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State reporting change will affect allocation of aid-to-locality funds; commission told to ensure departments upload call data
Summary
Supervisor liaison warned the commission that the State Fire Services Board now requires departments to report calls to state systems by Jan. 1 and that aid-to-locality allocations will be based on those reports starting July 1, 2026; departments must sign up and upload data to remain eligible for ATL funding.
Commission members were briefed on a change from the State Fire Services Board that will tie aid-to-locality (ATL) allocations to agency call reporting.
The change, discussed by Speaker 5, requires agencies to have access to the state's reporting platform (e.g., Nearest/ESL/ImageTrend) and to upload call data so the state can calculate each agency's share of ATL funding. "Make sure you have access and then have your data uploaded," Speaker 5 said. The reporting requirement must be in place by Jan. 1; the new aid-to-locality policy will take effect July 1, 2026.
Commissioners were warned that if a department does not report calls, the county could reallocate the ATL money among other departments in the locality. Speaker 1 summarized the operational risk: if Christiansburg or another large department fails to report, its ATL share could be redistributed by the county to other departments.
Why it matters: over half of Virginia departments do not report, Speaker 1 said, making it difficult to demonstrate statewide call-volume increases when lobbying for additional funding. Commissioners were urged to confirm systems and CAD integrations with county partners and to help departments supply incident reports, budgets and other requested data to consultants assisting with the county's EMS/fire study.
Next steps: staff and chiefs plan interoperability demos with vendor software and to continue collecting CAD and incident data for the consultant team working toward an April final report.
