The Cortez Fire Protection District’s 2018 budget is a little tighter than usual, but it’s healthy, according to Fire Chief Jeff Vandevoorde.

With the construction of the new fire station, the district’s money needed to stretch further, but the district was still able to roll over $300,000 from 2017.

The construction of the fire station is on schedule, according to Vandevoorde, in part because of the unusually warm winter. The only delay in construction was attributed to holiday time off.

“We should have no issues with anything we need to buy, or salaries or anything like that, so we don’t have to take any money out of our reserves to make ends meet with the budget,” Vandevoorde said.

The fire district will receive about $20,000 in reimbursements because it dispatched Cortez staff to two separate fire incidents. Firefighters were dispatched to a fire in the McPhee area and to fight wildfires in Grand Junction for two weeks during 2017.

The 2017 budget ended with total fund revenue of $5,384,865, though that number is subject to change as accounts settle in the new year.

The proposed budget for 2018 is a total fund revenue of $5,978,711, about an 11 percent increase from 2017’s estimated budget.

The Cortez Fire Protection District receives money and support from taxpayers and grants.

“Since I have been here, my big project is the budget, making sure we are solid and the district really is solid, and it has been the support of the taxpayers,” Vandevoorde said. “The people supported us on that (hiring full-time and new fire station), and that really helped a lot. It has made the department a lot better.”