Concerned about the mounting costs of maintaining Santa Barbara County’s Air Support Unit, the Board of Supervisors probed for answers Tuesday about where the money would come from before approving funding for fleet repairs requested by Sheriff Bill Brown.

The Air Support Unit was born last year out of an effort to combine fire and sheriff’s air resources into one as a cost-saving measure.

Earlier this year, Noozhawk reported that extensive repairs on one helicopter were expected to cost as much as the fleet’s entire maintenance budget for the year.

Officials from the department came before the county supervisors Tuesday to ask for another $100,000 contract for repairs on Copter 4, a twin engine aircraft that developed a serious engine issue last fall.

Supervisor Doreen Farr said she had a sense of “deja vu” seeing Tuesday’s request on the agenda because a similar item had come up in March.

The department has already exceed its budget available, so “where’s the money going to come from?” she asked.

County CEO Chandra Wallar responded that, hopefully, the Sheriff’s Department will have a fund balance at the end of the year that could be put toward the repairs. If not, the money will have to come from the county’s contingency fund.

The bigger question, Farr said, is that “the condition of the equipment seems to be needing a whole lot of work and it’s extremely expensive. … Maybe we simply can’t afford to have this many helicopters and a fixed wing.”

Undersheriff Jim Peterson, who also attended Tuesday’s meeting, said the number of aircraft the department has now is the minimum needed to meet the county’s standards of operation. Copter 3 is in service, but Copter 4 is facing an unusual engine issue, he said. Helicopter 308 will be ready to go back into service in several weeks.

“It really takes three of these to have two in service at any time,” Peterson said. “We understand that it is a very expensive endeavor that we undertake here.”

Farr said it’s likely that a much bigger discussion about the fleet will be held during this year’s budget discussions.

Supervisor Peter Adam, who has asked questions about the program’s costs in the past, said Tuesday that he supports the program, but “you’ve got to tell us what it’s all going to cost. When you come back in two months with another request for funding, you’re going to hear the same thing.”

The nearly contained Camarillo Springs Fire was on the mind of Supervisor Janet Wolf, who said she couldn’t overstate the importance of having aircraft ready to fly in an emergency.

“Yes, we’re spending some money, but we’re getting them ready to fly,” she said. “The cost of not having them available when we need it is a bigger cost to us.”

Portions of the memorandum of understanding between the sheriff’s and fire departments still have not been completed, including the finalization of an operation flight manual.

“It’s important that we get an update on how that’s moving,” Wolf said.

— Noozhawk staff writer Lara Cooper can be reached at lcooper@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.