Colfax fire district ends 2023 nearly $2,700 over budget
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
Editor’s Note: LeAnn R. Ralph serves as chair of the Colfax Community Fire District Board.
COLFAX — The Colfax Community Fire District ended 2023 by being nearly $2,700 over the amount budgeted for expenses.
There’s a good reason for that, though.
The Colfax Community Fire District has been saving money to pay for a new fire engine, which has been ordered and is now expected to be delivered in March of 2026.
Instead of putting $20,0000 from the 2023 budget into the new vehicle savings, Jessica Checkalski, secretary/treasurer for the fire district, put $27,300 into savings for the new fire engine, the fire district board learned at the April 11 meeting.
Fire board members had instructed Checkalski to put everything she could from two separate accounts into Certificates of Deposit for vehicle replacement that will earn a little more than 5 percent interest.
The money put into savings for the new fire engine caused the expenses to exceed the budgeted amount.
Fortunately, the fire district also exceeded the budgeted revenue by about $20,000.
The Colfax fire district currently has nearly $350,000 invested in certificates of deposit with Bremer Bank and BMO Bank that are expected to earn about $30,000 in interest by the time the fire district must pay for the fire engine.
When the new fire engine arrives, the fire district is expected to have been able to set aside another budgeted $20,000 for each year (2024, 2025 and 2026) for a total of approximately $440,000 toward the final cost of the fire engine, which is expected to be $575,000.
If all goes according to plan, and the cost of the fire engine does not increase drastically between now and delivery, the four municipalities in the fire district — the Towns of Colfax, Grant and Otter Creek and the Village of Colfax — will pay about $135,000 to cover the remainder of the cost.
Each municipality will pay a percentage of the remaining amount based on the municipality’s equalized value in the fire district.
Revenue vs. expenses
Even though the actual expenses for 2023 were $115,666.86, compared to the $112,700 budget approved by the fire board, the fire district also received more revenue than was budgeted — $134,001.62 in actual revenue compared to budgeted revenue of $112,700.
Fire runs generated approximately $650 more in revenue, while the 2 percent dues collected were a little over $12,000 more than was budgeted.
Checkalski said the higher amount for the 2 percent dues was because several municipalities had not paid the money before the end of 2022, and the revenue was added to the 2023 budget.
The 2 percent dues are “pass through” funds that the municipalities receive from the state, and then the municipalities pay that amount to the fire district.
Miscellaneous revenue, in the form of several grants, accounted for additional revenue of $7,200, and water sales generated an extra $1,600.
Over and under
Some of the line items in the 2023 budget were over and some of them were under.
Turn-out gear for the firefighters was nearly $600 more than was budgeted but fire prevention supplies were about $200 less than was budgeted.
Insurance (life, property and liability, and workmen’s compensation) was about $1,500 less than budgeted, and office expenses were about $750 less than was budgeted.
Small equipment was about $850 more than was budgeted, and firefighter training was about $450 more than was budgeted.
Total truck expenses, including $7,300 more for the new vehicle fund, was about $5,000 more than was budgeted.
The Colfax Fire District has had a budget of $112,700 with a levy of $94,700 for the last 10 years.
Fire chief
Colfax Fire Chief Gary Hill reported that the Colfax fire department had gone out on 36 runs in 2023 that included nine runs to the Village of Colfax; five runs to the Town of Colfax; one run to the Town of Grant; eight runs to the Town of Otter Creek; and 13 instances of providing mutual aid to other fire departments.
There are 28 firefighters on the roster, he said.
Mark Dietsche, chair of the Town of Grant, said that Colfax is doing well in terms of volunteers compared to some other volunteer fire departments in the area.
In 2023, the Colfax fire department received a $3,800 grant from Dunn Energy, and a $10,265 grant from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (a 50 percent matching grant, according to the fire chief’s report.
The Colfax fire department also has applied for a $105,175 Federal Emergency Management Agency grant, Hill said.
The FEMA grant money would be used to buy 12 new air packs. The current air packs used by the Colfax fire department are 20 years old, he said.
The Rapid Intervention Team (RIT) air packs are actually two air packs in one so that if a firefighter is trying to help someone out of a fire, there is an air pack for each of them, Hill said, noting that the new air packs cost $9,000 each.
Hill said he had hired a grant writer for $1,500 to write the FEMA grant application, and that if the Colfax fire department does not receive the grant this year, the grant writer would update the grant application and resubmit it for a cost of $500 next year.
The grant writer had also suggested that Hill apply for grants with the local utility companies, such as WE Energies (natural gas), Xcel Energy and Dunn Energy as well as Canadian National Railroad.
The utility company grants are usually a thousand dollars or several thousand dollars, Hill said.
