Carefree Citizen Workshops for Fire & Emergency Services
10/4/2022
This fall, the Town will conduct five (5) public open houses at various locations to review the available options for Fire and Emergency services in the Town of Carefree.
These critical workshops invite the public to learn and ask questions about the levels of fire and emergency services as well as the associated costs for each.
History of Carefree Fire and Emergency Services:
Beginning in the 1960s, Rural Metro provided fire and emergency services to Town residents and businesses through individual subscription services. Residents paid an annual subscription fee of approximately $750 for fire and emergency services.
This model continued until the early 2000's when the Town of Carefree assumed a master contract with Rural Metro, built a state-of-the-art fire station and furnished it with a fire truck and associated equipment pursuant to National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standards. The master contract with Rural Metro simply provided the certified firefighters, paramedics and emergency medical technicians to staff the Town’s fire house and equipment. This new master contract provided the Town with a higher level of service and accountability through defined service metrics. However, with this higher level of service the Town’s annual operation costs directly associated with this new Town Fire Department increased. Therefore, at that time, to help offset this increase to the Town’s annual operation costs, the Town Council approved a new funding stream with a 1% increase in the Town’s retail sales tax and approved economic development projects such as Lowe's Home Improvement Store.
This model has served the community well for the past 15 years. However, today external influences are impacting the Town’s current relationship with Rural Metro. Recently, the Town of Cave Creek assumed a similar model as Carefree and acquired a fire station and purchased equipment.
Extinguishing the need for individual residential subscriptions for fire and emergency services, Cave Creek chose to contract with Daisy Mountain Fire District. A benefit of Cave Creek’s new contractual relationship with Daisy Mountain Fire District is that the District is part of a regional partnership of first responders called automatic aid.
Automatic aid is comprised of municipal fire departments and fire districts located within the Phoenix-Mesa metropolitan area. Collectively, these automatic aid partners set uniform standards of service and seamlessly dispatch the closest, most appropriate equipment regardless of jurisdictional boundaries of participating entities. As a result of the uniform standards established by this regional partnership, there are additional up front capital investments and a significant increase to current annual operational expenses. In the coming weeks, the Town will distribute a video outlining the options, costs, and needed revenue offset. This video will be followed up with five opportunities for citizens to participate in this discussion to help define a solution for the community.
STEP 1: View the fire services video presentation:
STEP 2: Choose a date from the list below to participate in the discussion:
Wednesday, October 19 | 5:00 PM | Christ Anglican Church - 3550 North Cave Creek Road
Wednesday, October 26 | 5:00 PM | Holland Community Center - 34250 North 60th Street
Thursday, November 3 | 5:00 PM | Christ the Lord Lutheran Church - 9205 East Cave Creek Road
Thursday, November 10 | 5:00 PM | Carefree Town Council Chambers - 33 Easy Street
Thursday, November 17 | 5:00 PM | Zoom meeting - REGISTER TO ATTEND ZOOM MEETING