The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“It’s a pretty cheap insurance policy.”
This year, the state of Colorado has rethought the Emergency Fire Fund (EFF). The fund pools voluntary contributions to be used for costs incurred in controlling wildfires by any parties contributing monies to the fund. The latest EFF program Gunnison County contributed to was updated in 1988, and is a bit out of date. But the new contract will greatly benefit the county more than in the past. The new EFF brings a lot of new, valuable tools for firefighting in Gunnison County, including additional ground fleets and even firefighting aircraft, at no additional cost.
“We’ve been able to work together to make our own operating plan,” Gunnison County undersheriff Randy Barnes told county commissioners on Tuesday, April 7. “It’s getting drier. We’re at 68 percent of moisture content. Delta County had a 273-acre fire on Monday.”
Emergency manager Scott Morrill said, “Typically, by the time we get to our fire season here, the EFF has already been spent on the Front Range. But the state has now really taken a stance. With fires of these conditions, they’re willing to just throw everything they can at them.”
“Good timing, because it could be a bad fire season. Not a very moist spring so far,” said Commissioner Paula Swenson.
Barnes explained via email that the money each county puts into the fund is based on a percentage of the county’s assessed value of private lands. “As land values increase and decrease, the state of Colorado sets the percentage that every county in the state has to contribute,” he said.
“It’s kind of like insurance, and for $12,000 it’s a pretty cheap insurance policy,” Barnes said. “But if we don’t put into the EFF it’s not even an option.”
Commissioners were all on board to establish the county’s participation in the EFF program. The county will contribute $12,000, the state-set input required for Gunnison County to participate for 2016.
