BOULDER COUNTY, Colo. (KDVR) — A wildfire mitigation measure was passed in Boulder County in order to help prevent another disaster like the Marshall Fire.
Boulder County commissioners put three measures on the ballot as a result of the Marshall Fire, which destroyed nearly 1,100 homes almost a year ago.
“Firefighters I talked to were in Louisville fighting the fire. They were talking about wood mulch around homes, cedar fences, junipers,” Boulder County commissioner and former wildland firefighter Matt Jones told FOX31’s Drew Engelbart. “You don’t put those near your homes, you have a lot better chance of your house not catching on fire.”
The measure that was passed will establish “a 0.1% countywide sales and use tax for the purpose of funding countywide wildfire mitigation efforts to proactively address the increasing risk of climate-driven wildfires in two programmatic areas.”
Two other measures on the ballot were passed: emergency services and transportation. The other measures are structured similarly to the fire mitigation measure to implement a tax to go toward these services.
The fire and emergency services measures go into effect on Jan. 1 and the transportation tax extension goes into effect on July 1, 2024.