Ivins puts up more funds to make fire station operational, awaits Santa Clara help

IVINS — The Ivins City Council has authorized additional funds for the Center Street Fire Station, and council members said the ball is now in the Santa Clara City Council’s court to authorize the reopening of the unmanned facility of the joint Santa Clara-Ivins Fire Department.

The Center Street Fire Station after dusk, Ivins, Utah, July 7, 2022 | Photo by Chris Reed, St. George News

The council unanimously approved 4-0, with member Dennis Mehr absent from the meeting, $50,000 toward an automated fire alert system that will integrate the station not only with the other Rachel Drive station in Santa Clara but also other departments throughout Southern Utah through the Washington County Dispatch Center.

But the fact that the Center Street station is still not regularly manned despite the Ivins Council passing additional funds to get the station up and operating on June 16 is a frustration for council member Mike Scott.

“I’m getting beat up and depressed of how slow government works. We need to move full speed,” said Scott, who is one of the newer members of the council having joined in January. “We need this to happen. It’s public safety – it’s our number one job.”

Center Street has been unstaffed since the end of last year as the department transferred most of its operations to Santa Clara. That has left Ivins without any firefighters based in the city, though the department did staff the station on an emergency basis on July 4 and plans to do the same for Pioneer Day.

According to Ivins officials, Santa Clara, which handles the main oversight of the department, needs to give the ultimate go-ahead for the remanning of the station and budget for it. That is something that has not happened yet, but Santa Clara-Ivins Fire Chief Andrew Parker said as soon as he has the go-ahead, he could man the station.

“I can make it happen tomorrow morning, but there are other factors,” Parker said.

Ivins City Council member Mike Scott listens to Santa Clara-Ivins Fire Chief Andrew Parker during the council’s meeting at Ivins City Hall, Ivins, Utah, July 7, 2022 | Photo by Chris Reed, St. George News

“That’s the frustrating part,” Scott said. “Santa Clara is supposed to be a partner. We’re the customer. Santa Clara is our vendor. I’m not a happy customer if Center Street is vacant.”

While Santa Clara oversees the operations and budget of the department, Ivins City Manager Dale Coulum noted that Ivins is still responsible for funding improvements and upkeep of the Center Street station as it is in Ivins city limits.

Ivins Mayor Chris Hart said he met with Santa Clara Mayor Rick Rosenberg and members of the Washington County Commission the day before trying to hammer out how much the county will contribute to the department. 

Both cities have criticized the commission for not contributing to the department despite tasking it with providing fire and emergency service coverage outside the city limits to the Arizona border along Old Dixie Highway 91.

Hart said the commissioners had further questions and there will be another meeting in the coming weeks. He added that Santa Clara also needs to make a budget amendment to authorize the manning of Center Street. 

“I will commit to continue to push this,” Hart said. “If the decision is they (Santa Clara) won’t bring it to their council, it will be an implementation issue.”

On Wednesday, Santa Clara’s mayor told St. George News that Santa Clara is a meeting or two from amending its budget to accommodate the additional station, and there’s also the matter of making sure the station is ready for the manpower and has the manpower coming its way.

“Those two things have to happen, but we’re going to have to be amending our budget. They’re probably going to have to amend their budget,” Rosenberg said, adding that there will need to be approvals on both sides. “I mean, they’re employees of Santa Clara, we manage them. Ivins pays 55% of that cost.”

Rosenberg also said Thursday that both cities will be holding a joint council meeting in August where many of those details may be hammered out.

Council member Jenny Johnson hesitated to approve the funding for the new alert system at Center Street with uncertainty remaining as to when the station would be staffed. 

“The only thing I’m questioning is time to work it out. It’s ridiculous to pay $48,000 into a system that may not be used,” Johnson said. “I’m not opposed to it, just worried about the purse strings.”

No guarantee for water

The Ivins City Council has a message to those planning to build new developments in Ivins for the foreseeable future: Water is not guaranteed.

Ivins Mayor Chris Hart and City Council member Jenny Johnson during the council’s meeting at Ivins City Hall, Ivins, Utah, July 7, 2022 | Photo by Chris Reed, St. George News

The council is considering a form that will need to be signed by any applicant seeking approval to build on a residential parcel in the city or apply for a zone change. 

Applicants would also need to provide the city a guarantee from the water district that they will have a water supply.

The council ultimately continued the matter to its next meeting, but all of the council members expressed support for it. 

Hart, a member of the Washington County Water Conservancy’s board consisting mainly of local mayors and commissioners, noted that at this point, the district has enough water volume for five to seven years of growth. He added that the board recently chose not to allocate certain amounts of water for each city, noting he was the only vote for limiting each city to a certain amount of water on the seven-member board. 

In the meantime, cities will be turning the approval of water supplies for projects to the county water district.

“Cities are not going to be responsible anymore for supplying water. Period,” Hart said.

The mayor added that in his opinion, it is important for residents to understand that any future approvals for development in Ivins or surrounding cities aren’t going to be pertinent on the state of the drought. Presumably, the water district would have already given its stamp of approval that enough water is available for it.

“Water won’t even be a part of the discussion on the city level,” Hart said. “The fact of the matter is unless our city has a certain allocation of water, we have no basis to deny an application based on water.”

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.

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