NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — After batting around potential plans to consolidate the county's rural fire districts into one for more than two hours in a study session Wednesday, the Board of County Commissioners is still looking at doing that, but keeping volunteer personnel and fire station locations the same, at least for now.
"Option number one would be a full time operational chief, with paid part time staff during high fire danger days," said Emergency Management Director Adam Weishaar. "This would mean that there would be another person. Travis can attest for how busy he's been. I don't think he realized quite everything that our office was involved in when he took this position. He is very busy and works a lot of long hours. Having a second person in the office would be a benefit, would benefit us, benefit the fire districts, benefit Travis. It would be one full time operations level person and then 4000 hours of part time staff. What that part time staff would look like to us is, you pay them, I threw out a number of $25 an hour, no benefits, no anything, on those high fire danger days, you pay them to sit at the station and be a first response on a brush truck. If something happened in their jurisdiction, they are the first ones out the door, because they're already there. If there's a countywide task force, they would go with that task force and move anywhere in the county that is required of them to help the county as a whole. The 4000 hours would account for approximately 31 days and two firefighters per district."
If enough voters in the county object, it could be put to a ballot.
"If the resolution ever does get passed, it may be challenged by petition of five percent of the voters, who could then put it on the ballot," said County Counselor Patrick Hoffman. "There is, in the statute, some safeguard for the public being against the consolidation, just so you know."
The goal is to make coverage across the county more consistent, but that will still require buy in from the volunteer firefighters themselves.
"I don't want this to sound like we're not supportive of the volunteers," said county commission chair Daniel Friesen. "They are the ones that make all of this work. From a decision making perspective, even the law indicates, it's the voters that would have to determine this."
Ultimately, though, the intent is to consolidate the districts absent significant public objection. Emergency Management wants to have public meetings across the county to get feedback on concerns before bringing any potential resolution. The consolidation, if it got that far, would be for the 2025 budget year.
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