Over the decades the rural Ceres Fire Protection District has been slowly gobbled up as Ceres has expanded its southwestern city limits. Now with the Copper Trails master plan expected chew up more of its already shrunken coverage area, the district is proposed to become absorbed into the Stanislaus Consolidated Fire District.

A small handful of folks curious about what the merger will mean turned out for a Tuesday evening, June 16 public workshop held at the Ceres Community Center. Notices were sent to owners of all 580 affected parcels but only three affected persons showed up.

The proposed annexation of CFPD to Stanislaus Consolidated Fire District will be considered at the June 24 meeting of the Stanislaus Local Agency Formation Commission (or LAFCO.)

The Ceres Fire Protection District – not to be confused with Ceres Fire which contracts with Modesto Fire Department – covers only 3.8 square miles outside of the city limits. East of Highway 99 it encompasses an area outside the city limits between Moore Road and Faith Home Road to the east all the way south to Redwood Road where it transitions into Keyes Fire Protection District.

West of the freeway the district covers the county pocket between Industrial Avenue and Service Road; the area south of Service Road to Redwood Road and between Blaker Road and the freeway; and the area south of the Ceres city limits east of the Tidewater tracks to Blaker Road and bounded by Keyes Road to the south. The district abuts to the Westport Fire district in that area.

A small pocket of the district is just west of Mitchell Road and north of River Road.

Jeff Smalls, a consultant with Capital Finance Group, led the workshop and explained that the district no longer has a workable budget and things only get worse once LAFCO annexes Copper Trails.

“The budget is about $100,000 so it’s not a lot of money,” said Smalls.

Because CFPD has no station, no firefighters and no apparatus, it has for decades contracted with the city of Ceres for fire service. Modesto Fire now provides that service since Ceres contracts with Modesto.

In reality though, any structure or grass fires or car crashes that occur in the small district often draw mutual aid from neighboring fire agencies.

In contracting with Ceres for service, CFPD was allowed to keep $20,000 annually for administrative costs, leaving the remaining $80,000 towards fire protection

“You can’t really hire people with that kind of budget, $80,000,” said Smalls. “The Ceres Fire Protection District doesn’t have a full-time staff. They don’t have a fire station. They don’t have apparatus. It’s a district that …has probably been around in some form for many years, but my understanding is that officially formed in 1963.”

Smalls said it is not uncommon to see small rural districts become absorbed into larger ones and departments are increasingly moving toward regionalization due to economies of scale.

Unfortunately the merger will cost those living in or owning properties in the district. Smalls explained that in the mid-1980s, the CFPD passed a special assessment which costs owners about $90 per year on their property tax bills. That amount hasn’t kept up with inflation, he said, noting that the hourly minimum wage in the 1980s was $3.35 and today, it’s $16.50.

Once part of Stanislaus Consolidated property owners will be required to pay property assessments of $341 annually.

“For the last 25 years, the Ceres Fire District has done everything they could to manage through it. But we’re coming at a time where it’s just not manageable. So the idea here is for the Ceres Fire Protection District to become part of a bigger, stronger district.”

Stanislaus Consolidated Fire District has a budget of $14.7 million, 58 employees, 55 professional firefighters and operates six fire stations. They are located on Mitchell Road near the airport, on E Street in Waterford, on Topeka Street in Riverbank, Yosemite Boulevard in Empire and near the Fruit Yard and one in La Grange.

“They have experience in helping smaller departments that just are having difficulty functioning,” said Smalls.

One audience member asked from what stations the fire engines would respond and was told by Stanislaus Consolidated Deputy Chief Clint Bray that the closest station would roll.

“Depending on where you live at, it could be from the city of Ceres,” said Bray. “If it’s a structure fire, you will definitely get Stanislaus Consolidated resources, along with the city of Ceres and the city of Modesto.”

Mutual aid agreements call for neighboring agencies to help out when needed.

When asked what response times will be experienced in the new area of Stanislaus Consolidated, Bray said the goal is six minutes.

Smalls said the merger is really about “being able to modernize the current level of service.”

Bray noted that all three agencies keep paramedics on their engines for Advanced Life Support

“As a board we’re trying to be proactive about this because we see what’s happening, all these annexations, Copper Trails,” said Ceres Fire Protection District board president Gary Marchy who was in attendance at the meeting. “So we are losing a lot of money from that. With Copper Trails we will lose a quarter of our land so that’s revenue lost. We’re just getting smaller and smaller and we’re trying to make this move with a larger agency. Granted it’s going to cost but we’re going into a modern fire service.”

LAFCO will take up the merger at its Wednesday, June 24 meeting that begins at 6 p.m. in the Joint Chambers (basement level) at 1010 Tenth Street, Modesto.