Fire Advisory Committee begins work on possible Floral Park volunteer district consolidation

The Butte-Silver Bow Fire Advisory Committee on April 7 took initial steps toward a project to explore consolidation or dissolution of the Floral Park Volunteer Fire Department.

Jake Hanley, a member of the Butte-Silver Bow Fire Department, told the committee the charter’s requirements for consolidation would need a two-thirds vote of the council commissioners and that trustees of any voluntary district must participate. "The consolidation plan, according to the charter, requires 2/3 votes from the council commissioners," Hanley said, urging the group to secure accurate district maps before moving forward.

Chair Josh O’Neill said the advisory group’s role would be to advise and develop a plan that would then be routed to the Director of Fire Services and the council. "So, we would advise it and then it would go through the Chief of Fire Services Director and then it would go on from there," O’Neill said.

Members emphasized practical barriers that must be evaluated in any consolidation, including boundary clarity, facility constraints and equipment compatibility. Jason Willoughby, of Race Track VFD, noted that some historical GIS layers stop well before current annexations and said maps the committee received may be incomplete. Lee Sullivan, present as a guest and identified as working with GIS, agreed to help obtain more complete boundary data for the committee.

Discussion also covered deliverables: several members said they want at least one career and one volunteer representative to develop a concrete plan and a capital-improvement component so volunteers would not be left without equipment. "If you're going to close or condense these, there has to be some promises to the volunteers, that they will get new apparatus," Bill Boyle, a Butte-Silver Bow commissioner, said.

Next steps the committee agreed to pursue include: obtaining updated GIS maps and a presentation of district boundaries from GIS staff at a future meeting; soliciting participation from Floral Park trustees and neighboring departments; and drafting a proposed consolidation plan and capital-improvement approach to present to the Director of Fire Services.

Procedurally, the meeting recorded a motion to approve the March 10 minutes at the outset; the minutes were unanimously approved. No formal votes on consolidation were taken at the April 7 meeting.