A special emergency council meeting was held on Tuesday evening to discuss fire restrictions within the city. Mayor Lenise Peterman spoke with Castle Country Radio to share details about the meeting.

“After listening to both of our Chiefs, our Fire Chief Matt Montoya, as well as Police Chief Gigliotti, we feel like it’s in the best interest of all of our citizens to protect our communities so we have banned fireworks, and then we’ve also banned campfires. We have associated a $1,000.00 fine for those people are not exercising or properly following the ban,” said Mayor Peterman. This is a proactive measure the city is taking due to the wildland fires taking place close to our area. Generally, fire season starts around July but this year fires have already begun.

The ban is on all campfires including propane fire pits. “We discussed that extensively and we felt like it had to be an all or none situation. So council, and I support their decision making in this process felt like let’s just ban everything for the time being and then we’ll revisit it if conditions improve, we’re in the middle of a severe drought that’s also compounding this issue. We’re trying to be very proactive, again, protecting our citizens lives, protecting our structures, our homes, our families, it’s got to be the thing we do,” explained Mayor Peterman. City officials are following what the State Fire Marshall is advising folks in the state.

It was not known when the council will revisit this ban but it will be when conditions dramatically improve in the area. “We will have to entertain a motion to remove the band. We did not put a timeline on it because of the ongoing conditions. It’s a very dynamic situation and I’d really like for our citizens to understand this fire is like a living thing, it changes by the hour and so in the best interest of the community we felt like let’s not put an end date on it and then when we all feel comfortable, we will then release those bans,” stated Mayor Peterman.

The city is hoping that once the Bear fire winds down that they will have an opportunity to thank the firefighters. “I’ve actually asked them as this fire winds down because it will and we will get to a safer place. I would love for the city to throw a pot-luck dinner for the firefighters and invite them to our community so that we can really thank them appropriately. Because you know these are people who put themselves in harms way to protect you, to protect me, they’re away from their families and I just can’t thank them enough, and they are doing an amazing, amazing work for us,” stated Mayor Peterman.