of our $2 million budget.' Salaries eat up 80% of the fire authority's total budget, he added. 'What few pennies we have left are going to be augmented to make sure that we can continue to supply the services to our community,' he said. An emotional loss Any fire structure loss can be a devastating event, and LCFA firefighters weren't exempt from the emotional devastation of responding to a fire at one of their own stations. Fire Station 74 had been a part of the fire community for over 50 years, since it was first built in 1974. The LCFA chief told state officials a staff member was welding on one of the fire trucks in Fire Station 74 a few hours before the fire. The staff member went home around 4 p.m., three-and-a-half hours before the witnesses driving down Yellowstone Road spotted the fire. 'It appears that where he was welding, it was the ignition source,' Caughey said. Caughey previously told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle it was a lesson in empathy for many of the firefighters who'd never personally lost a home or property in a structure fire before. 'Any time you respond to your own fire station for an incident like that, it's emotional because of the connection that our fires have to their own buildings,' Caughey said. 'Understanding the emotions that go with an event like this is going to make our firefighters better when dealing with the citizens and their tragedies.' Nearly lost in the structure fire was the locker of late Assistant Chief Charles 'Chuck' Scottini, a 'true grit' volunteer firefighter, according to Laramie County Fire District 1 Chief Darrick Mittlestadt. '(He was) one of those 'true grit' volunteers that came in and would work on things over the weekends and take care of the trucks, the station, projects, help with training and everything else,' Mittlestadt said. Scottini died in April 2021, six months after he contracted COVID-19 while on a wildland fire assignment in Colorado. He had been a firefighter with Laramie County Fire District 2 since 1998. Scottini's locker in Station 74 was saved, according to Caughey.
Yahoo
11-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
First responders warn bill proposing 50% property tax cut risks public safety
CHEYENNE — Local first responders are pushing back against a bill that would provide major property tax exemptions for single-family residential structures at the expense of funding for law enforcement and local first responders. Senate File 69, 'Homeowner property tax exemption,' would cut property taxes by 50% for owners of single-family homes up to $1 million in value over the next two years. While constituents across the state have called for tax breaks due to rising costs, the cuts could hurt local sheriff's departments and fire districts, which are largely funded by property taxes. 'None of us are against property tax cuts,' Laramie County Fire Authority Chief Jason Caughey told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle. 'We would like to see tax cuts, but we would like to see them be prudent to make sure that there aren't hidden consequences. In this case, special districts are a hidden consequence.' If the bill passes without any amendments, entities that are funded by property taxes will almost certainly have to make budget cuts, likely by cutting staff and select programs, local officials said. Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak stated in a news release that if SF 69 passes without any backfill from state savings, the Laramie County Sheriff's Office may be required to slash its budget by a conservative estimate of $2 million. 'If property taxes are being cut, especially to the level of 50%,' Kozak said, 'that's such a drastic cut, it's definitely going to impact public safety across the state and with our fire districts.' If the bill passes, Kozak said LCSO would have to lay off 25 employees, including four School Resource Officers, three detention deputies, six registered nurses, two mental health/suicide counselors, a jail programs counselor, two professional staff positions and seven juvenile crisis center counselors, in order to account for the funds. LCSO would also likely have to cut the School Resource Program, Jail Mental Health Pod, Juvenile Crisis Center, Mental Health Treatment Court, 287g Immigration Program, Inmate Community Work Detail and Sheriff Body Camera Program, he said. Frustrated community members took to Facebook almost immediately following the sheriff's post, claiming that the department could cut other unnecessary budget line items instead of threatening to cut jobs and programs. Commenters demanded that Kozak and Caughey stop 'fear-mongering' and 'tighten their purse strings.' Kozak clarified that many of the commenters' suggestions, such as limiting vehicle or technology purchases, limiting uniform costs or increasing written tickets, weren't actually viable. Revenue from parking tickets, for example, goes to schools, as opposed to back into the LCSO budget. Other items aren't funded by property tax, and their total cost doesn't equal the $2 million that Kozak expects to have to cut. 'There's a ton of risk,' Kozak told the WTE. '... For example, when we cut medical and mental health resources in the jail, the risk is people will (die by) suicide or people will die from medical issues that normally would have been caught.' Limited medical staff isn't only dangerous for the health of inmates, it could leave LSCO open to lawsuits, which the state pays for. 'At the end of the day, it's going to come out of the state's budget, one way or another,' Kozak said. 'Either upfront, through preventative measures or afterward, as a result of lawsuits.' There are potentially high risks for public safety related to fire districts, which will feel the budget cuts immediately, being a special district. 'During a medical emergency, time matters,' Caughey wrote in a Laramie County Fire District 5 Facebook post. 'Any delay in response can be catastrophic. During a fire, time matters and seconds count. Cutting budgets leads to job losses, and cutting jobs causes delays in response. Delays in response impact life safety and property loss.' Unlike county or state governments, fire districts rarely have savings set aside for budget items as expensive as employee salaries or annual costs, Caughey said. The bill will likely not impact state government jobs, while deeply affecting cities, counties and special districts, Caughey said. Some fire districts in the state operate on less than $80,000 a year, with fuel costs and insurance taking a majority of those funds, Caughey said. After paying for fuel, insurance and facilities costs, they have hardly any funds left. 'By the time we're done, there's no extra money, and we're not sitting on large revenue pots,' Caughey said. 'We're being as prudent and safe as we can with the taxpayer dollars.' The budget cuts could effectively force Laramie County Fire Authority to function on the same budget they had in 2010 when they had only one full-time employee and no college resident students, he said. In 2010, LCFA response times were 15-25 minutes, and they only received 450 service calls. Now, service calls have increased to 1,500 annually, and the district has increased full-time personnel and college resident students to reflect community needs. Especially with fires, a quick response time is often the difference between a contained incident and a devastating larger fire. Caughey pointed to recent fires in California as an example of the drastic consequences of underfunding public safety. 'They have a shortage of firefighters,' Caughey said. 'Now, that's the extreme, but proportionally, it's the same impact that we're seeing with this proposed tax cut.' While SF 69 isn't the only bill in the Legislature that would impact property taxes and subsequently impact funding for first responders, it has passed, so far, without any backfill amendments to ensure funding for special districts, schools or other public services that rely on property taxes. One way the House of Representatives could ensure public safety is accounted for while still passing the cuts would be to adopt an amendment that would protect the budgets of LCSO or LCFA by backfilling the lost revenue. SF 69 passed the Senate with no backfill at this time. However, the bill has yet to be considered in the House.
