March 3, 2023 |
Photo – Bradley Fire – Bigfoot99 File Photo
Carbon County’s Fire Protection District is beginning to take shape.
Last November, residents voted to form the first fire protection district in Carbon County. Since then, Fire Warden John Rutherford has been busy hammering out the details of how the organization will function. He said work remains to be done, but he’s happy with the progress made so far.
When the taxpayer funded fire protection district is up and running, it will provide fire coverage to all unincorporated areas of the county. Fire Warden Rutherford said he still needs to finalize how towns will work with the fire district.
Rutherford will need a written agreement with every town in the county on how and when the fire protection district will be called into action. He said he will try to use existing contracts to speed up the process.
Once the fire protection district is up and operating, it will be funded by a mill levy assessed against county resident’s property values. At the most recent Board of Carbon County Commissioners meeting, the board voted to invest county money into the district to keep the organization afloat until the mill levy takes effect later this year.
Fire Warden Rutherford said he will have a new financial plan ready by July’s county budget hearings. He said the district will end up costing less to run than County Treasurer Lindsey West expected.
During the upcoming budget hearings, Rutherford will make a formal request for the mill levies to be collected. The next step will be for the county commissioners to approve the tax in August. Afterwards, the fire protection district will begin receiving funding until the next fiscal year. However, Rutherford said he doesn’t know when the district will be ready to start responding to fires.
When the district was formed, Fire Warden Rutherford said it would be at least two years before it was ready to respond to an emergency. He said he is cautiously optimistic it may happen sooner.
The fire protection district is designed to take some of the burden off local firefighters. When the mill levies begin to flow into the fire district’s coffers, county crews will handle most out-of-town emergencies.
