Dos Palos Fire Deal, Elections Warehouse Crash Head to Supervisors on Election Day

Merced County supervisors will meet on Election Day to vote on a long-term fire service agreement for Dos Palos, even though the agreement itself says the city’s fire tax doesn’t cover the cost of the firefighters it’s meant to fund.

The amended Nov. 3 agenda also includes an emergency repair at the county’s elections warehouse after a vehicle crashed into its gate, a 10-year lease at Castle Airport and up to $26 million in bonds for a nonprofit health care provider. A proposed sale of the old Snelling Community Hall has been pulled.

At a glance

• When: Tuesday, Nov. 3. Closed session starts at 8:30 a.m. and the public meeting at 10 a.m.
• Where: Board Room, third floor, 2222 M St., Merced
• On the agenda: 20 numbered items after one was pulled, one public hearing and two closed-session property talks
• Needs four of five votes: The jail bunk bed emergency, the elections warehouse emergency, a state health grant and the Castle Airport lease

Dos Palos fire deal has no end date

Fire Station 76’s current 18-month agreement runs out Dec. 31. The proposed replacement starts that day and runs for as long as the county provides fire service to the city. Dos Palos Mayor Katy Reed signed it Oct. 22, according to the copy in the board’s packet.

Under the deal, Dos Palos would turn over all of its Measure S sales tax money to the county, and the city’s payments would come only from that tax. The city wants to help pay for three of the six people needed to keep two firefighters on duty at the station around the clock.

Measure S “does not cover the funding necessary for the fire personnel” in the agreement, the document says, and the city must look for money to close the gap.

Neither the agreement nor the county’s staff report says how much Measure S brings in or how large the shortfall is. Voters passed the tax with about 77% support in March 2025, and it was expected to raise $200,000 to $250,000 a year, The Merced FOCUS reported at the time. County officials said then that keeping both Dos Palos-area stations open would leave a $1.3 million annual deficit.

The agreement gives both sides an exit. Either the city or the county can end it without cause on 30 days’ notice. They would also meet once a year to review funding, with development impact fees, special assessments, grants and developer contributions listed as options.

Vehicle crash at the elections warehouse

A vehicle crashed into the gate at the county’s elections warehouse, 250 E. 15th St. in Merced, damaging the gate and part of the fence, according to the Public Works report. The director declared an emergency, citing the building’s sensitive use and the timing of the election, so the work can skip normal competitive bidding. Supervisors are being asked to back that decision.

The report doesn’t say when the crash happened, who was involved, what the repair will cost or whether anything inside the warehouse was affected. It says the county is working with an insurance carrier to get reimbursed and will bring a budget transfer back to the board later.

Castle Airport would get a 10-year operator

KT Aero LLC has run the airport’s fixed-base operation, the business that fuels and services aircraft, under a short-term lease that ended May 31. The proposed lease is retroactive to June 1 and runs through May 31, 2036, with an option for five more years.

KT Aero would get 3,225 square feet in the terminal building and a 2.91-acre fuel site with a 610,000-gallon jet fuel tank and a 12,000-gallon aviation gas tank.

Lease years	Annual building and storage rent
Previous tenant	$23,677.20
Years 1 to 3	$42,634.80
Years 4 to 6	$48,063.60
Years 7 to 10	$53,492.40

That comes to about $486,000 over 10 years. The county would also collect 9 cents a gallon on jet fuel and 8 cents a gallon on aviation gas.

A $26 million cap, and about $2.9 million in listed projects

Supervisors will hold a required public hearing on up to $26 million in tax-exempt bonds for Lumira Healthcare, the Livingston-based nonprofit formerly known as Livingston Community Health. The California Municipal Finance Authority would issue the bonds. Lumira alone would repay them, and the county would owe nothing.

The public notice lists two uses, which total about $2.9 million:

• $1,762,700 to renovate and equip 1140 Main St. in Livingston as maintenance, storage and administrative space
• $1,101,700 to refinance a 2023 loan used to buy Lumira’s health center at 16233 King St. in Delhi

The notice says those are part of the bond proceeds. It doesn’t say where the rest of the $26 million would go.

Snelling hall sale pulled

The county had planned to sell the former Snelling Community Hall at 2490 Emma St. to Homen Properties LLC for $121,000, well above the $75,000 minimum supervisors set in August. The amended agenda lists that item as pulled. It doesn’t say why or whether the sale will come back to the board.

Behind closed doors

Supervisors will start the day in private to discuss two property deals. Both were also listed in closed session Aug. 25, and neither listing includes a price.

• About 1.75 acres at Castle Commerce Center in Atwater, with animal rescue group New Beginnings for Merced County Animals
• About 27 acres at 5714 Lake Road, with the Merced Community College District

The public can comment on both before the board goes into closed session.

Everything else on the agenda

Items 1 through 10 are on the consent calendar, which is usually approved in a single vote.

Item	What it does	Amount
1	Moves money to fix accessibility problems at the 2115 Wardrobe Ave. parking lot	$25,000
2	Continues the bunk bed emergency at the John Latorraca Correctional Center. Buildings 300 and 600 are due to finish in February and March 2027	Not listed
3	Buys a compressor, welder and generator for the Fire Department’s service truck	$6,000
4	Covers the higher cost of the Sheriff’s animal rescue and adoption trailer	$15,000
5	Approves the Oct. 6 meeting minutes	None
6-10	Ratifies certificates for Treehouse Tutoring, the Dos Palos Water Treatment Plant, Stone Ridge Christian School’s FFA building, the Daughters of the American Revolution and Portuguese Education Foundation scholarship winners	None
13	Retroactive three-year contract with the Merced County Office of Education for home visits to families, paid by the state	$2,575,265
14	Accepts a three-year state grant for behavioral health and suicide prevention. At least 51% must benefit people 25 and younger	$578,607
15	Back pay for four juvenile institution officers who missed bilingual pay	$1,462.65
17	Three-year Microsoft 365 renewal for about 3,200 county users, up from $1.99 million in the current contract	$2,301,568.05
19	Supervisor Daron McDaniel’s district funds for more electrical hookups at Castle Commerce Center	Up to $20,000
20-21	Reappoints Zachery Ramos to the Behavioral Health Advisory Board and Anthony Doyle and Susan Flinspach to the Library Advisory Commission	None

How to watch or speak

• Watch live on the county’s Facebook page or website.
• Comment by Zoom with the registration link. The county says coming in person is the only way to guarantee your comment is heard.
• Time limits: Each speaker gets up to three minutes. Comments on topics not on the agenda are capped at 30 minutes total.
• Interpreters: Spanish and Hmong interpreters are available.

Supervisors next meet Nov. 17 at 10 a.m. If you’re voting Nov. 3, see our election guide.