The city of Belgrade is close to seeing a draft for a piece of legislation to change a requirement for the city to provide it’s own fire services once it hits a population of 10,000, which city officials say could happen by 2020.
Ted Barkley, city manger, is leading the effort to change the law and said he’s been meeting with fire chiefs, firefighters and city mangers to get their ideas on what a change should look like.
Currently the city contracts with Central Valley Fire District for its fire services because city officials said it’s a lot cheaper than having to provide its own fire department. The fire district spreads the costs for fire services beyond the city’s borders, which makes it cheaper than having residents within the city pony up the money for the services.
The local government interim committee is charged with studying and drafting legislation related to fire services. Barkley has been to meetings with the committee and said there has not been a lot of resistance to the change, but he expects more concerns would be raised as the fix gets closer.