Flathead County issues emergency declaration

The continuing high fire danger in Flathead County prompted the county commissioners on Tuesday to issue an emergency disaster declaration that authorizes emergency spending related to firefighting and gives county officials the ability to direct any necessary evacuations.

The resolution activates applicable parts of the local or inter-jurisdictional disaster and emergency plan and allows authorities to control the ingress and egress to and from an incident or disaster area.

The county has about $260,000 in its emergency disaster fund that could be tapped for overtime and any equipment needs, county Administrator Mike Pence said.

“We hope we won’t need to dip into it too much,” he said.

The county has some personnel who have been assisting in various ways during this fire season, but those costs so far have covered by those departments’ operating budgets, he added.

During the last bad fire season in 2015 Flathead County dipped into its emergency disaster fund to pay for some overtime. The county Fire Service Area manager and Office of Emergency Services manager, along with the Sheriff’s Department are among the county departments who are called on to assist during fire season.

If the emergency fund is spent down during this fire season, state law gives counties the authority to raise tax mills in next tax cycle following the emergency.