Pinal Rural’s subscriber fire service area was rapidly imposed on this region by someone who had just settled in Mammoth, but he recently left Pinal County as quickly as he had arrived and started making waves. Now, two other principal managers of this district, neither of whom make their primary residence in this area, are attempting to impose a significant new tax that will make participation in their new fire district mandatory.
This is not a fire district that grew organically, and is not one that fits with the prior spirit of cooperation among local fire districts and ambulance services. The old spirit of pitching in to fight a fire or helping someone with a medical problem, even if it was taking place outside of a district’s boundaries, was disturbed by people who were more interested in starting an expensive new layer of government based upon “their” new claimed territory. Anyone who was stuck with a bill for services from Pinal Rural knows what I am talking about, as do most of the dedicated volunteers in the Dudleyville and Mammoth fire departments.
For example, if the new head of Pinal Rural wants better emergency response at his secondary residence in Aravaipa Canyon, why can’t he work with the existing fire district in Dudleyville and ambulance service in Kearny to improve response time and coordination with the current emergency response efforts of his Aravaipa neighbors? Why can’t he work with the people who have lived here and provided valuable volunteer services for decades? Why can’t he band together with his neighboring residents in Aravaipa Canyon to purchase and deploy their new water trailer and implement their Fire Wise program? Are the two principal managers of Pinal Rural smarter than everyone else who actually live in this region and who have been developing community-based emergency services in Aravaipa, Mammoth, San Manuel, Dudleyville, Kearny, Winkelman, Oracle, and Hayden?
Where I live, just outside of the Mammoth fire district, my annual property taxes would go up by a whopping 40 percent if this additional district is imposed. What would I get for that huge $360 annual increase in taxes? I will get an additional fire department responding to the occasional brush fire that takes place, using my water storage system, my fire breaks, my pumps, and my heavy equipment to do what dedicated volunteer firefighters have done to help me and my neighbors in the past. I will perhaps get a few minutes faster emergency medical service than what I already get from Southwest Ambulance in San Manuel, if Pinal Rural even has the EMT personnel ready to respond. This is not a very good value for most people in this very sparsely-populated proposed district. If I am going to pay for a huge tax increase, I would much rather have it go to education or to supplementing Pinal County’s general fund, which was recently raided by the state legislature.
Most of us choose to live in the country, and we understand what it takes to be as fire-smart as possible. Do we really need to have people come in from the cities and tell us that we need more government and more taxes to address our response to fires and medical services? Can’t we simply expand the coordination with the existing services?
This proposed new fire district is a foolish venture, sort of a solution searching for a problem, and a bit of an insult to the existing services and the many volunteers who contribute to these services. Don’t sign the petition to form a new fire district in this sparsely populated area. If you have already signed the petition, you can apparently still have your name removed. However, if you live in the boondocks like me, but having a fire department and ambulance service within blocks of your home is your top priority, then consider moving to Tucson or Mesa where the principals of Pinal Rural spend most of their time.
Signed by someone who does not wish to be a subject in the Pinal Rural Kingdom,
/s/ Peter Else