Tipanuk Fire District to be dissolved?

The Board of Elmore County Commissioners accepted a petition Jan. 5 to dissolve the Tipanuk Rural Fire Protection District.

The commission will hold a public hearing at 3 p.m. Feb. 3 at the commissioner's room in the courthouse to determine if there should be an election to dissolve the election.

The district was formed in November 2007.

For the petition to be valid, 25 percent of the 224 homeowners in Tipanuk needed to sign it. Sixty-three homeowners signed the petition.

The petition lists the following reasons for seeking the dissolution of the district:

1. A fraudulently created document was used to create the Tipanuk Fire District.

2. Legal error, that denied the constituency their due process granted by the Tipanuk Fire District Commissioners, to vote on the budget.

3. The Tipanuk Fire District Commissioners held a secret vote for a budget in violation of the Open Meeting Law.

4. Taxes levied are egregious and lane owners will lose their homes to taxes before a fire.

5. The Tipanuk Rural Fire PROTECTION District cannnot fight structure fires.

6. Tipanuk residents have always provided a volunteer fire service that has provided more effectively, and will remain in effect.

Elmore County Elections Deputy Vivian Garcia said for a district to be dissolved, the question as to whether or not dissolving the district would benefit the people who live in the district needs to be answered.

She said that the first three reasons do not address that question, but may still appear on the petition.

The Elmore County Sheriff's Office has investigated those claims. The investigation currently is under the review of the Elmore County Prosecutor's Office.

Garica said the last three reasons address the question as to weather or not dissolving the district will benefit the people living in the district.

At the meeting before the commissioners on Jan. 5, Fire Chief Phil Gridley told the commission the Mountain Home Rural Fire District would not respond to fires at Tipanuk if its fire district is dissolved, as the Mountain Home Rural Fire District board believed it would be inappropriate to help those citizens (outside their district) if they were not willing to help themselves.

Larry Jewett, the chairman of the Board of the Mountain Home Rural Fire District, said the department would continue to respond to mutual aid requests from BLM, as long as the department has the resources and availability to do so, but the department would not routinely respond to structure fires.