HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Reno County Commissioners heard information for a grant proposal that would pay for wildfire mitigation during Tuesday’s regular meeting. The matter brought up the continued difficulties fire crews have in fighting such fires due to factors beyond their control.
In May, commissioners approved Reno County Emergency Management to submit a letter of intent to the Kansas Division of Emergency Management (KDEM) for wildfire mitigation funding. The county has the opportunity to receive more than $1.3 million worth of grant funding with the county’s share adding another 25% or another $323,000 for a total of over $1.6 million. The funds could clear out 1,375 acres of areas that are high risk for wildfires. Commissioner Ron Hirst said this is something that private landowners need to have a stake in and not the county.
“I think it’s an individual parcel owner's responsibility,'' said Hirst. “I think it's this individual's putting up that 25% rather than the taxpayer.”
Hirst added that it really comes down to whether an individual cares about the land he owns.
Emergency Management Director Adam Wieshaar says it would be difficult to mitigate individual properties stating that it would not remedy the fire danger.
“I don’t think it’s going to be a big benefit to us picking and choosing different parcels,'' Weishaar said. “I think our biggest benefit is to do a large swath of the county where it is essentially going to be a large (fire) break where we know this area is taken care of.”
Hutchinson Fire Chief Steven Beer agreed with Weishaar, noting that some landowners like the heavy cedar tree growth, which he compared to having a truck with jet fuel sitting next to your home during a fire. Beer says that his department needs to be able to defend properties and have ways to attack fires.
“We just pick and choose a property here and a property there because that’s not going to do anything for us,” Beer said. “We’ve got to develop a corridor, maybe it's from the city limits down to Buhler/ Haven Road down 30th Street where instead of an 80 foot buffer we’ve got like a 500 foot buffer working with landowners…so we’ve got a defendable space where we can cut these fires off.”
Commissioner Daniel Friesen noted that he doesn’t want to see more control over county residents but said that he is getting concerned about putting lives and property at risk because residents don’t want to take action to protect their homes.
“I don’t like it, but I don’t want to see the local government continue to risk resources, funding, people and homes and not address this more specifically,” Friesen said. “Especially in these corridor routes, if these landowners don’t want to give us a buffer, we have to create a resolution to deal with it.”
The county has been looking for ways to lessen the wildfire danger especially north and east of Hutchinson where several fires caused considerable damage including the March 5th Cottonwood Complex fire that claimed one life, destroyed 35 homes and a number of outbuildings.
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