Los Alamos County, New Mexico, started its annual budgeting process Monday night with a public hearing on the proposed spending plan for fiscal year 2024, which includes a massive more-than-doubling of the fire department outlay to cover a cooperative agreement with the National Nuclear Security Administration.
The Los Alamos Fire Department provides firefighting and emergency services to the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) under the cooperative agreement begun in 2013. The agreement currently runs through September. The county’s fiscal 2024 budget includes $44 million to support its end of the deal, a 54% increase from the $28.5 fire department budget adopted for the current fiscal year.
“The county and DOE have a Cooperative Agreement (CA) that governs how the County will provide enhanced fire support services to LANL,”
Los Alamos County Manager Steven Lynne wrote in an op ed published Monday by the Los Alamos Reporter. “This interrelationship, interdependence and cooperation is just one noteworthy instance of how important intergovernmental relations are, especially for our community.”
Lynne went on to say the agreement’s proposed increase for staffing in the fire department helps meet the future needs of DOE and LANL. “It also helps ensure that this win-win relationship continues into the future.”
The county’s fire department budget is built around the ongoing 10-year cooperative agreement with NNSA. It began in October 2913 and runs through the end of the current fiscal year. It was immediately unclear if approval of the proposed fiscal year 2024 county budget would extend the agreement for longer than the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.
Los Alamos County Monday budget hearings were to start tonight at 6 p.m. Mountain Time in Council Chambers. The proceedings will also stream at the following zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82683176848
