Fire boards plan to select contractor tonight

There will be joint meeting of the Point Montara and Half Moon Bay Fire Protection District boards Tuesday at 5:00pm, at which both boards plan to select a provider at the meeting and begin negotiations with the selected agency. You can download the proposals from Coastsider:

• California Department of Forestry
• San Mateo Fire Department

Meanwhile, another flyer is in circulation, urging citizens to come out for the meeting and support the local firefighters.

The flyer claims that homeowners’ insurance rates will increase if California Department of Forestry (CDF) runs the department, that CDF personnel would not have knowledge of the area, there would be less community involvement, CDF personnel couldn’t afford to live in the area, and repeats the claim that the "fire department is being sold to the lowest bidder".

Community members are invited to discuss the the proposals as well as the issues raised by this flyer here on Coastsider.

UPDATE: You can now download interim Fire Chief Vern Hamilton’s recommendations for how to evaluate proposals from outside agencies to manage the the Coastside’s fire services.