Rough and Ready, Calif. April 9, 2025 – On Tuesday evening, the Board of the Rough and Ready Fire Department (RAR) voted to table an offer by Nevada County Consolidated Fire District (NCCFD) and instead join Penn Valley Fire District (PVFD). The vote was 4-1 with Director John Wetzel voting No.
This is the latest chapter in an ongoing effort to keep Station 59 in Rough and Ready open to serve the approximately 1,700 people in the district. Since the district’s dire financial situation came to light in April of 2022, its directors have been looking for a solution. It started with talks between the Penn Valley and Rough&Ready districts, then a larger reorganization was on the table with Consolidated joining in the formation of Nevada County Fire and Rescue.
At the meeting, directors started by reading the proposals received from NCCFD.
At the board meeting of Nevada County Consolidated Fire District Board of directors held on March 20, 2025, the board took the following action: By unanimous vote, the board of directors decided to table the reorganization plan with the Penn Valley Fire Protection District until a further date. Additionally, the Board directed the Fire Chief to modify any reorganization plan to include Nevada County Consolidated, Ophir Hill Fire Protection District and Rough and Ready Fire Protection District.
In light of this decision, we kindly request that your board of directors reaffirm its commitment to the proposed reorganization with Nevada County Consolidated and Ophir Hill. Given the time sensitive nature of this matter, we ask that this item be included on your April 8, 2025 agenda and request your official confirmation soon thereafter.
RAR Board Chair Doug Wittler addressed the firefighters present, stating: “Before I get into discussing the letter, I would like to make a comment regarding our fire personnel. For the past, I don’t know, almost two years, we’ve been sharing the fire station with the Penn Valley Fire personnel and also the Consolidated Fire personnel. I’ve gotten to know some of you. I wish I got to know you more, but I would just like to thank you for being our firemen. You are true professionals and this is the reason we’re here tonight is to support you and hopefully take the correct steps in supporting you in the future. There are some things that you may or may not know about firemen, and it is not a glamorous job. This personal. These people go on calls that see a lot of tragedy and they see a lot of things that honestly no human being should see in their lifetime. It can give you a lot of mental scars. So when you see firemen – fire personnel, excuse me – and they’ll smile and they’ll say, just doing my job, please understand that not only do they go through a lot of vigorous physical work on their jobs, but they have to be very mentally equipped to deal with what they see. So when you do see firemen and you’re here tonight, I thank you, we all thank you, and I salute you all.”
No meeting of the reorganization committee since September?
Yesterday, representatives from Penn Valley and Consolidated were in the audience as RAR directors assessed the situation, again. Residents and firefighters in the audience had questions as well. According to the RAR Board, the ad hoc committee, composed of members from Penn Valley and Consolidated, charged with working through the reorganization hasn’t met since September.
One of the firefighters spoke up: “How’s it going? For those who don’t know me, my name is Matt. I’m the acting captain here with Consolidated at 59. I sat through many board meetings since this recent fallout, and each board meeting has been, we’re gonna get everyone together, we’re gonna talk, we’re gonna try to figure this out. It hasn’t happened. I personally would hate to see a decision if that meeting has not happened. That is, in my opinion, a disservice to taxpayers and the line staff. We’ve been busting our butts, too. I’ve grown to really care about these Penn Valley firemen and firewomen that I’ve been working with. Smith and I, since September of 2023, have been out politicking and spreading the good word with our Rough and Ready taxpayers… It just seems that it’s a shame to make any decisions without that meeting happening. It’s kind of like it’s all bark and no bite. I want to see the bite. I want to see a meeting. I want to see the ad hoc get together. And, you know, it doesn’t seem right to continue without that happening.” His remarks were applauded by the audience.
A motion was made by Director John Wetzel to table RAR’s response to Consolidated until the ad hoc committee meets and that a letter be written to the four different fire districts inviting them to attend this consolidation meeting. Failing the ability to have a consolidation meeting, Rough and Ready then move forward to join with Penn Valley. He ultimately withdrew the motion.
A resident asked, “Can we ask, as a resident of Rough and Ready, why there hasn’t been a reorganization meeting since September?” NCCFD Chief Jason Robitaille replied, “So the main reason I figured out is we hired a consultant. It takes them four months to put a plan together. The plan was to compile all the data from all four districts and then present a technical draft. That was four months long, so we didn’t have any deliverables within four months while those consultants were compiling the data.” When asked if they had received any response from the consultants, Robitaille answered, “It’s incomplete because of some data that we needed vetted from an organization to complete the financial study. So that’s kind of where we are.”
Another resident stated, “I don’t understand the sudden falling out. And if there’s not a secure backup plan, if we refuse the Consolidated plan, where does that leave our residents? You know, I’m really concerned about that, although I think you probably have a plan that we don’t all see yet, but it’s just a real concern. I like the idea of trying to continue to make this work, you know, not let this plan fall apart. It’s gotten this far, and then all of a sudden to have it drop off and it always comes back to the money they say. Sorry we don’t have the money… The fire district doesn’t end at the edge of Rough and Ready, obviously it goes throughout the whole area. We’re all in this together, really. So it’s concerning, though, when some of the budget issues don’t seem to have been brought out in the open or discussed prior to, you know, changes happening. That’s a concern. So I hope it can still be worked out, and I hope the he funding can be shared more equitably. That’s a bad word these days throughout the country and the area. You know, we live here, we’re a poor district – but, you know, we affect everybody else, too. And I appreciate all the firefighters and everything that you guys are doing. So thank you.”
Rescue tax to be added to RAR assessment
Chair Wittler thanked the resident and laid out some of the possible changes, including adding the rescue tax. This tax is currently paid for by residents in the Penn Valley district and if a consolidation was to move forward, it would extend to the RAR district.
“It’s my opinion that unless Rough&Ready, for lack of a better term, has more skin in the game, that moving this plan forward, we have to do our part. I know that we already pay our taxes, and the taxes aren’t cheap, and I feel badly for people, especially on a fixed income, to make this recommendation. But what we’re doing is expensive. And just to give you an idea is if we tried to do this alone with the 712 parcels in our fire district, we would have to be forking over up to maybe another thousand dollars apiece to keep our fire station. Chief, you can correct me if I’m wrong, but I think [the PV rescue tax] it’s $136 and change per parcel. I know it’s bad news and I appreciate nobody bringing rotten vegetables to throw at me, but it’s the only way that I see that we can help make a consolidation happen.”
Members of the audience said that was still a lot cheaper than having to go on the Fair Plan.
Let’s keep talking
NCCFD President Grueneberg expressed his commitment to keep talking, adding “As a personal aside, the station is named in honor of my father in law. So I have a special interest in keeping the station open and I spent a lot of time in that little green house across the field here. So I have a special interest and special love for Rough and Ready. And so I’ll do my best to carry the load, but it’s got to make business sense.”
NCCFD Chief Robitaille added, “I just want to say a few things too because I appreciate your background on kind of what brought us up to today. But you know, the day that we came together staff this station was a highlight not only my career, but others. I really commend all our firefighters. We have really good intentions. This is not the results that we were hoping for. I know it was ambitious, but by bifurcating the process we respect your decision and that’s really my ultimate goal and Chief Wagner’s. We just want stations open, I don’t care what patch. We just want when people call 911 put air in the lungs, water on a fire as fast as possible. I think the situation has also been a catalyst in the fire service. Chief Wagner, myself and all the fire chiefs in the county just recently signed a county-wide response plan that recognizes closest resource dispatching and we’re trying to implement that to where it’s a deployment strategy is county-wide. Regardless of who’s managing what, that vision will not go away. Like I said, we respect your decision. I really thank the county for stepping in and giving the gap funding to make that possible. It’s really been a good exercise for us and I just, I know it kind of leaves a sour taste because we want to get things over the line, but like President Grueneberg says is we want to make good business decisions and vet those numbers and move forward that we’re all comfortable with. I’m hoping we can still get there one day, but thank you, I really enjoyed getting to learn from all the organizations here in the county learning about the history and we’re anxious to maybe carry that torch moving forward one day. We’re eager to work with you on that transition plan and go from there and let us know we can be assistance.”
Two for the price of one?
The final motion voted on was simple: Table the offer by NCCFD and join Penn Valley.
The RAR district will have to inform the Local Area Formation Commission of their decision, the Penn Valley Board will have to accept the consolidation offer and the new district will have to prepare a budget. NCCFD and Ophir Hill will likely do the same on their end.