No winning on burn ban decision

So you say you want to be a Custer County Commissioner?
Late last week the commission had to make the decision to rescind the burn ban, much to the delight of many, but much to the chagrin of many. Oh, and for those who are wondering how the ban could be rescinded without a meeting of the commission, commissioner Mike Busskohl explained it perfectly on our Facebook page when he typed “when the burn ban was put in place the motion was to put the ban on with the ability the chairman could rescind it after discussions with emergency management and other emergency resources. No meeting is required as it could be taken off by just the chairman following the steps above.”
So, the decision was made, and yes, the timing was probably right. More and more people were coming to commission meetings asking for exceptions to the ban. That came to a head at the Sept. 9 meeting of the commission, when a handful of campground owners came before the commission, begging them to let them have campfires at their campgrounds, saying the burn ban was costing them thousands of dollars as campers chose to go to neighboring Pennington County, where campfires were still allowed.
We realize that by signing up to become a county commissioner you are signing up to make these tough decisions, but nevertheless, it has to be very hard to weigh the livelihood of people imploring you to help them out against making sure the area doesn’t burn to the ground because of something that could have been prevented. It is quite the tight rope to walk.
As we reported earlier, the Custer area had been getting quite a bit of rain recently. However, much of that rain was spotty, and wasn’t spread equally around the county. Not even close. But, now the days are getting shorter, temperatures are getting cooler (especially at night) and some decent precipitation has been falling. We think a lot of people are still traumatized by the Qury Fire and how dry it was in late winter and early spring. The area has recovered some since that time in terms of precipitation. Again, not everywhere in the county, but in many areas.
We know county emergency management director Steve Esser took it on the chin at the most recent meeting of the commission, but you can rest assured he is just trying to do his best to keep fire at bay. If he had recommended the fire ban be rescinded earlier and then a fire broke out, everyone would be screaming bloody murder as to why he would make such a recommendation, although, ultimately, the decision rests with the commission. Nevertheless, he would have taken a lot of heat—no pun intended.
It’s all a moot point now, as we received some soaking rain this weekend, and the fire ban is no longer in effect. Hopefully it won’t need to be reinstated later this year, and  we can all hope that we have a lot more snow than we did last winter. Not many people like it, but we don’t want a repeat of what we went through this year in 2027.