The Fire District has been awarded two grants to continue our fuels projects.
We are pleased to be able to split funding with the Crown King Fire District under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Stimulus Funds) in the amount of $179,000. We should see approximately $100k of that money and it will be used to employ 3 people to perform the fuels treatments and maintaining the properties already treated throughout the district. With this program, we expect the residents to cover the overhead expenses which should amount to about 10% of the normal costs. We are still awaiting the funding of this project and will provide the details for this as soon as they are available.
The second award is for 3 years of continued fuels projects to include the overstory thinning in the Silver King area and in the areas of Spruce Mountain and Mount Tritle. (This was one of the grant projects where in the past we would have to make a 50% contribution). This time around we are only required to match 10% of the costs associated with the project and that will serve to keep the fees to the residents as low as possible. We will be contracting with Arizona Public Service to provide the thinning in order to make certain that we have a contractor who is knowledgeable and maintains safe working practices around powerlines.
As a landowner in the Groom Creek area, you will not need to know which project is being used to treat your property. All you need to do to have work performed on your property is to call Jeff Archer or Ernesto Manzanedo and have an assessment completed. The assessment is free of charge and we will work with you to maintain a healthy ecosystem while eliminating hazards in the Home Ignition Zone. For more information see our website at www.groomcreek.org.
As with all of our projects, we are attempting to achieve an overall goal of providing a sustainable, healthy ecosystem and being the first communnity in the US to be removed from the Federal Register List of Communities At-Risk of a Major Wildland Fire. With the work the US Forest Service has completed around us, the work left to achieve the goal is on the private lands within the district. With a community-wide effort, we will achieve this goal within the next few years.