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Lone Peak Public Safety audit raises concerns December 11, 2017, 1:53 pmKerry Smith brought the matter up at the October 10 Alpine City Council meeting. In 2011, the city raised taxes to hire additional firefighters, but they were never hired, he said. Smith also said that even though the audit indicated there were issues that needed to be addressed in the Lone Peak Fire District, Alpine mayoral candidates recently told voters there were no problems. Mayor Sheldon Wimmer, a LPPSFD board member, responded that the taxes were raised for the district as a whole but were not directly tied to the hiring of firefighters. But City Councilmember Troy Stout said he remembered that the vote was to specifically add individuals to uncovered shifts. He said another concern many residents have is that there are not enough firefighters to respond to a call, allow at least one firefighter to enter the burning structure and still have the necessary number remain outside, as required by OSHA. City Attorney David Church responded to Smith's initial question, explaining that at the time of the tax increase, Highland, a LPPSD member, was struggling to fund its assessment, so the temporary fund shortage left the district unable to cover the fire stations as they had hoped. Wimmer said all taxes for the fire district from Alpine went to the fire district and not into city coffers. Smith said the Alpine fire station is never fully manned and asked why the citizens of Alpine were paying for services they didn't receive. "If Alpine City paid their share and Highland couldn't, why did Highland get it?" he said. Wimmer responded that they had three firefighters in the station and one on call. He said a February 2017 study showed the fire station had an average of just two runs a day, which was a fairly low workload. However, OSHA regulations require that fire stations be fully staffed in order to respond. The NFP standard was four and they would like to have four, he said. Currently, the battalion chief fills in as the fourth firefighter. They will be hiring a new fire chief soon, he said. Smith said he had read the audit, and, contrary to what people were being told, there were problems. People were quitting and someone was prosecuted, he said. Wimmer responded that one of the firefighters had been prosecuted and that they were currently seeking to hire other firefighters. Of the six findings in the state auditor's report, three of them had been addressed, he said. Allegations of wrongdoing in the department had been investigated but were found to have insufficient evidence for further investigation, he said. Wimmer said he and Highland City Administrator Nathan Crane recently met with firefighters about their concerns and are looking into them. Stout went on to say that one of the allegations claimed there was massive fraud in the department and the firefighters were not responding because they were unhappy. He said there were morale issues but they could be addressed in a way that would solve the problems. Alpine City Manager Shane Sorensen went on to say he didn't want people to think Highland City was not paying its fair share. The formula for assessment was based on both population and households. Each city was paying their share according to that formula, he said. The community news source for Eagle Mountain Utah, Saratoga Springs Utah, Lehi Utah, American Fork Utah, Highland Utah, Alpine Utah, and The Cedar Valley, including Cedar Fort Utah and Fairfield Utah. Copyright 2024 The Crossroads Journal LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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