From the Press-Enterprise: With a vote on a public-safety tax looming, a retired fire chief and Canyon Lake resident has proposed the city replace CAL FIRE with a municipal fire department, which he said could save thousands of dollars annually by cutting fire service costs roughly in half.

The plan by Pat Colleary proposes replacing the full-time CAL FIRE crew with a part-time fire chief, three on-call battalion chiefs and two full-time and one part-time fire captains. Colleary said a Canyon Lake fire department would reduce the fire service costs from about $1.43 million, the amount in this year's budget, to just more than $788,000.

Critics have questioned the costs in the proposal, saying the figures do not reflect now much money is needed to start a fire department from scratch and what it would cost to replace worn equipment. Read the entire article here.