The Estes Valley Fire Protection District Board welcomed Warren Jones as the new interim chief on Monday afternoon at the October Board meeting.
“I’m happy to be here,” said Jones, who added that every time he retires, he finds himself missing the involvement and wanting to get back in. Jones said he will be moving ahead quickly in his role as interim chief.
With a career spanning five decades, Jones – an experienced firefighter, administrator, and instructor – has accepted the role for the next six months to provide administrative expertise and stability to a department that has lost three chiefs in the past 2½ years.
The Board voted to form a task force, comprising Warren, along with two Board members, Scott Dorman and Sandra Smith, to develop a plan for recruiting and hiring a new permanent chief. The task force may include members of the paid and volunteer District staff, as well as one or more community representatives. The process, which may involve hiring a recruitment consultancy to conduct a search, could take six months.
The Board also appointed a committee to review the District’s administrative policies and organizational structure, as well as to assess the progress made in developing a strategic plan earlier this year. The previous Board tabled adoption of the strategic plan at their last meeting in April, citing that the plan lacked clear objectives and measurable goals.
Members of the outgoing Board also stated that they expected the composition of the EVFPD Board to change with the May 2025 election, and that the task of first adopting and then implementing a strategic plan should be deferred to the members of the new Board.
Shortly after the new Board was seated, personnel issues involving leadership in the District were identified that required the Board’s focus, and the strategic plan was again deferred. As internal administrative matters have been addressed over the past several weeks, the EVFPD Board plans to review the status of the strategic planning process and determine next steps in the coming months.
Despite a few technical hiccups with the Meeting OWL, a 360-degree smart video conference recording device, Ben Archer-Clowes of the James Vincent Group, the District’s accountant, was able to join the meeting online to review the budget. Archer-Clowes reported that the District currently has a cash surplus and is under budget on expenses; however, sales tax collections are trending below budget. The District will need to approve the 2026 budget by its December meeting.
Wildfire prevention and mitigation
Division Chief of Support Services Jon Landkamer presented the Board with an update on the Larimer County Wildfire Resiliency Code and asked the Board to vote on adopting the “Overall Relative Risk within Estes Valley Fire Protection District” map.
The map, developed by the Ember Alliance for the 2022 Community Wildfire Protection Plan, was reviewed and support by representatives of 10 area organizations, including David Wolf, fire chief, Estes Valley Fire Protection District; Jonathan Hodde, board president, Estes Valley Fire Protection District; Frank Theis, board president, Estes Valley Watershed Coalition; Travis Machalek, town administrator, Town of Estes Park; Wendy Koenig, Mayor, Town of Estes Park; Derek Rosenquist, Larimer County Emergency Services; Max Erickson, supervisory forester, Colorado State Forest Service; Wesley Page, US Forest Service, Arapaho & Roosevelt National Forests; Mike Lewelling, fire management officer, Rocky Mountain National Park; and Darla Sidles, superintendent, Rocky Mountain National Park.
The EVFPD will soon present to the Town Board on the relationship between wildfire prevention and mitigation and building codes, as the Trustees consider revisions to the Town’s development code. Adoption by the EVFPD Board of the map, which delineates and ranks areas of wildfire risk in the District, will be of value in informing these discussions, Lankamer explained to the EVFPD Board.
In September, the Larimer County Commissioners adopted new wildfire-resilient building codes based on the 2024 International Building Codes and the State’s 2025 Wildfire Resiliency Code, which was adopted on July 1 by the Colorado Wildfire Resiliency Code Board.
These codes focus on structural hardening and fuel mitigation. Among other things, these codes address new construction, additions of 500 square feet or more, and reroofing or residing projects involving 25% or more of a wall or roof.
Harmonizing the Town and County building codes will be beneficial to the EVFPD, which provides fire protection services in the special district that encompasses both the Town and the surrounding unincorporated area.
“The adopted map will define where the WFRC applies in our community,” said Lankamer in an exchange of emails following Monday’s meeting.
After Landkamer’s presentation, the EVFPD Board voted unanimously to adopt the map for the District’s use in defining where the Wildfire Resilience Code applies in the Estes Valley.
The Board will hold its next meeting at 4 p.m. on Nov. 24 at the Dannel’s Fire Station.
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