We would like to take this opportunity to thank the citizens of Carbondale & Rural Fire Protection District for their support during the Nov. 6 election.

We appreciate you taking the time to learn about our needs so we can continue to provide outstanding, sustainable and essential community services. Your support means we will continue to deliver the highest level of service possible.

CRFPD is funded primarily by property taxes. Having a permanent property tax base to fund your fire department allows us to plan for the future. Everything you have approved is based on the 2015 CRFPD Master Plan goals and objectives.

The mill levy increase that you approved will allow us to move in to the future with well-trained staff and volunteers. We can continue to cover concurrent calls, while ensuring responder safety and provide the highest level of advanced life support care to our communities. We will be able to outfit our first responders in protective gear. We will be able to work with you on fire mitigation, spend time in the schools with kids and at events such as lunches at senior housing and offering free blood pressure checks at the farmers market. We can also put away funds for future capital replacement needs.

The bond issue that you approved will allow us to replace a portion of our aging fleet with modern, reliable and safe equipment. We will be able to purchase essential fire fighting and medical equipment that is beyond its service life, such as air packs and cardiac monitors. We will build a training facility so our firefighters and paramedics can train in real-world situations and be prepared when you need us. We will also be able to build a maintenance facility so all district apparatus is kept in excellent shape and will allow many more repairs to be done in-house, saving taxpayers money.

We are grateful to the members of our citizens committee for helping share our message. We couldn’t have asked for a more dedicated or hard-working team. Thank you: Doug Self, Ron Leach, Sydney Schalit, Alison Hafer, Paul Luttrell, Kevin Weber and the many others who helped share our message.

We are fortunate to live in such a wonderful community that supports its local fire department. Thank you all again for your continued support and have a safe holiday season. 

Gene Schilling 

president of the board of directors,

Carbondale & Rural Fire Protection District