ST. GEORGE — The Washington County Commission approved the expansion of two fire districts along state Route 18 on Tuesday by annexing their neighboring fire districts. Commissioners say it is the latest step in a process meant to improve service and safety in the area.
Two years ago, the County Commission proposed to dissolve the special service fire districts that served the communities along and near SR-18 and consolidate them into two new fire districts. At the time, the commissioners voted to move ahead with that process that has since changed.
Commission Chair Adam Snow told St. George News that the commission decided not to dissolve the fire districts as previously planned as they learned that could make the process overly complicated. A factor that played into this decision to preserve the state-issued emergency medical services (ambulance) license held by Dammeron Valley Fire District.
If the Dammeron Valley Fire District were dissolved, the EMS license also would go away and would need to be reapplied for. It would also leave the Fire District’s paid firefighters in limbo while also possibly complicating matters related to the many federal grants the Fire District used for additional funding.
In short, keeping Dammeron Valley together and adding to it kept the EMS license and overall process simpler by comparison.
“Those are some reasons to have continuity moving forward,” Snow said.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Deputy Washington County Attorney Devin Snow said that Dammeron Valley would annex the Brookside, Veyo Gunlock and Diamond Valley special service districts while the Pine Valley Fire Special Service District would annex its neighboring district covering Central and northern areas up to Enterprise.
The commissioners voted unanimously to approve the annexations, or more specifically, initiate the next step. State law requires a public hearing on the matter that will take place sometime in December. The County Commission will go on to make a final decision on the annexations in early 2024.
“This is not the final process of annexation,” Devin Snow said. “This just starts the clock.”
Among the reasons given for the proposed consolidation of the six fire districts has been a need to share the costs of fire and EMS services more equally while also providing additional resources, Snow said.
An example Snow gave was the Dammeron Valley Fire District, which transitioned from a volunteer firefighting agency to paid professionals. They also held the state-issued EMS license for the area of SR-18 between Baker Dam Road and Diamond Valley and have paid firefighters on call at their fire station ready to respond at any time.
In contrast, neighboring service districts manned by volunteer firefighters may either not have enough crew available or have enough volunteers immediately on hand to respond when an emergency is called in.
In cases like this, Dammeron Valley Fire has responded via its mutual aid agreement with the other fire districts and covered the incident, whether it be fire or medical or both, Snow said.
“Dammeron has been kind of supplementing the other (districts),” Snow said. “Their cost is very high and the other communities around are receiving the benefit without paying the cost.”
Special service districts like Dammeron Valley Fire or Hurricane Valley Fire on the eastern part of the county are creations of the county proper and are run by boards with members who are either elected or appointed by the County Commission. In order to fund and maintain their operations, these districts are able to impose taxes and fees within their boundaries and propose annual rates and budgets that are either accepted or rejected by the commission.
Annexing three other special service districts into Dammeron Valley’s own will provide additional resources and funding for firefighting and emergency needs.
“We’re hoping to have a professional force that is complimented by volunteers,” Snow said.
As far as the various governing boards, Snow said those will be dissolved and replaced with a new board composed of people who live within the expanded fire district.
While the cost of running and maintaining the expanded fire districts will be more dispersed, Snow said there will likely be tax and fee rate increases within those districts due to inflation. The County Commission hopes to keep any proposed increase brought before it as low as possible without sacrificing the safety of the firefighters or the people they serve, he said.
Concerning the potentially expanding Pine Valley Fire District, Snow said it will be working in conjunction with Enterprise Fire and Rescue. Enterprise holds EMS and medical transport licenses that cover that city and run down SR-18 to Baker Dam.
Gold Cross Ambulance holds the state licenses for medical transport from Baker Dam Road south and the EMS service from Diamond Valley south.
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