Sagle Firefighters Backing Write-Ins Chief Says Candidates Could ‘Make Our Jobs Hell’

Firefighters are tossing their own fuel into a hot political race between candidates for Sagle Fire District commissioners.

The candidates on the ballot for the two open commission seats, Edgar Steele and Lorri Allen, are being challenged by last-minute write-in candidates who have launched a $1,000 campaign, partially funded by firefighters.

Firefighters fear that if Steele and Allen are elected, the fire district will degenerate.

“We don’t want it to be torn down and go back 10 years,” said Fire Chief Chris Van Ness. “They’ll most likely make our jobs hell.”

So firefighters are backing write-in candidates Skip Pucci and Esther Gilchrist.

Pucci would like to see the district expand to cover areas such as Garfield Bay that now have no fire or emergency medical service. A man recently was killed in a fire there.

Pucci’s opponent, Steele, said he believes the district needs to “get its own house in order” before annexing more areas.

Steele’s campaigning for accountability, which he said the district is sorely lacking.

“I’ve been dragged kicking and screaming into this race,” he said. “It’s not something I want to do, but it needs to be done.”

Allen was appointed last April by commissioners to appease critics of the fire district. Allen, Steele and others opposed the commissioners’ attempt to hold an election to expand the tax base to include land, not just structures, that would have more than doubled the district’s budget, Allen said.

Commissioners were considering the move to finance the capital and other costs that would come with annexing the Garfield Bay area, according to outgoing commissioner Terry McConnaughey.

Allen said she was incensed that the commissioners were ignoring the public’s desire not to expand the tax base. Commissioners finally called off the election.

“We’re against stealth elections. We’re against outrageous increases in taxation,” Steele said. “We’re for improving services for the district.”

Steele is a local attorney who’s made the news most recently for taking Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler as a client. He’s also known for publishing a sensational tabloid during last year’s local elections that targeted Bonner County commissioners Dale Van Stone and Larry Allen, as well as the county clerk and deputy prosecutor.

He denies rumors that he and Allen are out to suspend the fire district’s ambulance service, or turn the department over to volunteers alone.

Those rumors helped launch Gilchrist’s campaign. She and Pucci had signed a petition that declared support for the district’s EMS services. The rumors that Allen wanted to do away with them alarmed her.

“What prompted me to run was that they were going to be a shoe-in. There was going to be no election,” said Gilchrist, who is state Republican state Sen. Shawn Keough’s mother and political treasurer.

Gilchrist and Pucci are combining their resources to mail out more than 2,000 sample ballots, along with stickers of their names that voters can affix to the actual ballot on election day. The campaign is being financed by donations, several of which have come from local firefighters.