Tom Aurnhammer was sworn in Monday evening as the new chief of the Los Pinos Fire District. He is the longtime deputy chief.
Retiring Chief Larry Behrens and Aurnhammer's daughter Shaylee conducted the swearing in. Friends, family, department colleagues, and representatives from the Upper Pine, Durango, and Farmington departments were present, along with Southern Ute Tribal representatives, including Council Member Mike Olguin.
In the regular Los Pinos board of directors meeting following the swearing in, Behrens thanked the tribal representatives for attending. "One of our big strengths is the relationship with the tribe. It means a lot to me that you understand the importance of having one of you here."
The district and tribe are working on a contract formalizing that relationship. Behrens said he hopes to see movement on that, and that the relationship will be strengthened. "The relationship is very important for our community as a whole. The board and the (new) chief understand that," he said.
Olguin said, "The council is very interested in building this relationship. We are impacted just like everyone else. I think it will be a very positive future here for all of us."
Behrens said the dark cloud on the horizon for Los Pinos is the big decline in oil and gas assessed valuation. "We've been predicting it, and it's upon us." It was anticipated based on natural gas futures prices a year ago.
But the decline isn't quite as much as they'd anticipated. "We were thinking it could be 50 percent. It's actually around 42.2 percent," Behrens said, based on an early look at county preliminary assessed valuations that come out in late August. The district doesn't have valuations yet from Archuleta County.
"Overall, we're looking probably at losing right around $900,000" of property tax revenue, Behrens said. "I'm sure glad we have some reserve money. We as a department and board have known it was coming. Due to good planning, we've been able to set aside a little rainy day money, and we're going to use some of it."
As for what his successor will have to deal with financially, Behrens said, "I assured the new chief it's going to be OK ... You can't stop dead in your tracks in being progressive. ... You stop, and you have to run twice as fast to catch up in the future."
He noted the district has moved ahead on buying a new Type 3 engine.
Behrens concluded, "It's been an absolute privilege and pleasure to serve as chief for 15 years." The district had one old building back then. Now there are five outlying stations, a training tower, and updated equipment to do the best job for citizens and protect firefighter safety. "We've come so far in 15 years to meet the needs of this community. It's been a great ride," he said, adding, "This has been a calling. It's not a job, it's a calling."
Aurnhammer took over the chief's seat at the board table then and commented, "I told him it's very strange to watch him packing his stuff. For 13 years we've been attached at the hip." He introduced his new deputy chief, Kevin Ratzmann, who starts officially on Aug. 15. Ratzmann comes from The Villages in Florida and is living in Bayfield. He said The Villages is the world's largest retirement community and has 150,000 residents age 55 or older.
