A board member of the Gateway-Unaweep Fire District (GUFD) contacted the San Miguel Basin Forum last week regarding a potential national monument along the Dolores River. Then, board member Dean Rickman sent a letter of opposition with an explanation of why the district cannot support a national monument in the local area.
“Please know that, of all the area's emergency response teams and residents, the GUFD and the clients, neighbors, visitors, and territory that we respond to will be hit the earliest, hardest, and most frequently for any and all additional services this new monument will demand from our limited resources,” the letter, drafted on GUFD letterhead, stated.
“We know the GUFD will need to add apparatus and personnel in order to improve the safety of our region and be able to respond to the growing numbers of tourists to the area,” the letter continued. “The additional personnel, training, grant funding, and equipment upgrades will take years to plan, manage, and build. They will cost millions of dollars to implement and millions more to maintain. To ignore these obvious projects and commitments would be dangerous and irresponsible.”
Rickman — who signed the letter, along with board chair Lisa Casto, Fire Chief Galen Daugherty, and other board members Mike Hoerter and Patrick Pipes — also sent a detailed breakdown of the initial and ongoing costs that the GUFD is projected to face, should the monument be designated.
The GUFD is a volunteer district with limited help. Only two paid staff members are on call daily in a team of five.
Additionally, it covers more than 800 square miles, the size of Rhode Island. EMS calls make up 90 percent of the district’s annual calls, with the rest being fire-related. Already, the EMS calls are for mostly nonresidents, 80 percent. With the nearest hospital 70 miles away, transports are already challenging for the small organization.
Most of the district has no cell service, and huge sections have no emergency radio coverage at all.
Additionally, Highway 141 is in less-than-good shape.
Furthermore, the data states that the rural district area features unique issues: steep cliffs that drop off from the road, drunk driving issues, stray cows, wandering elk, large, and heavy trucks, plus speeding — all of this with limited law enforcement on the route. The data also states there is no real shoulder on the road, and no safe place for stopping or for cyclists to travel so that vehicles can avoid them or pass.
Moreover, the letter states that Highway 141 is a “sanctioned, federal, main regional corridor for transporting hazardous materials, heavy hauling, and oversized loads” in and throughout the Four Corners area.
Representatives of the GUFD reiterated in the letter and attached spreadsheets with estimates that it would take millions of dollars to fix the issues at hand. Those include staffing, fire stations, equipment, water access, law enforcement, road repairs and more.
“We have been saving lives and property in our district for decades,” the group letter of opposition states. “We know these costs and projects are real and need to be addressed.”
