In accordance with Resolution 2025-1 adopted by the Estes Valley Fire Protection District during its Jan. 22 board meeting, the District will hold elections for all five of the seats on its board of directors on May 6, 2025.
All of the five directors are eligible to run. In 2022 the election was canceled because there were three candidates for the three open board seats. Ryan Bross, Dave Hamrick, and Brian Tseng were seated without being elected in 2022 to first terms. Two directors, Mike Lewelling and Christopher Buser, were appointed in 2024 to fill vacancies due to the resignations of board members Jonathan Hodde and Marybeth Bruchwalski. Two of the open seats are for two-year terms and three seats are for four-year terms.
The EVFPD board has dealt with several controversies over the past three years. It accepted the resignation of David Wolf as chief in May 2023 due to management differences. In July 2024, Rick Lasky, who had been hired in April of last year, suddenly resigned.
Shortly after Lasky resigned, his wife, Jami Lasky, addressed the board during public comments at the July 31, 2024 board meeting and said there was a “cancer” in the fire department’s administration that needed to be dealt with and until the board addressed the issue the District would continue to have problems.
In December, a Larimer County judge ruled that the EVFPD board violated Colorado’s open-meetings law when it hired Paul Capo as chief during an October executive session meeting.
According to Colorado’s Sunshine Laws, decisions cannot be made in executive sessions. A publicly elected board must gavel out of executive session and do the public’s business in public to insure transparency and accountability. As a result of the court’s ruling, the EVFPD board was required to make the recording of its private executive session public.
To run for a seat on the board, an individual needs to be a resident of the Estes Valley Fire Protection District. Self-nomination and acceptance forms are available from Sarah H. Luetjen, the District’s designated election official, via email. All candidates must file a self-nomination and acceptance form via email to Luetjen no later than the close of the District’s business day on Feb. 28, 2025.
The election will be held at the Dannels Fire Station, 901 N. Saint Vrain Ave. in Estes Park. Polling will be in-person at the station from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on May 6, 2025.
Current members of the board were encouraged to run, “We’re a small town,” said Estes Park developer Frank Theis. “It’s very hard to get people to volunteer, much less to run for office, and I think it would be a little healthier if we had more people participate.”
“I think it would be good if you’re in again,” Theis said, “From what I can tell you all have done a good job. Thank you.”
Fire Chief Paul Capo also praised the work of the board and encouraged the current members to run again. “Thank you for supporting us, keeping our mission going, despite everything else,” he said.
The EVFPD is a special taxing district with boundaries that covers nearly 70 square miles including the Town of Estes Park and an unincorporated area surrounding the Town that runs west to Rocky Mountain National Park, southwest to an area covered by the Allenspark Fire Protection District, south to Big Elk Meadows Fire Protection District, south and east to an area served by Larimer County Emergency Services, northeast to an area served by the Loveland Rural Fire Protection District, and north to the Glen Haven Area Volunteer Fire Department. The geography includes a mix of urban municipality, suburban neighborhoods, rural homesteads, and forest.
2024 Annual Report presented to board
The District added a new auxiliary unit in 2024 and two full-time staff members. Laura Shepard who joined the EVFPD as a volunteer firefighter in 2020 was promoted in July to the rank of lieutenant. She is in charge of the District’s wildland risk reduction team. Logan Lasley joined the Department as a volunteer firefighter in 2023 and became the wildland risk reduction educator in October 2024.
The EVFPD also added a voluntary public information officer, Heather Bradley.
New software, FirstDue, was implemented in 2024 that will maintain the District’s HR records and keep track of other department data including the number of incident runs for each member. The District’s website has also been revised to be more accessible and now more than 600 documents can be accessed from the site.
Jon Landkamer, division chief of support services, talked about the “historic revenue” of $3.16 million realized in 2024, including 1A income, property tax, and grants among other sources. The District is “financially sound,” said Landkamer. 1A funds for 2025 are predicted to be $390,000, said Landkamer, slated for “capacity improvements and prevention,” he said.
New to the fleet, a Type 6 wildland fire engine was inspected in December. Pending a tank repair, it is expected to be delivered to the EVFPD “soon.”
Paul Capo, who was named to the role of chief last year, reported on operations and training. There are 51 total firefighters in the District, 48 of whom are volunteers, Capo reported. In 2024, members of the EVFPD received nearly 11,000 hours of training.
Goals for 2025
This year, EVFPD plans to hire a division chief of operations and training. This position will support and grow the training division. Other goals in training include continuing When Things Go Bad, Inc., an advanced courses in firefighter rescue, firefighter survival, aggressive interior search, unconventional ground ladder, and street-smart forcible entry. WTGB is a firefighter training company launched in 2005 and owned by Capo.
One of Capo’s initiatives since joining the EVFPD has been to develop the Estes Valley Fire Academy which trains firefighters and prepares them for certification as exterior firefighter, interior firefighters, as hazardous materials operators, an as a DFPC Firefighter II. Firefighters from around the region come for training with the EVFPD’s fire academy.
Additional courses and a new driver engineer academy will be offered this year.
The next meeting of the EVFPD will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 26, at 4:30 p.m. in the Dannels Fire Station in Estes Park. A board meeting set for Feb. 12 has been canceled.