Renews Danny Johnson’s contract as chief, enters land sale negotiations

The Verde Valley Fire District Governing Board approved its $19.3 million budget during its meeting on June 23.

The budget saw nomajor changes since its first presentation on May 26, which included a drop in the property tax mill rate to $3.30, higher expenses toward personnel and the land purchase and construction of a new station in Clarkdale, largely funded by the General Obligation bond voters passed in December.

The public notice for the combined budget showed total expenses at $20.5 million, which includes the transfers between funds.

Administrative Manager Lisa Elliott said these aren’t included in the expenses on the actual budget, because the district isn’t spending money on anything, just transferring it to a different place in the budget.

The board also unanimously approved VVFD Chief Danny Johnson to enter negotiations with Clarkdale-Jerome School District for the possibility of buying a portion of its land for the station.

The board discussed its preliminary research on the potential property during an executive session on June 23.

The GO bonds sold total to $9,265,000. According to the budget, another estimated $5,500,000 will be sold in fiscal year 2028.
The land must be sold at a fair market value, according to state law.

In the negotiations, the two districts will decide how much land will be sold.

The budget lists $5,400,000 to be used for Land, Building and Construction. The other big capital items are $1,317,584 for vehicles and $1,034,457 for machinery and equipment.

During his update to the board in VVFD’s Station 31 in Cottonwood, Johnson said he’s planning on what machinery to put into the new station in Clarkdale already, regardless of where it will be.

“We submitted an AFG [Assistance to Firefighters Grant] grant for some cancer reduction equipment,” he said. “It’s basically called a hardequipment decontamination machine, and it can take our SCBAs [SelfContained Breathing Apparatus] and boots and things that can’t go through an extractor, and we can place that equipment in there, and it removes the carcinogens off of that equipment. So, we applied for two, one that would be put at this facility, and one that would be put in the new fire station in Clarkdale.”

Also approved at the meeting was the renewal of Johnson’s contract as fire chief.

Joint Powers Agreement

VVFD set its next meeting for Tuesday, July 28, directly following the Copper Canyon Fire & Medical District Governing Board meeting, for which Johnson is also fire chief.

VVFD and CCFMD are set to merge after fiscal year 2027 in a Joint Powers Agreement.

“We’ll get our [4:30 p.m.] general board meeting for Copper Canyon done, then we’ll have a joint board meeting between the two boards, and then we’ll conduct our board meeting after that joint board meeting,” he said. “And at that board meeting, I will have legal representation here to go through the final document, answer any questions, any concerns that you had, and I will have that stuff.”

The main concern Board Chair Coleen Gilboy had was the lack of public involvement in choosing the name for the merged fire district.

Johnson reached out to fire personnel at both districts asking for name ideas. He said more than 90% of them responded and he’s narrowed it down to the top four choices: Verde Valley Fire Authority, Verde Fire Authority, Verde River Fire Authority and Copper State Fire Authority.

More information on the naming will come in a future JOURNAL story.