By KRISTI MAYFIELD
Recently, the residents of Valley Home gathered to hear what their future might look like with regard to fire and emergency services. As Paul Rivera, Vice Chairperson of the Oakdale Fire Protection District, which serves Valley Home and Knights Ferry, called the meeting to order, there were lots of anxious faces in the room waiting to hear from their representatives including Rivera and his fellow Board Members, Eric Feichter and Erick Vandeveer. Rivera jumped in to the most pressing points on the agenda: namely, their current contract with the Modesto Fire Department, which will end in 2027, and how they are going to proceed with little to no funding.
“We can no longer afford City of Modesto so we are looking at alternatives including Stanislaus Consolidated and joining forces with other smaller departments,” said Rivera.
As the crowd of Valley Home residents listened intently, they were reminded that while Stanislaus Consolidated Fire Protection District has been assisting them as much as possible, a decision would have to be made as to how the community would proceed with their emergency services.
Many of the residents including Cindy Benedix-Fleischer, whose father Gerald “Jerry” Benedix, worked in the Valley Home Fire Department for more than 40 years and became chief of the department in 1972, shared her concerns through tears. She noted that her father had served as chief for many years and that the residents always knew they had a great group of volunteer firefighters that would be there when they needed them.
“We understand that Knights Ferry needs help but we deserve help too, here in Valley Home,” Benedix-Fleischer said to the crowd of residents and representatives including Buck Condit, District 1 Stanislaus County Supervisor; Clint Bray, Deputy Fire Chief of Stanislaus Consolidated Fire Protection District; Eric DeHart, Chief of Ripon Consolidated Fire District; Tim Tietjen, Assistant Chief for the Modesto Fire Department; and Kevin Wise, Fire Chief of the Modesto Fire Department.
In addition to not having fire services, emergency services are also a concern for the residents as Benedix-Fleischer continued on, “None of us want our houses to burn down but we can replace those but if we have a heart attack and we die, we can’t be replaced.”
Some residents voiced concerns that while the local government continues to raise taxes they are getting less and less in the way of emergency and fire services. Rivera did remind the crowd that within the past few years Valley Home has put some measures up to a vote which would have increased taxes to generate some of the needed funds to keep programs like emergency services going, but they were not supported at the ballot box by the residents.
Eric Feichter, board member, shared that of the funds that are allocated to the Valley Home District, they write a check for $199,000 on a monthly basis to the City of Modesto for their services and the community cannot carry on like this as they are running out of funds and there isn’t currently any new or additional funding coming in. As the conversation continued with the focus being on the lack of funding, both Eric DeHart and Tim Tietjen reminded attendees that consolidating with Stanislaus Consolidated Fire Department could be in their best interest, as it would provide a rotating crew of emergency service providers throughout Valley Home and Knights Ferry and they would still retain a seat on the board of directors.
Rivera wants to open the current contract with the City of Modesto and renegotiate the terms to split services between Valley Home and Knights Ferry but there is no assurance that this will happen anytime soon and residents are very concerned about the current lack of staffing.
“Stanislaus Consolidated is not the only agency, we are also speaking with Cal Fire,” said Rivera when addressing questions regarding renegotiating the contract versus moving forward with the consolidation into another fire department.
While trying to keep their options open, it was clear that a decision has to be made and soon, if they hope to retain fire and emergency services in their communities. Residents of both Knights Ferry and Valley Home are encouraged to attend these meetings to learn more about what their options are as well as voice their opinions and concerns.
