$1.95 million approved for Nevada fire costs

The Board of Examiners on Tuesday approved $1.95 million from the statutory contingency account to cover the cost of flooding and fire suppression this past year.

Acting Forester Casey KC told the board this year there have been 760 fires in Nevada that consumed 1.2 million acres. She said 152 of those fires totaling 331,392 acres happened on land the state Forestry Division is responsible for, double the five-year average.

She blamed the increase on increased fuel loads and a longer fire season. In the past, she said the fire season averaged five months. Now it’s 7-9 months of the year because of generally warmer weather.

She said in the early part of the year, Nevada received significant help from California fire crews — incurring costs that have yet to be paid. But now, she said, Nevada is repaying California with crews from this state helping to fight California blazes — the Northern California blazes a month or so back as well as the Southern California fires still raging. That, she said, will offset a significant amount of what Nevada owes California.

She said the $1.95 million “will partially cover known actual expenses and projected emergency response costs for fire, flood and other natural resource emergencies for state Fiscal Year 2018.”

In addition, the board approved $1.1 million for the state Welfare and Supportive Services Division to use a Delaware child support cooperative contract. Division Administrator Steve Fisher said the contract will provide an electronic application to help with the collection and disbursement of child support payments to custodial parents.

Finally, the board approved a $9.65 million contract with Q&D Construction of Sparks for the major retrofit of facilities at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center. That includes ADA upgrades to the medical and housing units, gymnasium, visitation, gate house, calls, restrooms and showers.

The money is coming from bond sales.