Felton voters bet $1.7 million a year on a new era for the fire department

Felton residents have approved a $1.7 million-a-year investment in their fire department, betting that a bigger, more professional firefighting operation can provide something the mountain community has struggled to guarantee: that someone will be there when they call 911.  

The property tax assessment, approved by voters July 24, will more than double the Felton Fire Protection District’s budget and allow it to move toward a paid staffing model while continuing to rely on volunteers.  

Without the new tax, the district faced the possibility of being absorbed by Santa Cruz County.

The change comes with a substantial price tag. A single-family home in Felton will pay an average of $700 a year under the assessment – and with that money comes a new expectation from residents that the district will deliver faster, more reliable service.

“I started here 28 years ago, and we had a beer vending machine in the fire station,” interim chief Isaac Blum told Lookout. “Gone is that. That is not socially acceptable. Essentially, the community expects competent career firefighters. So we’re just striving to meet that.”

By lowering response times, acknowledging when the district falls short and moving public outreach beyond pancake breakfasts, board member Craig Winter said he wants to create a 21st-century firefighting model for small departments around the country.

Felton property owners decisively supported the tax assessment, with 825 ballots in favor and 356 opposed. The measure received 68% of the weighted vote, exceeding the more than 50% needed to pass. Ballots were weighted according to assessed property value. 

“Everyone I know supported it,” said Lola Hughes, an employee at Wild Roots Market, who was watering flowers outside the business. “We were nine days into the CZU fire before Cal Fire showed up, and it was Felton Fire that saved as much as they could save.”

But some residents remain skeptical of the new taxes despite the measure’s strong support. 

“If people wanted a fire department here, my word, they had to vote on it,” said Mary Lanctot, co-owner of Art Services in Felton and a Boulder Creek resident. Lanctot said she has always supported the Boulder Creek Fire Protection District but worries that Felton’s success could encourage other nearby volunteer fire districts to seek new taxes. 

“I hope they [Boulder Creek FD] don’t get any ideas,” Lanctot said. “It’s putting people between a rock and a hard place.” 

Money from the assessment that is not spent must be returned to Felton taxpayers under the measure, and an oversight advisory board is being organized to review the fire district’s spending, according to Winter.

“We have a very strong obligation to deliver to the community,” Winter said. 

The obligation comes after years of difficulties maintaining Felton’s largely volunteer model. 

Firefighters received meal and gas stipends and a $20 honorarium. But volunteer burnout, declining participation and financial problems collided in 2024, creating what Blum calls the district’s “crash.” 

A precipitous decline in volunteers after Ben Lomond Fire Protection District took over in 2024 left some shifts with only two firefighters on duty, according to district officials. About 10% of emergency calls went unanswered, while response times on the winding mountain roads from the Fall Creek Unit park to the bottom of Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park climbed to 14 to 18 minutes.

Sometimes no one came into the station at night once the last shift went home.

Declining rates of firefighting volunteerism is a problem nationwide. Around 12,000 volunteer firefighters left the workforce each year since 2008, shimmying down fire poles for the last time, according to a study by the National Fire Protective Service.

Today, at least three people are on shift at any given time, and response times have fallen to between 4 to 5½ minutes from the time a 911 call is made to when Felton Fire arrives.

When Lookout visited the station on Aug. 27, with a red flag warning in effect for the Central Coast, there were five crew members on duty with another two crew on standby.

Blum credits the district’s current “quasi-hybrid model” for the improvement. The goal is to keep driving that lower through a full-time paid staffing model, with three paid firefighters on shift with two supplementary volunteers. 

Paid staffing is expected to begin in November, when the district hopes to finalize hiring a new chief, two additional fire captains, paid firefighters and volunteers with an increased $250 stipend, according to Blum.

“We’re guaranteeing a paid engine company,” Blum said. 

The district also is considering a new fire engine. Its 24-year-old engine 2311 was purchased for $400,000 and is four years beyond its expiration date. If the engine were to suffer a critical failure, a new engine would cost about $900,000 and take potentially years to arrive because of a nationwide backlog of engine orders.

There is also a long list of improvements that Blum wants to see in the 2027 budget: a new roof, sleeping quarters, heating and cooling systems and a new generator. What is not coming back is the station’s fire pole, which the Division of Occupational Safety and Health took out years ago, said Blum, and the beer machine.

The board announced after the assessment passed that it was reopening the chief position to new applicants at a salary between $160,000 and $190,000. Taking the job would entail a $60,000 pay cut from his Ames National Laboratory fire captain salary, Blum said. Finding the right chief after Blum who can juggle paperwork and inspire a young, ambitious crew is the priority, Winter said. 

“He’s been great, but we need a full-time chief here,” said volunteer firefighter Brendan Bowman, who works part-time for his dad’s pest control business and typically takes two 24-hour shifts a week.

“The community needs one, and paid positions, too. I think they’re really going to help this place turn around.”

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