Missoula Fire Department seeking $880K increase in FY27 budget

Martin Kidston

(Missoula Current) The Missoula Fire Department is asking City Council to fund a number of top-tier needs including an assistant chief and a cost-of-living increase for the Mobile Support Team, among others.

The city on Wednesday kicked off its budget season, bringing a number of city departments to begin presenting their funding requests for the new fiscal year.

Fire Chief Lonnie Rash said that since the passage of $7 million annual fire levy, the department has hired more than 20 firefighters and put them through training. By November, he said the department will be fully staffed.

The department is also chipping away at plans for Station Six. The project remains in the planning phase and architects are working to “right size” the future building. The purchase of property for the station near Curtis and Third Street remains in the works.

Also last fiscal year, Rash said the department has stabilized the Mobile Support Team and has moved it to a leased facility.

“We do have to find that long-term location in the future through some of the levy conversation,” Rash said.

Looking forward to the new fiscal year, the department has highlighted a number of top requests, including $350,000 for an assistant chief, $350,000 for station alerting and $29,000 for mobile support. Rash described them as mission critical needs.

All in, the department is seeking a budget increase of around $880,000.

“These are requests we'd like you to consider both short-term and long-term,” he said. “We think they're important enough to be highlighted for awareness, but understand there's only so much money in the bucket.”

Rash said the department's structure includes the fire chief and two assistant chiefs, one for operations and another for administration. But as the department grows, he said the top level should be enhanced with an assistant chief of planning and logistics.

“This position would have an EMS administration function, which would be specifically to oversee our EMS program. That's 75% of the work we do,” said Rash. “It helps us take the focus from our assistant chief of operations, who is doing a whole bunch of different things, and focusing them on personnel management, so they're really focused on managing those 100 and some employees in the organization.”

The department is also seeking $30,000 for a strategic plan, or a fire master plan, and $350,000 to install a new fire alerting system. Rash said the current high-pitch alert tone is outdated and no longer acceptable for firefighters coming out of a dead sleep.

The system would carry a $4,000 annual cost but improve response time, he said.

“We recognize that long term, we should not have those to elevate heart rate. We should actually provide a standardized tone,” he said. “It's first responder health, firefighter safety and reduces fatigue. It's better turnout time.”

Other requests include a one-time cost of $148,000 for EMS and rescue protective equipment. The $29,000 request for the Mobile Support Team would ensure team members receive a cost-of-living allowance due to its support by Partnership Health Center.

While the department is seeking $830,000 total, most of that is a one-time cost, Rash added.

“The assistant chief would be ongoing, and the fire alerting system would be $4,000 annually. Mobile support would be ongoing, but everything else would be a one-time ask,” he said.