The president of the Barstow Professional Firefighters Association urged the City Council on Monday to consider annexing the Barstow Fire Protection District into the San Bernardino County district. "I want to make the suggestion that we go forward with the proposal and look into that wholeheartedly," Barstow Fire Protection District Firefighter John Wymore said. He told the Council that the district is losing too many experienced firefighters to retirement and other departments. Wymore attended a Barstow Fire District budget workshop earlier in the evening which offered an optimistic outlook that the district could stabilize despite the struggle to successfully transition pension plans from the San Bernardino County Employees' Retirement Association to the California Public Employees Retirement System. One of the options on the table if the district fails to stabilize is being annexed into the county district. "This fiscal year we are projecting revenues to be $4.7 million," Assistant City Manager Cindy Prothro reported during the workshop. "Expenditures are tracking at $5.1 million and we project a shortfall of just over a third of a million (dollars), which is a little higher than what we projected earlier this year." But Prothro said the one factor that has been difficult to track is retirements.