6/4/09
The Rio Arriba County Commission voted unanimously May 28 to finally close the Lybrook Volunteer Fire Department.
“The Lybrook Fire Department has lapsed into dysfunction for at least 90 days many, many times,” County Fire Marshal Jerome Sanchez told commissioners.
State statute 59A-53-14 requires the County to close a fire department if it ceases operations or function for 90 days, for equipment to be taken back by the County and for funds dedicated to such a department to revert to the County’s fire fund.
The Lybrook Department has been inactive since 2006, but commissioners have delayed the closure multiple times, most recently April 30, despite Sanchez’s objections that the delays were illegal. County Manager Lorenzo Valdez had requested the delays, because, he said, the delays were needed to allow him time to inform San Juan County officials of the impending closure.
Sanchez and Assistant County Manager Tomas Campos used the delays to meet with Lybrook firefighters and San Juan County Fire Department officials in a last-ditch effort to save the Department.
“San Juan County and Cuba also cover the area,” Sanchez said. “But response times will be much longer.”
Fire Chief Leroy Lopez was elected April 6 after the Department’s previous chief, Larry Ham, resigned.
Lopez reported that he had recruited 17 recruits for the Department but he was not able to complete the paperwork necessary to save the Department, Sanchez said.
“I told ‘em when we met, you’ve got a couple of weeks and it’ll take a lot of hard work,” Sanchez said.
Lybrook firefighters held a meeting May 15 but no minutes were kept at the meeting, Sanchez said.
“But we received just a list of names, no documentation of what was discussed,” Sanchez said. “Chief Lopez yesterday told me he’s had no contact with the state fire marshal.”
Nor have Lybrook firefighters responded to test emergency pages, according to Sanchez.
“Lybrook hasn’t responded to pages,” Sanchez said. “If we have an emergency, these people would never know.”
A department that is supposedly active but not responding to calls is worse than no department because the County is legally liable if an officially open fire department fails to respond to emergencies, Sanchez said.
“There’s really no justification to continue on with them as a partner here,” Sanchez said.
Lopez declined to comment at the meeting or for this story. He left before the meeting was over. Sanchez had to send County Administrative Assistant Delilah Jaramillo after Lopez to deliver a letter informing Lopez that his Department had been closed and that he should not remove any equipment from the station.
“If anything’s removed from that fire station before the state Fire Marshal can inventory it, oh boy, is it going to blow up,” Sanchez said. “I’m worried. The documentation wasn’t kept up. We couldn’t find any files (at the Lybrook station).”
The letter instructs Lopez to return all Department equipment that has been issued to volunteers by May 29.
“We inventoried the Department’s assets,” Sanchez said. “There is unrecovered radio equipment that (has) not been returned.”
The state Fire Marshal has demanded that $182,000 in the defunct Department’s account be returned to the state.
The County will ask the state Fire Marshal for permission to move the Department’s four-wheel drive fire truck to Coyote so it’s still in the area, Sanchez said. Coyote’s truck will be reassigned to the Alcalde Fire Department.
The Department, established in 1982, has been inactive since 2006, Sanchez said. The County repeatedly offered the Department an opportunity to get into compliance with state law, Sanchez said.
The state Fire Marshal’s office had sent the County a letter April 24, 2009, demanding the County close the Department and return its fire funding within 30 days.
In October 2008, the Department’s funds were frozen except to pay utility costs. The County has been paying $420 a month to maintain water, gas, electricity and phone service to the station, County Comptroller Mary Louise Martinez said.
Former Lybrook fire chief Al Chapman, who served until 2003, said he was disappointed by the Department’s closure.
“There’s a great necessity for it,” Chapman said. “It’s a sad situation. We got the (Giant) gas plant here and the school, and that’s a concern.”
Chapman spoke highly of Ham’s efforts to save the Department.
“Larry Ham was one of ‘em that really tried to push to get it running,” Chapman said. “He’s a good man. Quite knowledgeable. I don’t know why he backed out.”
Chapman shares Sanchez’s concern about delayed response times as departments in San Juan and Sandoval counties pick up the slack created by the Department’s closure.
“We’re in a little corner of no man’s land in Rio Arriba County,” Chapman said. “Jerome (Sanchez) has really worked with us in the past but with the lack of volunteers out here, he got tired.”
Asked why Lybrook’s had so much difficulty keeping its Department functional, Chapman blamed infighting among firefighters.
“There was a lot of turmoil within the Department,” Chapman said. “Husbands and wives got to swapping, and they got to fighting.”