Elko County approves interlocal agreement with City of Wells to fund one firefighter

Elko County’s Fire Commission approved an interlocal agreement and an annual operations plan on Oct. 12, 2025, that would fund one full‑time firefighter in the City of Wells if Wells approves and allocates the funds.

The agreement calls for the City of Wells to contribute $100,000 to Elko County to pay salary and benefits for an additional firefighter and budgets an additional $30,000 to cover utilities and operations at the Wells station for volunteer activity. The commission approved the memorandum of understanding and the operations plan in a combined motion; commissioners voted “aye” and the motion carried.

The county’s fire chief said the county returned the interlocal to the parties after the previous meeting and added an annual operations plan to clarify hiring and how funds would be allocated. “We added the annual operations plan that gave some more of the details, to the interlocal, that outlined potential hiring and additional personnel as well as how some of those funds are broke out,” the fire chief said.

Jason Pangelli, speaking for the City of Wells, said the city had reviewed the documents and had recently adjusted wording around the $30,000. “We did do a little recent wording change on that $30,000 to where it pays for…utilities and operations for the volunteers,” Pangelli said, adding the city’s board was “all good with it.”

A commissioner who moved the motion said the changes made the request clear and proposed connecting the MOU and the operations plan by dating and marking the operations plan “as amended and adopted,” so both documents would be linked. The commissioner also said he would direct staff to forward a recommendation to the county budget committee to add the firefighter to the next fiscal‑year budget if Wells formally approves and allocates the $100,000: “I’d direct Matt once that’s approved…forward that recommendation to the budget committee to add a new firefighter for next beginning of next fiscal year which would be July 1,” the commissioner said.

During discussion a commissioner asked whether the $100,000 would cover salary and benefits; the chief answered yes. Commissioners noted the action will increase county payroll by one position if implemented.

The motion passed with vocal affirmation; no roll‑call tally was recorded in the transcript. The approval is conditional on the City of Wells completing its review and formally allocating the funds in its budget. The commission’s motion also specifies adopting the operations plan dated at the commission’s approval so the plan and MOU reference the same version.

The meeting then moved on to other business, including the routine consent agenda, which the commission also approved.

Next steps recorded in the meeting: the City of Wells is to finalize its approval and allocation of $100,000; once the county receives that confirmation, staff will forward a recommendation to the budget committee to create the firefighter position for the July 1 start of the next fiscal year. The $30,000 described in the documents is intended to pay utilities and operations related to volunteer activity and facility maintenance at the Wells station; the MOU language was clarified to make that intent explicit.