June 24, 2015 VO LUM E 54 | IS S U E 25 | 75¢
PikesPeakCourier.net T E L L E R C O U N T Y, C O L O R A D O
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Jim Ignatius, chairman of the board of Northeast Teller County Fire Protection District, issues a warning about the potential risk of catastrophic fire to Woodland Park residents, due to the presence of the 150-acre Charis Bible College. Ignatius spoke to the board June 17. Photo by Pat Hill
Ignatius sounds off POSTAL ADDRESS
PIKES PEAK COURIER (USPS 654-460)
OFFICE: 1200 E. Highway 24 Woodland Park, CO 80863 PHONE: 719-687-3006 A legal newspaper of general circulation in Teller County, Colorado, the Pikes Peak Courier is published weekly on Wednesday by Colorado Community Media, 1200 E. Highway 24, Woodland Park, CO 80863. PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID AT WOODLAND PARK, COLORADO and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address change to: 9137 S. Ridgeline Blvd., Suite 210 Highlands Ranch, CO 80129 DEADLINES: Display: Thurs. 11 a.m. Legals: Thurs. 11 a.m. Classifieds: Mon. 10 a.m.
PL E ASE RECYCLE T HI S C OPY
Community at risk due to 150-acre property By Pat Hill
phill@coloradocommunitymedia.com Responding to citizen concerns about the effect of Charis Bible College on district-wide fire protection, Jim Ignatius was up front about what he views as the risks involved. “If an incident happens at Charis we would send this entire (on staff ) fire department plus an engine and a truck,” said Ignatius, chairman of the board of Northeast Teller County Fire Protection District. “But 82 square miles would have no coverage whatsoever - that’s the concern the residents have right now.” At issue is the tax-exempt status of the college which, under Colorado law, is not required to pay property taxes. “It’s not the college, it’s the magnitude of the property valued at $32 million and 500,000 square feet, that’s the issue,” he said, referring to the 150-acre college and the projected square feet at buildout, which includes the five-story parking garage. As well, college enrollment is anywhere from 1,000 to 3,000 students, he said. “Add to that the potential of the structure catching on fire,” he said. Granted, the property is surrounded by a sprinkler system, Ignatius said. “But you still have the structure, the risk and the exposure,” Ignatius said. “Charis doesn’t have to pay taxes but we provide a service to that entity at the expense of the other 82 square miles of people who are paying property taxes.” Some homeowners have expressed their concern in letters to newspaper editors and phone calls to him and Chief Tyler Lambert, Ignatius said.
ISO RATINGS AFFECTED As a result of the threat, the city of Woodland Park is rated 5 by the Insurance Service Office, ISO. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 is the highest; a 5 rating means the department is within 5 miles of a fire hydrant and within 1,000 feet of an approved water system. “That determines insurance rates. If we’re not able to ramp up that response time everybody will pay more, commercial and residential, to offset the risk that we’re not able to mitigate,” Ignatius said. “This snowball just keeps going downhill.” To the question of mutual aid from nearby departments such as Divide or Green Mountain Falls, for instance, each is staffed by volunteers, Ignatius said. “If you’ve ever seen a graph about how fast a fire grows, after about an hour you might as well just back your equipment out because you’ve pretty much just lost a structure,” he added. Known as the “bench” in firefighter terms, the nearby districts would also be stripped of resources if the volunteers raced off to Woodland
Park. “Our bench is zero once everybody goes over to Charis,” Ignatius said. According to Chief Lambert, the department has responded five times to one address at Charis in the past year; however, Ignatius added, additional calls to the Charis property include responses to emergencies such as gas leaks, water leaks, medical calls, car accidents and construction issues. “This is the reality of what’s actually happening,” he said.
IGNATIUS GOES PUBLIC After repeated requests to Charis for financial help were denied, Ignatius decided to go public with his concerns, he said. For instance, to one request for aid Charis officials responded with an offer to assist with community fundraising through spaghetti dinners or pancake breakfasts. “The public is already donating — 13 mills for the service they want,” Ignatius said. As well, a formal request to Charis to set aside a payment to the department in lieu of taxes — PILT — was rebuffed, said board member Craig Chellis. “We went down that road because it’s been used by other jurisdictions to deal with issues like this,” Chellis said. Ignatius added, “If something would come in the form of a PILT payment, it would allow us to put on more personnel to take care of the community paying for this service, in the event something did happen over there.” Ignatius acknowledged that he had delayed in announcing the risk to the public. “The reason we didn’t do this in April is because the board wanted to see if something would come out of communication with Charis,” he said. “It didn’t.” Ignatius views the risk as the perfect little storm brewing. “If I weren’t on this board and all this was happening and all we did was keep it between us, I would not be very happy,” he said. “Not that I can do anything about it, but at least I’d know that when I dial 911, if something is happening over at that complex the response might be delayed.”
FINANCIAL FACTS After the Waldo Canyon Fire in 2012, the NETCO board recognized that the department’s resources were dwindling quickly, due to the decrease in property taxes, Ignatius said. “Our budget was down to about $1.6 million from $1.85 million and continuing to go down,” he said. “Property values were going to drop somewhere between $200,000 and $300,000 on top of the decrease to $1.6 million.” District voters came to the rescue in November 2012 by approving an increase in the mill levy from nine to 13 mills, which allowed the district to sustain the staff that included a chief, a fire marshal, assistant administrator, 12 full-time and 13 part-time firefighters, who respond to at least 1,000 calls a year. “We immediately went from four to five firefighters per shift,” he said. “It would take four or five people just to lay the hose to go to a fire at Charis. It’s a little scary but the public needs to know.”