A message from Fire Chief Jayme Kahle:

I am pleased to provide our community with this 2020/24 Strategic Plan. I want to thank all of the folks who contributed to this document. Rincon Valley Fire District’s Mission is to prepare, prevent and protect our community from harm, and we take the words “our community” to heart.

Every member of RVFD feels ownership and pride in our community, and this document reflects our commitment to our community. We first sought input from our community. A wide diversity of organizations, residents and business members provided input on the District’s strengths and weaknesses. We then combined that public input with our internal members’ input to develop our strategic focus areas.

This plan will build upon RVFD’s past successes from its first community focused 2014/19 Strategic Plan. The first plan identified three strategic issues, and those three issues revolved around increasing public education, developing improved operational readiness and improving our management practices. From those three issues came 33 strategic objectives of which 32 were successfully completed.

Driving our strategic planning efforts and evolutions are the growth and change of our community. Vail has become such a desirable place to live that our local Pima County supervisor often refers to Vail as the “jewel in the crown of Pima County.” We have experienced a significant increase in population and the corresponding demands for service. Since 2014, we have had a 10% increase in residences and a 68% increase in call volume.

Vail is clearly transitioning from a rural community to a full-fledged suburb. Likewise, RVFD needs to evolve its service delivery from that of a rural fire department to that of an all-hazards suburban agency. This plan attempts to lead us through that evolutionary process so RVFD can continue to meet and exceed the needs of our community. However, our District and members can only achieve the goals and objectives of this plan with the help of our community. 

Fire Chief Jayme Kahle

RVFD Strategic Plan