Kane Commission votes to formally establish Vermillion Cliffs Fire Protection Special Service District

At a special meeting of the Kane County Commission held on the morning of April 29, the commissioners considered the resolution to officially form the Vermillion Cliffs Fire Protection District. Said Commission Chair Celeste Meyeres, “Initially the county com- mission would serve as the governing board until 2026 when the election could take place, the elected board would start January 2027. The proposed boundaries exclude the Willow development, and there is not any kind of agreement with Kanab City being contemplated here; this is solely the creation of the district, the board will not have authority to enter those negotiations until the district is formed.”

Photos by Ty Gant.

Commissioner Gwen Brown seconded that point, stating, “We can’t [establish the fee structure] until the district is established, we’re not doing that at this meeting.” Commissioner Patty Kubeja added, “The protest did not reach the state statute to protest it down.” County Clerk/ Auditor Chameill Lamb reported 38 protesting votes, about 7,000 acres of protesting land that was about seven million dollars short of the necessary protesting value.

While this meeting and this agenda item were not considering the fee structure of the new district yet, Commissioner Meyeres stated, “Just for the information of the public, the vast majority of feedback showed people wanted a variable fee not a flat tax … the feedback we’ve received from the public have us leaning toward some kind of variable value, there were very few people pushing for a flat fee.”

The resolution to create the district was moved for and unanimously approved. The commission, acting as the interim board of the newly formed fire protection district, was granted the authority to begin contract negotiations with entities like Kanab City to put long-term fire protection solutions in place, and to begin the establishment of a fee structure that would fund current and future firefighting efforts in the district.

The following agenda item looked forward to a potential county-wide fire solution, by allocating $50,000 in funds for the contracting of an expert consultant. Said Commissioner Kubeja on the subject, “We’re committed to moving forward with county wide fire … it seems like we’ve been going in circles on it for a long time, that’s why we wanted to bring someone in from the outside to help us make progress.” The commission unanimously approved the $50,000 for the outside consultation on statewide fire feasibility.

Following the vote, there was a discussion between the Commission and Kanab City representatives present at the meeting, considering waivers of liability for hazard response in pockets of the county currently unprotected by an SSD, with vehicle fire response and extraction being the primary example. No action was taken on this matter, as it was determined that it would require further legal consideration.

The meeting concluded here, but the commission would reconvene later in the evening for another pertinent fire protection topic: the cutoff date for the existing fire protection agreement with Kanab City put in place in 2024. The terms of the contract gave Kane County 60 days to terminate fire protection services before July 1, 2025, or else face a fee of $150,000 for continued service from Kanab City. With the 60-day notification period coming later in the week, the commission convened another special meeting to have the termination of service notice delivered to Kanab City by the deadline. Where the commissioners had discussed the issue at length in previous commission meetings, declaring their intent to have the SSD’s fire protection capacity in place by July and thereby avoid the fee, the meeting was a formality. The special meeting was convened, the vote to terminate the services by the 60-day deadline was unanimously approved, and the meeting was adjourned within about 15 minutes.