Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye told San Juan County commissioners in a meeting Wednesday that the tribe will take over three county-run fire stations on the reservation.
He said the tribe added about $810,000 to its budget to do so.
“We increased it significantly so that we could assume control of the fire stations,” he said.
The tribe plans to operate the fire stations by next year, according to a letter the tribe sent to the county.
The county has run the fire stations in Shiprock, Newcomb and Ojo Amarillo since the 1990s, but without additional funding, it can’t afford to do that anymore. Since 2009, the county has cut more than $50 million from its annual budget even as calls for service from the three stations rose.
County Executive Officer Kim Carpenter listed a series of options for operating the fire stations in a December 2014 letter to the Navajo Nation. If the county didn’t give the stations and some of their equipment to the tribe, the county could close them. The county could continue to run them if the tribe paid it about $810,000 annually to cover operations, equipment and staffing costs.
Some county officials have said they worry the tribe won’t provide the same level of service as the county has while running the three fire stations. Commissioner Wallace Charley, who represents many reservation residents, is one of them.