FIRE CHIEFS LOBBY SUPES OVER FUNDING
By Gorman
Chiefs among the 11 Mono County fire departments came to the Mono County Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday in Mammoth to plead their case for continued county funding of emergency services.
At the same meeting, Nancy Mahannah was honored for her 28 years of service to the Public Health Department.
The fire chiefs, led by Mammouth Lakes Fire Department chief Frank Frievalt, made two requests of the supervisors: first, to renew their annual commitment of $170,000 to the First Responders Fund; and second, to roll over the the First Responders Fund into the annual operating budget. After the chiefs finished their hourlong presentation, three of the five supervisors, Stacy Corless, Jennifer Halferty, and Fred Stump, stated that they would support the motion when it comes up.
Mono County does not have a county-wide fire department. The majority of the funding for each of the 11 fire districts comes from the property taxes of the towns and unincorporated areas they serve, but the firemen cited the interdependence of each district as proof that emergency services warrants county funding.
