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Bonny Doon residents are considering their options after the countywide Local Agency Formation Commission turned down the community’s application to form an independent fire protection district.
 Davenport resident Sharon Smith speaks in front of a packed audience, shown below, against Bonny Doon’s attempt to split from County Fire during LAFCo hearing in Santa Cruz. Lucjan Szewczyk/Press-Banner Bonny Doon residents are considering their options after the countywide Local Agency Formation Commission turned down the community’s application to form an independent fire protection district.
Commissioners, on a 4-3 vote Monday, Sept. 22, upheld their staff’s recommendation to reject the proposal, primarily on the grounds that the resulting loss of revenue to the county would hurt fire protection in other rural areas.
As a result, the Bonny Doon Fire and Rescue Team will remain under the arm of Cal Fire, which provides rural fire protection under contract with the County Fire Department.
Also, the team will continue to be the only County Fire volunteer organization without a Cal Fire station within its boundaries. The nearest fire-season station is in Felton, and the closest year-round station is on Swanton Road north of Davenport.
There is no appeal process to challenge a LAFCo decision, and a new application can’t be filed for a year.
 Lucjan Szewczyk/Press-Banner Tom Scully, the fire and rescue team’s board chairman, went before county supervisors Tuesday morning and told them “it’s up to you” to improve Bonny Doon fire protection as the directors of County Fire.
In an interview Wednesday, Scully wouldn’t rule out another run at LAFCo with a modified application, but said that “takes a three-year will, and we’re tired.”
LAFCo’s meeting drew several hundred spectators, who packed a Santa Cruz church. Seventy-five people talked at the three-hour hearing and were nearly split on the question, with a slight edge in favor of Bonny Doon.
Voting to grant the Bonny Doon request were Scotts Valley City Councilman Cliff Barrett, Felton Fire Protection District board member Jim Anderson and Capitola City Councilman Bob Begun.
The votes ending the Dooners’ three-year quest were cast by county supervisors Ellen Pirie and Tony Campos, public member Roger Anderson of Santa Cruz and Jim Rapoza, a director of San Lorenzo Valley Water District.
Other options
One alternative to boost fire protection in Bonny Doon, suggested several times during the hearing, is to station a staffed Cal Fire engine in Bonny Doon or move Cal Fire’s Felton station to Bonny Doon.
But LAFCo has no authority to make such a move. It would be up to county leaders and Cal Fire.
And anyway, Bonny Doon fire members have said such a move is not the equivalent of having their own fire district, because the Felton station is open only during summer fire season and a Cal Fire engine can be dispatched to an out-of-area wildfire at any time.
“Volunteers train, are equipped and volunteer for the personal satisfaction of protecting their community,” fire team board member Donita Springmeyer added in a letter to the commission, “not to ‘cover the station’ while a paid crew does the responding.”
Under Bonny Doon’s proposal, there would have been a combination of several paid firefighters and the current volunteer force.
Springmeyer noted that many Bonny Doon volunteers are better trained and more experienced than Cal Fire’s paid seasonal firefighters, who are furloughed every winter.
Formation of a fire district would have removed 49 square miles from County Fire responsibility, but also diverted an estimated $360,000 in annual tax revenue, some of which now helps provide protection elsewhere in the county.
Although there are no current plans to close any of Cal Fire’s stations, the predicted drop in revenue caused by a separate Bonny Doon outfit raised fears along the north coast and elsewhere in the county that one could be closed. This fear was voiced by dozens at the hearing and several commissioners.
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