Greenville’s proposed $6 million public safety center faces a funding gap and an uncertain path forward after Plumas County withdrew its $1.5 million commitment. The county’s decision leaves $1 million in secured funding, according to The Plumas Sun. The planned facility would bring a fire hall, sheriff’s substation and emergency medical quarters together on land owned by the Indian Valley Community Services District.
On Nov. 10, county supervisors voted unanimously to withdraw the pledge, the newspaper reported. County officials said they were not prepared to place a county office on property the county does not own, citing unresolved questions about ownership, governance, insurance and long-term financial responsibility, according to The Plumas Sun.
Dan Pargee recommended withdrawing from the project over those four concerns, the Sun reported. County Supervisor Kevin Goss, whose district includes Greenville, said the day before the vote that he had not anticipated the difficulties of occupying a building on land the county did not own, according to the newspaper.
County Shifts Toward a Stand-Alone Substation
The county is pursuing a separate replacement for its sheriff’s substation, which was destroyed in the Dixie Fire, at the site of the former Greenville town hall, also lost in the fire. The stand-alone building could also accommodate county offices for probation, mental health and other departments, according to The Plumas Sun.
Before the 2021 Dixie Fire, the Greenville sheriff’s substation was partially owned by the California Judicial Council, the Sun reported. County officials, including Mimi Hall, said the county still intends to rebuild in Indian Valley and Greenville. Hall said the county has Trindel insurance funds for its losses and a PG&E commitment to help with rebuilding, but that lease and insurance arrangements made commitments by other parties difficult. She said county infrastructure serving the public should be owned, located and controlled by the county itself, according to the newspaper.
A recent $1.5 million PG&E award to the county is expected to help fund the new substation, according to The Plumas Sun. The county is also advancing a separate town hall center and library for the former community center site, using the same architect for both projects.
District Says the Safety Center Is Still Alive
Despite the county's exit, the Indian Valley Community Services District says it isn't giving up on the original safety center. Katherine Carpenter, the district's office manager and communications specialist, said the district remains committed to completing the public safety center and will keep working with partners and funding agencies to advance the project, The Plumas Sun reported. Carpenter said the county's decision now forces the district to re-evaluate project planning, financing, scope, occupancy and facility design.
The district hopes to begin construction as early as spring 2027, subject to funding, the newspaper reported. The original plan called for an 11,200-square-foot building along State Route 89 at Greenville’s south edge, but the design may change. The district’s $1 million commitment comes from a $7 million state appropriation secured for it in 2022 by then-Assemblywoman Megan Dahle. The county’s withdrawn $1.5 million pledge came from its Trindel insurance settlement under a contract adopted in December 2024.
A Federal Funding Request Still in Limbo
A separate federal funding request could affect how the district reshapes the project. FEMA had approved roughly $4.2 million intended to replace the Greenville fire station and the district’s raw water treatment plant. The district later asked the agency to broaden the funding’s scope to help pay for the public safety center, but FEMA has not approved the request; its most recent response cited a lack of information, according to The Plumas Sun.
The district and disaster-relief experts are appealing FEMA’s response, the newspaper reported. PG&E settlement funds are another potential source for the district, which relies primarily on FEMA recovery funding to rebuild. Before the county withdrew, the plan called for the district to own and manage most of the combined building, with the county owning the sheriff’s office portion. A county planning document described the proposed structure as combining a permanent fire hall, sheriff’s substation and hospital district ambulance bay.
How FEMA handles scope changes
FEMA training says Public Assistance scope-change requests should be submitted through the state before the approved project deadline and include detailed changes to the work scope and cost estimate. FEMA also describes an “Alternate Project” as one that does not restore a facility to its pre-disaster function; an applicant may ask to use Public Assistance funding for a different facility serving the same community when restoring the damaged facility would not best serve public welfare, according to FEMA. That guidance describes a request and approval process; it does not establish that the district’s proposed change has been approved.
Broader county planning documents had estimated the safety center project could cost more than $5 million and take three to five years to complete, separate from a related proposal to incorporate the destroyed Greenville library and town hall into a future community resilience center. At the stated $6 million project cost and with $1 million secured, the project faces a $5 million funding gap as the district reworks its plans.
