As Patagonia Volunteer Fire and Rescue (PVFR) and the Town of Patagonia move closer to signing a contract for services for the fiscal year that begins July 1, PVFR members met on June 1 to elect new board members and officers. 

New board members Mandy Montanez, Denise Bowden and Michael Young will be replacing Bob Ollerton, Justin McEldowney and Todd Norton. Joe Higgins and Steve Finch, who represents the Town on the PVFR board, will continue serving on the board.

Acting Chief Zay Hartigan was elected as Chief at the meeting. Juan Yanez was elected Assistant Chief, Ivan Mingura was re-elected as Fire Captain and Dan Goff was elected Medical Captain.

Over the past year PVFR has been beset with internal strife. Last summer former Chief Tim Regan resigned after controversy involving the volunteer EMTs and their dissatisfaction with leadership decisions. More recently, in February, the Town Council had Town Manager Ron Robinson draft a Request for Proposal (RFP) for fire and emergency services that was sent to Rio Rico Fire, Sonoita Elgin Fire District and PVFR, potentially ending the 101-year relationship between PVFR and the Town. 

After a public workshop on April 30 to hear from both SEFD and PVFR about their proposals, the Council decided to stick with PVFR, at least for this upcoming year. At this time, the Town’s attorney is finalizing edits to the existing contract, and it will then be presented to the Council and to PVFR. The Council will vote on signing the contract at their June 25 meeting. 

The current contract between the Town and PVFR expires on July 1, 2025.

Among the changes to the contract, the Town wants to receive daily reports of any medical calls in the Town, and for PVFR to report their progress towards reaching certain benchmarks in the training and certification of firefighters and EMTs. They are also requiring that the Chief possess, or be working toward, emergency management certification. 

“The Council feels it is important to  give PVFR an opportunity to fulfill their part of the contract, and start training their people,” Robinson said, “and for us to give them more money so they can pursue more training for its membership in the coming year.”

“The PVFR board approved these changes,” Chief Hartigan said in an interview with the PRT. PVFR is in the process of writing new bylaws, which will be presented to the members in the near future, according to Hartigan. These new bylaws are not yet publicly available. 

“I do have a positive feeling for where we’re at,” Hartigan said. “It’s definitely a time for us to come together as a department and as a community to move our service forward.”