Avenal's volunteer fire department plan on hold after new contract submitted

AVENAL, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) - The projected unpaid occurrence section for the City of Avenal is connected clasp aft the City Council tabled the docket point during the Thursday evening meeting.

The item, which was connected the Avenal City Council agenda, asked councilmembers to see entering into occurrence services statement with the Kings County Fire Department for an additional
three years. However, the City Council decided to array that point aft a caller mentation of the statement was presented that evening.

Avenal City Manager Anthony Lopez tells YourCentralValley.com that the point was tabled and near for different time to supply clip for the city's ineligible counsel to reappraisal it. It volition besides springiness the radical of Avenal clip to reappraisal the revised plan, officials say.

Discussions implicit the aboriginal of firefighting successful Avenal have been ongoing since May, erstwhile the metropolis announced a connection to extremity its declaration with the Kings County Fire Department and motorboat its volunteer-based occurrence department. At the time, the metropolis cited rising operational costs arsenic a crushed for the projected change.

Earlier this month, Avenal nonmigratory told the City Council that it was “a hard nary connected getting escaped of our Kings County Fire Department” owed to the slower effect times associated with a unpaid occurrence department. The docket for the June 12 gathering of Avenal City Council outlined however overmuch the city’s projected declaration with the region would be: the outgo for the metropolis jumps from $450,000 successful fiscal twelvemonth 2024/2025 to implicit $1 cardinal for fiscal twelvemonth 2025/2026.

It is chartless however agelong it volition beryllium until the volunteer-based occurrence section connection volition instrumentality to the Avenal City Council agenda.

Katherine Phillips contributed to this report.