Last month the board of the Park City Fire District approved a $24 million budget for 2025. It’s an increase of less than 2% over the budget for the previous year.
Park City Fire District Chief Bob Zanetti said the additional funding will pay for several critical equipment upgrades, including a new ambulance and fire truck.
“It’s been a bit of a challenge with these orders for both ambulance and fire trucks,” Zanetti said. “They used to be able to build them in eight months, and now we’re about 40 months out, so it’s a little tougher to budget.”
Zanetti said backlogs from the COVID-19 pandemic continue to hamper the supply chain for new trucks. The chief said the new ambulance costs around $350,000, while the new fire truck is roughly $1 million.
Zanetti said the department has also invested in other much-needed improvements.
“We have the power stretchers that help us lift the patients into the ambulance and prevent injuries,” he said. “We have two of those coming in. They’re about a little over $30,000. We’re on a process over the next four years replacing our Zoll defibrillator monitors. We have one of those in each ambulance and in each truck as well. They’re hovering around $45,000.”
Zanetti said the department has also purchased a LUCAS device, which provides mechanical chest compression to patients in cardiac arrest.
The chief said the fire district is continuing discussions with Summit County about relocating the existing Pinebrook station to a county-owned property close to Jeremy Ranch.
“We own the land and the building,” Zanetti said. “There’s different talk of what we can do with that. We can trade it to the county and see what their uses or needs are. They’re going to look into that. Basic [Recreation] has shown some interest in that piece of property.”
Zanetti said the department is still calculating numbers for their 2024 report.
“For the first time, probably in the history of the department, we kind of tiered off a little bit,” he said. “I don’t have the exact numbers, it was somewhere around 6,800 calls. Ever since I’ve been on the department - 35 years - we’ve had an increase every year in call volume, except for COVID year.”
The Park City Fire District is also starting 2025 with 10 fresh recruits who finished training in December.