Nevada County, Calif. – On January 7th, the boards of directors of both Ophir Hill and Nevada County Consolidated voted unanimously to proceed with an application to the Local Area Formation Commission (LAFCo) to combine both districts. Questions about the proposed consolidation surfaced, including the number of fire stations and the financial stability of the new district. Here is what is known so far.
Fire stations
Nevada County Consolidated Fire (NCCFD) currently operates four staffed fire stations within the existing district and four other stations are unstaffed. Active stations include Station 84, located on Coyote Street in Nevada City, Station 86 on Banner Lava Cap, Station 88 on Golden Star in Grass Valley and Station 89 on Tammy Way. Stations 81 in Cascade Shores and 82 at Hwy 20 and Scotts Flat Rd area are unstaffed, Station 91 on McCourtney across from the Fairgrounds is used primarily for board meetings and Station 92, located across from the Transfer Station on McCourtney serves as NCCFD’s mechanics shop. Ophir Hill operates fire station 52 on Colfax Hwy in Cedar Ridge.
According to NCCFD Chief Jason Robitaille, “At this time, the plan being prepared for presentation to LAFCo will ensure a minimum staffing level of two firefighters on each engine, 24 hours a day, at five stations (Stations 52, 84, 86, 88, and 89) across the combined 160-square-mile district. Currently, there are periods during which the Ophir Hill Fire District is staffed by only one firefighter for approximately eight hours each night. Moving forward, this staffing model will be eliminated within the Ophir Hill Fire District response area, which also serves as the closest response unit to portions of the NCC Fire District service area.”
Finances
A major reason for consolidating districts is savings through the elimination of duplicate positions and services. Fire districts generally are not in the best financial shape, with some relying on unpredictable revenues – like reimbursements for sending their personnel on strike teams to large incidents during peak fire season – to balance their budget. Each district receives a portion of the property tax collected by the county, depending on an arcane formula that includes when the district was formed. Any special or additional assessments must be approved by voters in the district. Said voters have often proven to be reluctant to pay for the fire and medical services.
In October of 2025, the Nevada County Board of Supervisors adopted a resolution to not reopen the county tax share agreement. The decision to leave the apportionment as is came after local fire districts, namely Nevada County Consolidated, Ophir Hill, Penn Valley and Rough & Ready asked for a greater share of tax revenues to backfill budget shortages and increase staffing.
The Municipal Service Review (MSR) of local fire districts published by LAFCo in 2025 states:
Fire districts in California, and Nevada County in particular, face systemic challenges in balancing revenue and expenditures. Fire district funding was primarily based on a share of the property tax; as limitations on property tax have manifested over time, the districts have come to increasingly rely on voter-approved assessments to bridge the gap between revenue and expenditures. Some of the independent districts in Nevada County have enacted two or even three rounds of assessments. There exist significant differences in the allocation of property tax share to the districts, and vast differences in the levels of assessments. Totals for assessments range from zero to $416 annually in the fire districts. There is not a direct correlation between the amount of assessment and the level of service- in fact, some of the highest assessments are in districts with the lowest levels of service.
Source: Municipal Service Review (MSR) of Fire and Emergency Response Services
Robitaille echoed this in his response to our question about possible financial issues for the proposed district:
The inability to reopen and modify the fire districts’ share of property tax revenues, as recommended in the most recent LAFCo Municipal Service Review (MSR), has limited our ability to provide the level of service identified as necessary. During this process, we identified 12 of the combined 52 Tax Rate Areas in which the district currently receives less than 3.15 percent of the property tax revenue collected by the County.
The Board of Supervisors’ decision not to accept LAFCo’s recommendation to reopen the tax-sharing agreement—outlined in the most recent MSR—has required both fire districts to examine alternative paths forward. That recommendation was intended to modernize a property tax formula that is more than 40 years old and to better align revenues with service delivery expectations.
Municipal Service Reviews are recommended to be updated every five years; however, the previous MSR was completed nearly 20 years ago. The MSR also identifies the need to staff each engine with three firefighters to meet operational and firefighter safety standards. Efforts to modify our current property tax allocation, along with attempts to secure additional funding sources such as Proposition 172 and PILT funds, have been unsuccessful.
To be accurate, the MSR report recommended a larger consolidation with “Nevada County Consolidated, Penn Valley, Rough and Ready, and Ophir Hill fire districts reorganize into a single fire district as soon as practical.” After completion of the larger merger, the report then recommended the reopening of the tax share agreement to pay for three firefighters per engine in the new district.
The negotiations between the four districts fell apart and two smaller mergers are now moving forward.
In October, the county responded by detailing their additional support to local fire districts and approximate amounts for Consolidated and Ophir Hill were close to $3 million ($2.73 million for Consolidated and $381,000 for Ophir Hill in joint funding with Peardale/Chicago Park.) Additional details and options in our story, ‘Maintaining fire services? We’re gonna need a bigger pie‘
Tax measure on the horizon
If the application to merge the two districts is approved, changes to the existing tax measures are likely.
“Once consolidation is complete, we will continue to evaluate our operations to ensure we are maximizing return on investment while delivering the highest possible level of service to our community. As costs continue to rise at a pace that our current funding structure cannot sustain, I anticipate the District will need to initiate a serious discussion regarding enhancements to existing tax measures and whether our residents would support placing additional firefighters on engines,” Robitaille said.
Additional information on the proposed consolidation can be found on NCCFD’s website.