The Town of Patagonia has taken steps that could end its standing relationship with the 100-year-old Patagonia Volunteer Fire and Rescue (PVFR) department.
Concerns about the threat of a major fire taking place in the town, especially after the devastation caused by recent fires in Hawaii and California, prompted Town officials to take a hard look at the Town’s firefighting resources.
“The Town Council wants to make sure citizens are protected,” Patagonia Town Manager Ron Robinson said.
The 39-member PVFR currently provides fire and emergency medical services to the Town under a one-year $65,000 contract set to expire June 30.
Robinson said the lack of structure fire training on the part of PVFR volunteers worried Council members. “[PVFR members] need to realize that even though they are volunteers, they need training,” he said. “We determined that we needed to create a Request for Proposal (RFP).”
On Feb. 21, the Town sent a detailed RFP to provide fire and emergency medical services to the Town from July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026 to three local fire departments: PVFR, Sonoita Elgin Fire District (SEFD) and Rio Rico Fire District.
PVFR and SEFD submitted proposals to the Town before the March 31 deadline passed. Rio Rico Fire District did not respond.
The Town’s RFP notes in its opening section that the providing agency “will have a strong Board of Directors that provides capable business management oversight and visionary guidance for the Agency’s current and future operations…The successful Agency’s Fire Chief will be selected by the Board of Directors and the Board and Chief together will select the other principal operating officers…The Chief will be a professional firefighter holding certifications in CPR and Certified Emergency Management with at least 7 years’ experience leading firefighting and emergency medical service operations.“
PVFR submitted a 13-page proposal to the Town even though PVFR’s leadership structure and personnel do not meet at least two baseline prerequisites the Town’s RFP is demanding. PVFR’s fire chief is traditionally selected by the department’s membership, not its Board of Directors, and PVFR Acting Fire Chief Zay Hartigan does not have the specific emergency management certifications the Town wants to see a Fire Chief hold. In addition, on March 16, the PVFR membership voted to remain member-governed, rather than changing to Board-governed, as the Town’s RFP requires.
“It’s been a contentious process,” Hartigan said.
PVFR’s proposal acknowledges the issue.
“We held a vote mid-March on these changes, but it included a very unpopular rider, and did not pass (24 nay, 13 yea),” reads the proposal. “Leadership has made it clear to the members that we must make these changes if we are to continue serving the Town. We have identified several members who will commit to taking either Structure Academy, EMT training, or the combined academy. The Acting Chief has committed to additional training and certifications as well.”
Hartigan believes that PVFR can grow to provide the service that the Town is looking for.
“We feel over the next three to five years, with incremental increases in the budget, we will be able to advance to fill this gap,” he said. PVFR’s current annual budget is approximately $155,000.
PVFR’s proposal makes other arguments for the Town to continue to contract with PVFR for fire and emergency services, instead of SEFD or Rio Rico:
“While much of [SEFD and Rico Rico] staffs come from other communities and often must move on for any career advancement, leading to turnover, our members have years, even decades, of service with our department. And many have generations of residence in our community. That familiarity with our Town’s layout and citizens provide crucial resources on the many calls that are hard to locate. There are many calls where [SEFD’s] ambulance relies on our members to guide them to the patient. While their staffs have higher certification than ours currently, we tend to have a greater pool of staff responding to calls and have plans to increase our certifications.”
SEFD submitted a 52-page proposal to the Town of Patagonia after its board voted unanimously to throw their hat into the ring.
“I believe that SEFD is in a very good position to meet the requirements of the RFP both in terms of our members’ qualifications and their training,” SEFD Fire Chief Marc Meredith told the PRT. “We are very familiar with the community because we provide their ambulance transport already and have worked with PVFR for years. It’s a community that’s very important to us and very close to us. We think we can do a good job to take care of them.”
When asked how the loss of the Town contract might impact PVFR, Meredith responded, “I honestly don’t know what they’ll do. It would certainly prove challenging for them. Change is difficult but the needs of communities evolve and we’ll see what happens, but we’re ready to help out if [the Town is] ready to have us.”
If awarded the contract, SEFD would receive $70,000 from the Town of Patagonia annually for providing fire and emergency services. SEFD, whose current annual budget is $2.1 million, proposes to increase its staff so that there would be a minimum of five members on duty at all times to be better able to cover the additional area. SEFD also proposes keeping some apparatus in Patagonia.
It is at first glance difficult to see what the benefits of this arrangement would be for Sonoita/Elgin residents, who contribute the bulk of SEFD’s funding through property taxes. SEFD would spend most of the income from a one-year, $70,000 contract with the Town of Patagonia on having increased personnel on call. The district would be taking on additional responsibilities without an increase in the district’s tax base, and the potential dissolution of PVFR resulting from the loss of their contract with the Town of Patagonia would mean the loss of a valuable mutual aid partner for the Sonoita Elgin area.
PVFR’s proposal addresses this issue, stating that, “If [PVFR] ceases to be a working department, that resource disappears from the county, and will negatively affect our neighbors’ responses in their own districts, as well as in our town.”
SEFD Chief Meredith said, “If I thought for a minute this would impact our ability to take care of our own district, we never would have submitted the proposal.”
SEFD Board President Chris Johnson told the PRT that there would be advantages to expanding the coverage area for SEFD.
“We look at it as an opportunity to potentially increase our district, increase our tax base in areas that we basically already serve but that we get no revenue from,” he said. “It’s a potential gamble. Are there some downsides? Yes, there but there’s also some potential upsides as well. A one-year contract is not a huge commitment, and we think we can perform in a way that doesn’t harm our existing resources or minimally impacts our existing resources. That’s why we thought we would go ahead.
“There’s a pretty good opportunity that we could expand the district a little bit without taking on virtually any additional responsibilities,” Johnson said, “because it’s already areas that we cover.”
Patagonia Manager Robinson said the Town would hold a public hearing if there were to be a change in the provider of fire and emergency services. He said that public discussion by the Town Council was not required before the RFP was sent out on Feb. 21, because it was an “administrative act.”
PVFR will hold another meeting in June, at which time its membership will elect a permanent Fire Chief. If no one steps up to fill that position, Hartigan has indicated that he will continue as Chief. Three of the department’s five board seats will be up for vote, as well.