There isn’t a person who pays taxes who wouldn’t like to see our governments be more efficient with our hard-earned dollars. Yet sometimes, when a government tries to squeeze out of paying for something, it costs us all.
In the last few months the United States Forest Service and the Utah Forestry and State Lands have been negotiating so that state doesn’t have to pay as much for to run the inter-agency fire centers located around the state. Apparently the funding from the state has been somewhat paltry, and with the federal agencies under fire more than ever to cut back, the Forest Service has been trying to find ways to increase resources. At some point someone noticed that the state has not been paying for those centers the way it should and consequently either the feds started to ask for more of a contribution or somehow the two began to tangle over who should pay what costs.
I have to say I don’t know the exact back story on this, but suffice it to say that right now the state looks to be planning to shut down the inter-agency fire dispatch centers in Moab and Vernal and consolidate services in an enlarged Richfield office.
Local departments are crucial
But before we go into the problem with this particular move, let’s explain how the interagency fire centers work. Simply, these are the locations where decisions are made for what resources will be utilized to fight wildfires in an area. That may seem simple enough to the layman, but attacking big fires, or many fires, or both, requires a great deal of strategic planning and resources. It is an important job and one that requires a lot of savvy from those that work in those centers. When we see wildfires that are being fought featured on the news, we mostly hear about the BLM and Forest Service special crews, but in actuality the first line of defense on these fires are our local city fire departments. Without them the Forest Service and the BLM don’t have enough resources to report and control every fire that pops up from Manila to Bluff. So in reality the first people on many wild fires are the local fire departments whether it be in Moab, Price, Vernal, or any of the smaller departments in between. The feds just don’t have the forces to contend with every brush fire or field fire that could turn into a major wild fire if let go. And when major fires happen, those local departments are also the center of a lot of the response. I remember as a reporter for this paper standing with a bunch of Price and Helper fire fighters in Argyle Canyon as they waited to be deployed by the incident commander to help control a fire near Indian Canyon a few years ago. There they were ready to go, helping out on a fire that wasn’t even in their county.
This is where this all gets sticky. The local departments are a steadfast part of the fire suppression system we have, yet neither their leadership, nor anyone from any of the county governments affected by this possible change in dispatch services, were invited into the discussions between the state and the feds on the matter. In fact, they weren’t even told that it was going on until recently and when a meeting on the issue was held a few weeks ago, some of the fire chiefs and even some county commissioners showed up at the event and crashed the party.
Consequence of one-party rule
Apparently the get together was not pretty. No one holding the meeting expected them because once again, true to the way things are done in a one party legislature system whose closed-door meeting tendencies have now worn off on the bureaucratic agencies in Utah, it was supposed to be a secret. While I don’t know what exactly happened there, I am sure those in charge were unhappy that the actual people who fight the fires showed up. It was also probably embarrassing because of course those representing the counties wanted to know what the hell was going on considering that they had not been given a chance for input on the matter.
Why is this important? Is it just some hurt feelings by locals that the state and the feds are planning something different than they are used to? Is it just provincialism that was in the way?
Hardly.
The state agency had recently requested (and received) from the legislature between two and three million dollars to expand the Richfield center. But apparently the request lacked information that the real use of the money was to not only expand the Sevier County operation, but to close the Moab and Vernal centers and bring all the work into the Richfield office. Why does this matter? Well it matters a lot.
First, and foremost in my mind, the entire thing was deceptive from what they wanted the money for, to the meetings they held on the matter.. The state has not been paying its share so it is trying to keep from doing so by centralizing services.
Beyond the deception, which itself should tell us all something about the actual circumstances behind this, it would be a bad move to take what is local coordination and control and put it somewhere so far removed from where the action is. Let’s put it this way. It would be similar in a way to moving Carbon/Emery Counties 911 dispatch center from here to Spanish Fork and expecting the dispatchers there to understand the geography and ins and outs of our area. In an expanded fire center the Richfield workers might understand the Tusher Mountains, the Fish Lake area and Koosharem, but would they be able to visualize the problems presented with fighting fires in the Book Cliffs, the Uinta Mountains and the LaSals? That is questionable.
Local fire chiefs in all areas of eastern Utah are very concerned about what could happen, or more likely not happen if this takes place. An out of area person deciding which fires are important to go after and which are not, is a recipe for disaster.
And one other point. The jobs lost in the Basin and in the Moab area because of the relocation would be a blow to the economy of both places. While that might not mean a lot to those of us in Carbon County, the result of those losses and the lack of understanding by people making decisions that could affect property and lives here, should. Such a move could well result in safety problems for local, state and federal fire fighters as well.
The Moab and Vernal dispatch centers are the third and fifth most busy inter-agency centers in the state. Closing them down just doesn’t make sense in terms of realistic public safety. The centers area of coverage encompasses 30 percent of the state’s land mass. The story on the street is that the state and feds have already made up their minds about this and intends to move ahead. We the public, along with our local officials, have not been given a voice in this matter. However, if the recent outpouring of public displeasure in our county about the tax increase was able to change the course of what our local government officials were doing, just maybe an uprising of public input about this mess could achieve something, too.
It certainly couldn’t hurt.
Government ‘savings’ can sometimes cost us more
Rick Shaw