County Officials Are Investigating WML Fire District’s Large Debt

By Linda Kor
   Two weeks ago it was revealed that the White Mountain Lake Fire District had overspent its budget by nearly $1 million.
   Assistant Navajo County Manager Dusty Parsons informed the district, consisting of about 90 members, that the county attorney, as well as the sheriff’s office is handling the issue.
   The funds for the district were used under the direction of Fire Chief Joe Blake and the White Mountain Lake Fire District Board.
   “I’m not in a position to make legal assumptions, but I’ve looked at the books and I personally don’t see how the situation could not have been known,” stated Parsons, who added that in June the district had $90,000 in its account and it is now in the red by $896,472.
   An advisory committee was made up of members of the district selected last Thursday and a meeting was to be held last night (Feb. 10) to discuss how to maintain the fire district.
   The county is looking to hire an attorney to address the situation in order to avoid a conflict of interest involving the county’s attorney. Parsons also stated that he hopes to have a director for the board hired soon.
   “The advisory committee will see about organizing a volunteer fire department before fire season hits in the next month or two,” stated Parsons. Without a fire department, it is estimated that response time for that area would be no less that 15 minutes.
   A priority of the board will be to make certain that the building remains open. “The district just received a $54,000 check from the Arizona Wildland Fund for services they rendered and they should be receiving another $230,000 in March in the second round of collections,” stated Parsons.
   The breakdown of funds overdrawn include $157,060 in unpaid bills, $432,062 from the county treas-urer for funds not yet available for the district’s budget, $500 in credit card debt to Bank of America, $49,960 to Bank of America for equipment and vehicles, $29,000 to Bank of Kansas for apparatus, $72,890 to Zion Bank for two district trucks and $155,000 in unpaid payroll taxes.