City Commission votes 4-1 to apply for $2.5 million loan to fund GFFR training center
Great Falls City Commissioners voted 4-1 during their April 15 meeting to apply for a $2.5 million Montana Board of Investments intercap loan to finance Great Falls Fire Rescue’s training center renovations.
City staff will apply for the state loan for up to $2.5 million and use the 3.5 mills that were redirected from the Great Falls Public Library to the city’s general fund through a renegotiation of the library’s management agreement.
GFFR’s training center on 9th Street South is largely unusable, limiting firefighter training, risking their safety and by extension their ability to respond to all potential emergencies in the community.
City continuing discussion of funding for GFFR training center, which is currently unusable
That also comes with a potential cost, either in loss of property or injuries and since a training center is a factor in the Insurance Services Office’s determination of the city’s rating, which directly impacts insurance residential and commercial property insurance premiums.
During the Jan. 21 commission work session, GFFR Chief Jeremy Jones presented a proposal for $2.5 million, financed through non-voted general obligation debt, to revamp the training center.
The facility includes a five-story training tower that has been condemned and largely unusable since the spring of 2020 and in November 2024, the two remaining roof props also failed; a general training building that currently has limited uses without electricity or heat; and a classroom building that gophers have damaged.
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Commissioners approved $150,000 in the 2022 budget for repairs, but officials discovered they’d have to bring the facility up to current OSHA standards, rather than be grandfathered under the older standards as they’d hoped.
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“Unfortunately, we have reached another critical infrastructure failure,” Jones told commissioners on Jan. 21.
Jones and GFFR have been working to address the lack of training facilities for years. Those options included a proposal through the Montana Legislature to establish a regional training center, but that fell apart during the 2023 legislative session. Another option included selling the existing training center and collaborating the Great Falls College MSU to build a fifth fire station, and a training facility, on university land, but that option died with the 2023 levy failure.
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A new training center was not included in the bond and levy questions that were on the 2023 ballot.
In 2022, engineers estimated the cost to fully repair the training center, plus additions, was $675,000.
The cost of repairs to the training tower exceeds the building’s value, according to the city.
The new training tower/prop will allow GFFR to train in multiple areas, such as live fire exercises, high-angle technical rescue, forced entry and general fire operations, according to GFFR.
The current interest rate for intercap loans is 5 percent and the proposed term is 15 years, making annual debt payments an estimated $238,888.20.
The intercap loan is non-voted general obligation debt that the city can use without voter approval.
The city’s current non-voted debt capacity is $3,616,201 and the maximum annual debt payment the city may commit to is $593,853, which includes previously approved non-voted debt.
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The projected available funding in the upcoming budget, using the 3.5 former library mills is $471,413, according to the city.
Commissioners will have to take further action to accept the intercap loan funds.
Jones told The Electric that the project can be broken into three parts, one for the existing tower’s demolition, the second for the groundwork and third construction of the new training tower/prop.
Jones said he’s hoping the work can begin this year, but depending on timing, may not be completed until next year.
Jones said during the January work session that an important factor to consider regarding their inability to use the training center is that it will almost definitely cause a drop in the city’s ISO rating, which is what insurance companies use to set property insurance premiums.
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“If we can’t train, we’re gonna lose points,” Jones said in January. “The chance of us regressing is very high.”
ISO looks at emergency communication, water supply and fire departments.
There’s also a divergence factor and since the city has a robust water supply system but GFFR doesn’t have the resources to meet that supply, the city loses points.
The city has already been rated deficient in deployment analysis, fire stations and fire coverage, as well as personnel.
“We already know we don’t have enough firefighters,” Jones said.
ISO awards up to nine total points for training and is based on having a three or more story training facility on two acres and having live fire capabilities.
The is due for its next ISO audit in 2026 and without a change, the city will be rated “0 or close to a 0 because we don’t have the training grounds,” Jones said in January.
The city currently has an ISO rating of 3 and if it regresses to a 4, Jones said someone from ISO finally told him that it was a safe bet insurance premiums would go up 10 percent.
It’s not absolute, he said, since all insurance companies are different, but the 10 percent increase would be an average outcome for the regression.
Jones said without the training center, the city could easily regress without any other changes to scores, “and I can’t guarantee there won’t be changes.”
Jones told commissioners in August 2022 that the city’s ISO rating had dropped, largely due to the fire department’s staffing resources.
To put the rating in layman’s terms, “we got a straight up solid D,” Jones said in 2022.
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During the 2022 commission work session, Jones said that if the city keeps going on the same path, the ISO rating will continue to decline and that will result in increased insurance premiums for residential and commercial property owners.
“Eventually you’re going to call for help and no one is going to be able to come,” Jones said in August 2022. “That’s where we’re headed.”
The city is due for another ISO audit in 2026, but Jones can choose when to schedule that audit.
If the training center project were to be completed by this fall, Jones said he could schedule the audit for the fall of 2026 and get credit for a full year of training. It’s unclear how a partial year of training would factor in the city’s ISO rating and updated score.
During the April 15 commission meeting, Commissioner Susan Wolff moved to approve the loan application and Commissioner Shannon Wilson seconded.
There was no public comment on the item.
Mayor Cory Reeves said that he felt it was a topic they’d had a lot of conversation over and “need to see this happen.”
Commissioner Joe McKenney, who has championed public safety funding and regularly said the city will likely need to pursue another levy, said that “what’s that saying at weddings, speak now or forever hold your peace. This is an example.”
He said the city could pursue the non-voted debt, but need to pull away layers of the onion to find the root of the problem, which he said was the Legislature defunding public safety when property taxes weren’t allowed to keep up with inflation.
Since then, municipal governments have “been on a starvation diet,” unable to provide public services, he said.
It’s not getting better, McKenney said, with current legislation further taking funds from local government.
He said a business could control it’s income and expenses, but local government had no control over income since the Legislature held that control.
“The legislature continues to starve us out of existence,” McKenney said and it’s highly likely cities would remain under attack by lawmakers.
“How in the world can we take on debt knowing the ongoing financial challenges are getting worse,” McKenney said, and that it was a disservice to the city and future commissions.
He said that he was working on an ad hoc committee and it’s first recent meeting was a “who’s who of who knows how to get things done.”
It’s unclear what specifically that group is intending to accomplish, but McKenney said that the goal was a public safety levy in the future but also thinking outside the box and perhaps selling a city asset or mounting a capital campaign.
McKenney said he through new debt was the wrong approach to public safety and that it would aggravate the city’s financial challenges going forward.
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