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Eye On Boise

JFAC backs fire preparedness funding boost, praises state firefighting operations

Legislative budget writers discuss fire preparedness funding on Thursday (Betsy Z. Russell)
Legislative budget writers discuss fire preparedness funding on Thursday (Betsy Z. Russell)

Legislative budget writers have approved a boost in fire preparedness funding requested by the state Land Board, in anticipation that next year’s fire season will be just as bad as this year’s was, and offered high praise to the state Department of Lands firefighting operations this year.

Overall, the proposal expands Idaho’s fire preparedness funding from five months to eight, starting this spring. “I just want to say thank you to the Department of Lands,” said Sen. Dan Johnson, R-Lewiston. Sen. Sheryl Nuxoll, R-Cottonwood, moved to approve the request, Rep. Marc Gibbs, R-Grace seconded the motion, and it passed unanimously.

“Having been in the middle of all these fires - because we were in the middle of it - we just need to be better prepared for these fires,” Nuxoll said. “We need the state to be better prepared; we can’t depend on the federal government to be doing it. It just comes too quickly. Idaho Department of Lands just did a great job. The only problem was that it needed more. I just hope that it doesn’t ever happen around your area really close, because it was really a fiasco. Although, the coordination between the state and the fire departments and the federal government was very, very good.”

 “The National Interagency Coordination Center is predicting 2016 fire conditions similar to 2015,” legislative budget analyst Ray Houston told the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee. “The recommendation focuses on retaining, extending, and increasing fire line staffing levels that have the greatest potential to improve initial attack response.” It includes three months’ funding at $379,000; another $540,800 will be requested in next year’s budget to complete the year.

Half the money will come from the state general fund; the other half from dedicated fire protection funds, including fees assessed on a per-acre basis. All told, for the next year plus the initial three months within the current fiscal year, the total will be $1,122,400.

The plan includes adding an assistant fire warden at Kootenai Valley; a helitack manager, an assistant manager at the Grangeville Interagency Fire Center, an administrative assistant, a bump in funding for seasonal employees including extending a dozen of them from five to eight months, funding for travel costs, training for seasonal employees and contractors, one vehicle, two computers, and a $150,000 review of the fire program. The proposal adds the equivalent of 3.3 full-time state positions; you can read my full story here at spokesman.com.



Betsy Z. Russell
Betsy Z. Russell joined The Spokesman-Review in 1991. She currently is a reporter in the Boise Bureau covering Idaho state government and politics, and other news from Idaho's state capital.

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