Marion County reviews updated burn resolution; commission sends draft for legal review

Marion County commissioners reviewed a revised county burn resolution on Feb. 3, 2025, after work by a burn committee that included local fire chiefs. The draft clarifies notification requirements, the circumstances under which a fire chief or emergency manager may halt burning and a schedule of administrative penalties; commissioners asked staff to prepare the text for county legal review rather than approve it that day.

The discussion centered on a handful of practical and legal questions that county officials and fire chiefs said must be clarified before adoption. Commissioners and chiefs debated a 120‑minute notification window, how to handle smoke that impairs roadways, whether the emergency manager must notify commissioners when burning is halted, and how the county resolution overlaps with Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) rules for municipal burn sites.

Why it matters: the resolution would update a 2017 policy and affect farmers, landowners and municipal brush‑pile practices across the county. It sets operational standards commissioners said are intended to reduce runaway fires, make response expectations clearer for volunteer departments and create a transparent process for assessing costs when county fire resources are used.

Key points discussed

- Notification window and preplanning: Committee language requires callers to notify the Marion County dispatch 120 minutes before ignition to allow crews and landowners to preplan operations. Committee members said the two‑hour window is a minimum and allows callers to call from an area with cell signal and then move to the burn site.

- Authority to stop burning: Fire chiefs argued for local discretion. Marion Fire Chief Chris Killough said he has “shut off burning in my area before” when his resources were committed elsewhere. The draft preserves authority for the fire chief of each district or municipality to impose a burn ban in their area when necessary, and specifies a ban remains in effect until lifted by the chief or authorized agent.

- Smoke and traffic safety: Commissioners asked for clearer language on the duty to avoid creating “visual impairment to roadway” and how dispatch and law enforcement would handle traffic hazards. Committee members recommended cleaning the phrasing so it reads as an operational requirement with dispatcher coordination for roadway incidents and airports.

- KDHE overlap and brush piles: County staff and counsel noted municipal brush‑pile permitting and large permitted burn sites are regulated by KDHE (cited in the meeting as statutes/delegated rules). Participants agreed the county resolution should not conflict with state permits and that specific municipal practices may follow a different regulatory track.

- Penalties, fee schedule and enforcement: The draft includes an administrative fee structure (minimum administrative penalty language in the resolution and a separate schedule of charges for fire response costs). Commissioners and the county attorney’s office discussed a two‑track approach: administrative fees for most violations and referral for criminal prosecution where intentional or egregious conduct is alleged. County counsel advised administrative penalties and an appeal path would be appropriate and that enforcement could be framed to allow recovery of departmental costs without immediately invoking criminal proceedings.

- Peer review and after‑action reporting: Several chiefs supported adding a post‑incident peer review for decisions to impose restrictions; commissioners asked that the resolution contemplate a review mechanism so imposition of a burn ban or other extraordinary steps can be assessed after the fact.

Next steps and timing

County staff said they will clean the draft language (clarify the 6–12 inch brush‑pile wording, tidy cross‑references to Resolution 2017‑07 and statutory citations, and define notification/peer‑review protocols) and deliver a version for legal “legalese” drafting. Staff estimated the resolution could be formalized and returned for board consideration before the county’s peak burn season, with a target of having a legal draft available prior to March 15, 2025.

Ending

Commissioners emphasized the resolution should be a living document and agreed to return the cleaned draft for further review after counsel prepares formal resolution language. No formal vote on the resolution was taken at the Feb. 3 meeting.