Valencia County able to purchase new fire engines, trucks

The Valencia County Fire Department has made some serious upgrades to its fleet of vehicles, to the tune of more than $6.5 million.

Since 2022, Valencia County has obtained 22 vehicles for VCFD — including two donated by other government agencies— by using funds from a variety of sources to replace an aging fleet.

The most recent apparatus purchase came before the Valencia County Commission at its Aug. 6 meeting, which approved a resolution for a loan through the New Mexico Finance Authority for $349,397 for a new Pierce Sabre fire engine. The loan only covers the balance of the purchase price of the engine — a total of $849,397 — with $500,000 coming from state fire funds.

During the August meeting, Commissioner Joseph Bizzell noted the prices of fire vehicles seemed to be “skyrocketing” and closing in on $1 million. Valencia County Fire Chief Matt Propp agreed, saying the last two purchases the department made were about $930,000 and $840,000.

“The one we’re buying now is actually a cancellation from another agency in 2024, so we’re capturing the ʼ24 price and saving $150,000,” Propp said.

The commissioner asked how many purchases the chief could see coming in the future. Propp said with the Pierce Sabre, which they expected to take possession of later this year, the department should be “in good shape for about 10 years. We talked to the Pierce Sabre vendor and what we’re looking at doing in the future when we’re replacing fleet is locking in with a contract to avoid that two to three year increase during the build. There’s a holder fee in the contract.”

If the county managed to lock in a price and found it didn’t need the vehicle, could it then sell the unit to another entity or agency, Bizzell asked. The chief said there are ways public agencies can broker purchases through the manufacturer, which is what happened with the current truck.

“The agency lost its funding during the build and Pierce Sabre gave us the price they locked in with that department,” Propp said. “In theory, it could be sold but I would have to defer to Rustin (Porter, county purchasing agent) on the procurement.”

Porter said that kind of scenario would be hard to predict, saying even with a locked in price, what the county could get in the future for a vehicle was basically unknown.

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“The hope would be to get what we were locked in for. It would depend on the market at that point; if it continues to go up or goes stagnant, it’s hard to see the future in that aspect,” Porter said. “We’ve staggered purchases in the last few years, which has put us in a good spot.”

In 2022, the county purchased five vehicles for VCFD, seven the following year and six in 2024. This year, there have been four purchases made.

Bizzell said his only concern was maintaining citizen safety, since the county was looking at adding another fire station on N.M. 6, west of the village of Los Lunas and “Valencia County is growing faster than a lot of other counties.”

The station on N.M. 6 is accounted for in the department’s fleet model, Propp said.

“Fleet wise, we are ready to sustain that station. We’ve kind of ended up getting rid of a lot of ‘junk’ in the fleet. We do have some coming up on end of life we can send out to auction and maybe get about $5,000,” the chief said.

He continued, saying the department might have some vehicles it could sell through a broker and get $50,000 to $100,000.

“That’s a good discussion to have moving forward. Some are coming up in the next couple years that are good contenders for a broker to recoup a good amount from them,” Propp said. “We are very lucky with the (state) fire protection grant...”

In an interview after the meeting, Propp said the vehicle purchases have mostly been made through grants, like the state fire funds, or loans through the New Mexico Finance Authority.

“We’ve purchased some used trucks to fill in gaps until we could get new ones,” he said.

Loans from NMFA are paid back through fire funds, which is a significant amount of funding for the county because of the number of fire stations it has.

“Because we have a lot more stations, it opens up the loan value amount. Belen may not get more than one loan but we might get funded for six loans because we have that much available through fire funds. That’s how NMFA looks at it,” the chief said.

The department has to get an approval letter from the state fire marshal’s office in order to use the fire funds to pay a loan, he said.

“They have to say we have enough money in our fire fund to repay the loan and approve that,” Propp said. “They also look at whether it effects the operational budget. We are very mindful of what we need to stay operational.”

Since 2022, New Mexico State Fire Protection Grants have provided $2.3 million for fire vehicles for the department.

The county has also been successful in getting capital outlay funding for some vehicles through the state Legislature. Between 2024-25, the county received $800,000 in capital outlay for rescue units.

“A lot of it comes down to messaging. They see what we’re trying to do and know why it’s important. So, when these agencies see the results, when the next grant opportunity comes along, they see Valencia County is growing and doing the right things, it’s easier to say, ‘Let’s keep it going,’” the chief said.