BOCCC approve full-time positions

The Board of Carbon County Commissioners (BOCCC) will soon be advertising for two full-time positions for Carbon County Fire Warden and Carbon County Emergency Management Coordinator following their rescheduled February 10 meeting.

As was reported previously (see “Evolving emergency management” on page 16 of the January 15 Saratoga Sun), Fire Warden John Rutherford approached the BOCCC about expanding the two positions from part-time to full-time at their January 7 meeting. While no discussion on the positions took place during the January 21 meeting, Rutherford appeared before the BOCCC on February 10 with reinforcements.

Fire Warden

“I’m going to attempt to outline the reasons why we want you to consider these two full-time positions. Starting out, we always put a lot of weight into your statutory requirements. For the Fire Warden, they’re directly responsible for fire suppression, fire prevention and related activities. That comes right out of state statute,” said Rutherford. “They’re responsible for investigations of fire and notifications to the fire marshall. In Carbon County, the Fire Warden does quite a bit more.”

According to Rutherford, the Carbon County Fire Warden is also responsible for budgeting, purchasing, accounting and management of the firefighters and fire stations. This includes 55 pieces of fire equipment, five fire stations and 150 firefighters within Carbon County.

Rutherford also brought up the guidelines he was required to follow with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the National Fire Prevention Association (NFPA). According to Rutherford, while government agencies used to have some slack from OSHA, that is no longer the case. As such, the Carbon County Fire Warden is bound by OSHA standards, especially the respiratory standard. 

Part of this standard is annual testing and inspection of the self contained breathing apparatus (SCBA). According to Rutherford, the initial cost of one SCBA is $6,500.

Testing and inspection of equipment is also a large part of the NFPA standards that the fire warden is bound by. In addition to the testing of fire equipment, the NFPA is also required to conduct a detailed inspection of a fire truck if it is involved in a crash.

“We have, in the past, somewhat overlooked these requirements, somewhat feeling we’d get a little bit of that governmental courtesy. Those days are gone,” Rutherford said. “We have to protect ourselves and documentation and limiting our liability exposure is a big part of that.”

Among the reinforcements brought by Rutherford to make the case for a full-time fire warden were John Zeigler, Assistant Fire Management Officer for the Bureau of Land Management, and Wes Trapp, Carbon County Fire Department Captain. Both Zeigler and Trapp spoke to the BOCCC about what they saw as the importance of a full-time fire warden in Carbon County.

Zeigler informed the commissioners how important the communication between the Carbon County Fire Warden and the High Desert BLM District was, adding that Carbon County was one of the counties with a large fire load. Zeigler added that having a full-time fire warden cleared up confusion in cases of incident command during a joint operation with the county and BLM.

“With how many different entities that you have within Carbon County, in an ICS situation it always flows better where you know where to communicate rather than a chief of one area, chief of another area and they’re both coming to the same area,” said Zeigler. “ICS is supposed to clear that up and say ‘Hey, this person is in charge.’ So, if you have three different chiefs going to one fire, you’re speaking to three different chiefs rather than one fire warden.”

One of Trapp’s main points for the importance of a full-time fire warden was providing leadership and guidance to fire departments in the municipalities in Carbon County.

“I can tell you that you have some municipalities and some departments out in the county that need quite a bit of supervision,” said Trapp. “You have very, very young, green firemen with not a lot of infrastructure in place, or direction and supervision, to help these departments grow and be proficient and what we’re doing and that’s protecting the public. Carbon County as a whole.”

Emergency Management

Coordinator

Following input on the fire warden position, interim Carbon County Emergency Management Coordinator Ron Brown updated the BOCCC on where the county was deficient in areas of emergency management. Among those deficiencies were a sheltering plan, a communication plan, an emergency operation plan and a resource management plan.

Brown stressed the importance of maintaining what was required of the Emergency Management Coordinator, especially in regards to receiving Homeland Security grants. In addition, Brown stated that there were multiple grants that were available on an annual basis but that he lacked the time to pursue them.

“These simply cannot be taken advantage of as the time restrictions of a part-time position does not allow the attention needed to successfully apply and distribute these funds. Nor does the allotted time allow to successfully complete the requirements for eligibility for these,” said Brown. “There are so many opportunities, so many financial opportunities, that we can bring into this that not only support fire but EMS, our law enforcement.”

“It sounded like we’re just neglecting everything here but there was somebody in place and I think the key is to re-evaluate that and re-evaluate the … person behind the desk,” said Chairman John Johnson.

As discussion continued, Rutherford informed Johnson and the other commissioners that his goal was to form a county emergency services department beyond the two full-time positions. When Johnson asked Rutherford how soon he believed the positions should be advertised, the fire warden replied, “the quicker the better.”

“I’m not planning on leaving any time soon, however, if we can get folks in these positions we can start making this transition irregardless (sic) of who it is. I’m going to let you know, I’m not going to be in the running for either of these if you choose to create these positions,” said Rutherford.

The commissioners agreed to advertise as soon as possible for the two positions. A hiring committee composed of Rutherford, Commissioner Travis Moore and Commissioner Byron Barkhurst was formed.

The Board of Carbon County Commissioners will have met at 9 a.m. on February 18. The next meeting of the Board of Carbon County Commissioners will be at 9 a.m. on March 3 at the County Courthouse in Rawlins.