Don’t give up on fire district

If you read the front page of this week’s Custer County Chronicle, you already know that the proposed Custer Fire Protection District took a step backward last week at the most recent meeting of the Custer County Commission. The commission announced it would not vote on a resolution that would have set forth the process of getting whether or not to form the district in the hands of the proposed district residents during this November’s general election.
The bombshell announcement seemed to shock everyone in attendance, including some of the commissioners themselves, some of whom said they didn’t know about the situation until the night before or even that morning just before the meeting was set to take place. It was a shock to us too, as we thought everything was on track for the resolution to pass and for the issue to go to the voters.
What happened, best as we can understand it, is that in order to file with the state to get that issue on the ballot, the deadline was the Wednesday of the last commission meeting, Aug. 21. The county was given that deadline from both ES&S (the company that prints the ballots) and the Secretary of State’s Office to export the ballots for printing. It’s been known for quite some time the resolution had to be passed by a certain date so that it lined up the parameters set forth by the state to be on the November  ballot. The city needed to also approve a resolution. ou have to do it so many days before the election, as the state requires the election to take place within 60 days (which can be fudged just a little) of the resolution being passed. Timing on this entire thing was key.
The city had not approved a resolution prior to the county’s Aug. 21 meeting (it did not matter in which order the city and county approved a resolution), which rendered any potential county vote moot. The hope was to have it on the November ballot because it’s a presidential election, which means a greater turnout. That ship has sailed now, and only a special election—which will cost the taxpayers thousands of dollars and strain the auditor’s office—or waiting until the June elections can take place now. Even that wouldn’t be a regular county election.
We are not here to assign blame. There was a lot of moving parts to this, and somewhere along the line there was a communication breakdown. If there was a nefarious motive at work, we are not privy to it. What’s done is done, and while it is unfortunate, there is nothing that can be done to change that.
What we can do is not throw the baby out with the bath water. Yes, it’s frustrating. Yes, it should have been on the November ballot. But what we can (mostly) all agree on is that the fire district is needed, and I think what we can definitely all agree on is the voters should have their say on the issue. We implore all of those involved to pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and get on the same page to get this issue to the voters. There is no more time to lose. Many people have worked very hard on this. Let’s make sure it wasn’t all for naught.