October 15, 2026

UPDATE FROM THE MAYOR

Fire and EMS Coverage

I wanted to provide an update on the status of fire and EMS coverage for the City of Clearwater and the Ninnescah Township.

Background

A little background if you’ve not followed this over the past few months. Clearwater Volunteer Fire Department has provided fire and EMS coverage for the City and Township for many years. The department was officially organized in 1959 and has covered the Township since. Because the City had its own fire coverage and the Township had an agreement with the City for their fire coverage, neither the City nor the Township paid into Sedgwick County Fire District 1 (SCFD1) taxes.

It currently costs the City $384,500 (13 mills) of our $3,794,724 General Fund budget (45.556 mills) to fund the fire department. The Township pays the City approximately $95,000 for their fire protection annually (which equates to 6 mills of their budget). This payment reduces the effective tax impact on city residents to $289,500 by 3.25 mills to 9.86 mills.

Currently to be a part of SCFD1 it would cost you, the taxpayer, roughly 17 mills. At the same time, your city tax would drop, as the city doesn’t pay into SCFD1, we would as the individual taxpayers.  

The City has had a mutual aid agreement (support upon request) with the county since 1966 and an auto aid agreement (automatic notification for structure fire only) since 2011. In May 2026, both agreements were cancelled by SCFD1, with a 90-day notice. The deadline was extended through this past Wednesday, October 14^th.  Those agreements have now been cancelled.

The City has executed a new mutual aid agreement with SCFD1 starting October 15^th which will support the City in the event of a structure fire for three years. This support can only be requested by the requesting agency (City or County) once on scene and is not an automatic notification.

The City continues to have an agreement with the Ninnescah Township for their fire protection. However, the mutual aid agreement with SCFD1 will only cover the Township through December 31, 2026. At that point, the Township can continue to be covered by the City but would not have the County’s mutual aid support in the event of a structure fire. The County has made it clear there is no plan to extend the mutual aid agreement to cover the Township beyond this date. The Township and County will have independent conversations on what are their next options.

The new mutual aid agreement has expectations that will require higher minimum participation for structure fire before support would be authorized. The City has operated under a standard provide by the National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA) which required a minimum of 6 firefighters to respond within 14 minutes 80% of the time. The new mutual aid agreement with SCFD1 sets that minimum limit at 10 responders. New NFPA guidelines, released this year, may even be more demanding.

Having a volunteer fire department is not rare, the majority of all small communities throughout Kansas and the nation, depend on the support of the rural volunteer fire departments to provide for fire and EMS protection. Metro fire departments are designed to support the mass populations and are physically situated to respond accordingly. Sedgwick County has the challenge of both, high population areas and widespread rural areas.

Each volunteer fire department has the challenge of staffing, having the staff available, training, having and maintaining equipment, and providing onsite leadership while performing their tasks. All with the goal of safety to the firefighters and to the community we serve.

The cancellation of the current agreements and the requirement of the new more strict standards moving forward is based on the concerns that SCFD1 personnel would arrive to aid a volunteer fire department and the volunteer department would be understaffed, not have an on-scene commander or they are not properly trained. Both putting the SCFD1 and local volunteer fire departments in a potentially unsafe situation. Although stated as a secondary concern, was the fact the cities and townships who do not pay into SCFD1 taxes are viewed as unfair to those that do.

The Clearwater Volunteer Fire Department has 29 volunteers. 14 are fire only, 12 are fire and medical, and 3 are medical only. The staff includes fulltime professional firefighters and EMS members from SC EMS, Wichita Fire Department and Derby Fire Department. These individuals provide fire and EMS protection to our community 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. For all calls, not just structure fires. Our department responds to about 320 calls annually, of which on average 1-2 are actual structure fires that require aid support.

Each of us, as county residents, already pay taxes into Sedgwick County for EMS coverage. We have a county Critical Response Vehicle (CRV81) assigned to Clearwater for 12 hours a day, 7 day a week. Clearwater also has a unit to cover the other 12 hours a day plus responds in support of CRV81. These units are critical, as they can provide the immediate patient assessment and determine if an ambulance is necessary for transport, and if not, call them off and save the trip to Clearwater for nothing.

Looking forward.

What is the best option for Clearwater and all of rural Sedgwick County for fire and EMS coverage? Safety to the firefighters and to the community we serve must be our priority. We are asking for a comprehensive study to assist in providing some guidance.

SCFD1 has issued an invitation to join them. This decision needs considerable clarification with respect to coverage, responsiveness, and cost. Is a total county coverage and not having a local volunteer force the correct answer? Keeping in mind, this is for ALL coverage, not just structure fires. Can SCFD1 have their units dispatched to address the multitude of “non-structure” fire calls and leave their base location empty? If it is for a structure fire, where do the units come from that will provide the 10 to 17 firefighters, they deem necessary? What is the time frame to get there?

These are not questions to degrade anyone’s efforts, they are necessary to understand the options.

Clearwater will be impacted if the township were to elect coverage from SCFD1. The Clearwater Fire Department would then only cover the city limits, and the cost would not have the financial offset received for their coverage.

Today and everyday fire and EMS coverage will be provided for our community. The reality is our Clearwater Fire Department members are volunteers. They are committed, well trained, well equipped and will respond. We will work with SCFD1 and other fire departments to ensure we can support each other when the need arises through the mutual aid agreements.

The governing body will continue to study and monitor the options.

Burt Ussery

Mayor