photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Douglas County commissioners met on Wednesday, July 2, 2025.

In a fire, when minutes matter, help in some parts of Douglas County may depend on whether a volunteer firefighter is available when you call 911.

That’s because Consolidated Fire District No. 1, which serves much of rural Douglas County, relies heavily on its volunteer force, and a new report on the fire district that county commissioners reviewed on Wednesday is urging hiring more staff to ensure the department can respond quickly.

“We noticed some gaps there … volunteers aren’t always able to respond,” said Jeff Stone, a project manager at Emergency Services Consulting International, which completed the report. ” … When somebody calls 911, there’s an expectation that somebody’s going to come.”

The report from ESCI offered a snapshot of Consolidated Fire District No. 1’s organizational structure, operations, service delivery, and how well it aligns with industry best practices, and it lists some areas and suggestions for improvement.

Among other things, ESCI created a recommended staffing plan that would increase the number of full-time paid firefighters.

The report listed the department’s current full-time paid staff positions as the fire chief position, an administrative specialist, three shift lieutenants and “one firefighter working a 10-hour shift,” as well as an administrative battalion chief job that’s currently vacant. The rest of the department’s personnel, including a deputy chief, are volunteers.

The report’s recommendation to increase staffing calls for several phases of hiring that would eventually add more than 10 full-time firefighter jobs. The first phase would convert a full-time position at Fire Station #151 in Lecompton to a 24-hour-shift firefighter, hire two additional full-time firefighters, and fill the currently vacant administrative battalion chief position. In the second phase, the district would hire six more full-time firefighters, with two of them assigned to Fire Station #151 and Fire Station #111 in Lawrence. The third phase would include hiring three additional full-time firefighters and three full-time operational chief officers.

The report didn’t suggest a timeline over which these steps might be taken, nor did it provide an estimate of how much this would cost.

“One of the big things that we always stress is we know times are tight,” Stone said. “Funding is always a concern, but you should always at least have two people riding on a fire truck.”

County Commissioner Shannon Reid asked which areas in the report would be the most critical to focus on and what was the biggest thing holding the department back.

“We need boots on the ground and to retain staff,” Interim Fire Chief John Mathis said. “… This year was, ‘Let’s not fill this (position) and put this toward retaining the good staff we have on hand.'”

Some of the other recommendations in the report from ESCI included:

• Stop “allowing volunteers to live in fire stations.” ESCI said this poses legal risks and isn’t cost-effective.

• Decommission Fire Station #152 in Lecompton “due to its lack of value” and relocate its equipment to other stations. The report said that the structure was constructed in 1988, and that currently only one door is operable and there is no running water.

• Review fire trucks and equipment to make sure they are safe and reliable.

• Create a long-term strategic plan to upgrade fire stations and facilities to keep up with future growth.

• Improve training programs to meet updated national standards and better prepare staff and volunteers.

• Use advanced technology to improve communication and manage emergency calls more effectively.

Mathis said many of the recommendations included in the report were already identified by current staff. Deputy County Administrator Sean Pederson said the assessment was meant to be a conversation-starter to be more proactive about the future.

Commissioner Karen Willey said discussions about how to improve services moving forward will require more departments to be at the table, and that the discussion should be about improving fire and EMS services countywide. She said it’s really not just talking about Consolidated Fire District #1, but also Districts #2, #3, #4 and Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical.

In other business, county commissioners:

• Heard a presentation about the anti-poverty focus area of the Community Health Improvement Plan, a strategic plan for the health and well-being of the community. The plan’s poverty work group wanted to devote more resources to helping single mothers living below what’s called the “ALICE threshold,” which stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. These households often are categorized as falling through the cracks of the system as they earn more than the federal poverty level but less than the basic cost of living.

• Authorized the sale of alcoholic beverages at the 2025 Douglas County Fair, which will be held Tuesday, July 29, to Saturday, Aug. 2, at the Douglas County Fairgrounds.