The board of directors for the Nucla-Naturita Fire Protection District (NNFPD) held its election May 6 for the purpose of filling four vacating seats. Public information officer for the department Jeff Stephens told the Forum the NNFPD has a board of directors consisting of five elected seats, voted on by residents within Nucla, Naturita and Paradox Valley.
The previous board members were Chris Quigley, Jeremy Quigley, Richard Starks and board president John Reams, but they’d all reached their term limits. The fifth seat is filled by Matt Weimer, whose term on the board is still current.
New board members now in place, as of the May 6 election, are Jack Lee, Bruce Schmalz, Orson Case and John Riley, Jr.
For his final act as president of the NNFPD board, John Reams swore in the new members May 12. Then, the new board held an internal election for officers, appointing Lee to the position of president, Weimer as vice president, and Schmalz as secretary and treasurer.
Lee spoke with the Forum Sunday evening. Many know that he’s a served the Basin Clinic board and also the chamber of commerce board. He’s still on the cemetery board, the community center board and has been a member of the West End Sheriff’s Posse for 48 years.
He’s also been the deputy coroner for West Montrose County for the last 22 years and has not retired; 12 years before that was contracted for that work. Lee told the Forum serving as coroner is “near and dear to (his) heart.”
Additionally, he’s the senior vice commander for the VFW, Uranium Post No. 9058, in Nucla.
And, as fire board president, he’s got the experience. He ran the Paradox Valley Fire Department for 34 years and was chief for 27. He’s been an EMT for decades, along with an EMT instructor, CPR instructor and instructor trainer. He retired from that work approximately 10 years ago. It was only a few years ago the NNFPD began to cover Paradox too.
Now Lee is ready to go work in his new role. He admitted the district is facing a few issues, one of them being financial.
“We will have to try to find some creative ways to keep the funding up, and we’ll be looking at several of them and will have to work on them,” he said.
Lee’s first meeting as fire board president was June 9. He planned to address future goals and see how the board felt. He’s also concerned about training. He said it’s one of the utmost important issues in a fire district, for fire and EMS both. He said the same is true for retention.
“These small areas, it’s really hard to find volunteers anymore, and even if you try to fund them a little, with that it’s hard on a small department,” Lee said. “Those are just issues we will face. We will have to look at it, and I have some ideas. We will see what happens.”
Lee told the Forum it’s hard to go to citizens for a tax levy, if a board hasn’t done all it can. He knows how expensive everything is at this time, and that’s true for fire and EMS equipment.
“So is replacing housing and vehicles that burn,” he said.
Lee told the Forum he loves the West End. He wants to help as much as he can.
Term limits on the board are for four years and also two years, and the maximum to term out is eight years
NNFPD holds a monthly meeting of the board of directors on the second Monday of each month at 6 p.m. These meetings are open to the public, held at the Nucla Fire Hall at 555 Main St.
The public is welcomed and encouraged to attend these meetings.
