AURORA | With an eye toward scoring some of the cost savings larger fire departments already enjoy, two smaller local fire agencies are set to merge at the start of the new year.
Cunningham Fire Protection District — which covers a 14-square-mile swath of Centennial and unincorporated Arapahoe County, as well as neighborhoods that border Aurora Fire’s coverage area — will merge with South Metro Fire Rescue Jan. 1, completing a long-discussed unification of the two agencies.
Cunningham chief Jerry Rhodes, who has been a longtime backer of the merger, said Littleton Fire Rescue could also join the merger, but it will require approval from the Littleton City Council.
Rhodes said the merger with South Metro has some obvious benefits for Cunningham. From a purchasing standpoint, he said it will mean the small fire protection district can make the sorts of big purchases that regularly save bigger departments some money, including buying multiple fire engines at a time as opposed to just one.
The move will also help with recruitment, he said, because firefighters with the new department will have a chance to work with specialized units. Today, Cunningham doesn’t have a swift-water rescue unit or wildland fire fighting team and instead leans on larger neighbors if they need those services.
Once the merger is complete, Cunningham firefighters will have the chance to train and join those specialized units, Rhodes said, something he said could help lure a broader base of recruits.
Several smaller fire agencies around the metro have discussed or pulled off mergers in recent years, each time hoping to score some of the benefits larger departments like Aurora and Denver already enjoy.
South Metro already merged with Parker Fire Rescue last year and the cities of Sheridan and Englewood contracted with Denver fire for service in 2015.
If Littleton joins the South Metro and Cunningham merger, it would create the third largest fire department in Colorado, surpassing Aurora fire in terms of firefighting personnel.
Combined, the three departments would have more than 600 firefighters — about 400 from South Metro, 150 from Littleton and about 70 from Cunningham. That would make the department bigger than Aurora and smaller than only Denver.
The departments would cover about 500,000 people.
Mark Lampert, chairman of the Cunningham Fire Protection District Board of Directors, said he expects the merger to be relatively seamless because South Metro and Cunningham already work together in many cases.
“We’ve been playing together for so long anyway,” he said.
The merger won’t mean the immediate end to the Cunningham name. Lampert said the board will stay in place for at least a few years because they are the tax collecting arm of the department.
During that time, the board will continue to operate and collect those taxes, which they will hand over to South Metro, Lampert said.
The goal is for the agency’s taxes to dip substantially — from 14.57 mills down to 9.25 mills — as the agency enjoys the cost savings of the merger, he said.
Once the Cunningham tax rate drops to that 9.25 and lines up with South Metro, the board will likely be disbanded, he said.
Both Lampert and Rhodes said people who call 911 or need firefighters for any other reason won’t notice much of a difference once the merger goes through.
One perk, Lampert said, is that they may notice more personnel from Cunningham’s Station No. 61. That station, which is near East Iliff Avenue and Parker Road, is set to add staff because of the merger, he said.
The change means the firefighters will wear South Metro patches and the Cunningham name will largely go away, Lampert said.