Should the city of Ceres continue to participate in the regional fire training facility since it contracts with the city of Modesto and they are responsible for training its firefighters?

That depends on who you talk to but for now there will be no changes to the arrangement.

Councilman James Casey cast the lone vote last week against a MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) allowing the city of Ceres to remain as a partner in the program by providing Fire Station 17 grounds on Service Road.

Councilwoman Cerina Otero had questions about the agreement which were answered by Modesto Fire Assistant Fire Chief Andrew Hunter. He explained that in 2022, Ceres joined Modesto, Turlock, and Stanislaus Consolidated in establishing a regional training division that today supports nearly 300 firefighters and in 2025 coordinated more than 86,355 training hours.

Hunter said the division also coordinates state mandated and specialized training in firefighting, emergency medical services, hazardous materials, technical rescue and other operations.

The MOU gives Ceres representation on the Training Committee through the Modesto Fire Department but does not pay extra since Ceres provides the training ground at Fire Station 17 on Service Road.

Ceres resident John Warren argued that the city should lease the facility ground and generate some revenue or close it down.

“I understand the importance of training,” said Warren. “But the situation here is .... the city of Ceres does not have any fire personnel to train. And what we do have is we do have a training facility. We pay the city of Modesto every month, between $750,000 and $1 million for trained firemen. They need to train the firemen that they supply to us that we pay for every month. We don’t need a facility to train them. They do.”

The City Council voted 4-1 to approve the MOU.