The photos and videos in the slideshow playing at Wasatch County Fire Capt. Verl “Rick” Mecham’s retirement party on Wednesday painted him as a bit of a goofball, flexing for the camera, pretending to be snoring at his desk and striking poses in full turnout gear even a fashion model wouldn’t dare attempt.

His 9-year-old granddaughter, Brielle Richins, confirmed the reports of his silliness.

Brielle has been cheerleading since she was three and is quite the expert at flips. Rick can do flips, too, but only when he’s strapped into a harness and assisted by several of his firefighting colleagues. The video of Rick doing his first back tuck in a harness and full firefighting gear is “pretty funny,” Brielle giggled.

“If somebody just watched that video, they’d think that all I did was goof all the time,” Rick said. “I think that’s part of my mechanism, part of my plan, is to keep things light-hearted, even in a tough situation. That kind of brings everybody back to base.”

Rick has been firefighting in volunteer and full-time capacities since 1989. For 35 years, he’s built custom homes under his company, Rick Mecham Construction, as his primary profession. The latter is the more stressful job of the two, he joked.

Rick’s mother, JoLene, believed her son’s firefighting career was prompted when he stumbled upon a car accident in Wallsburg as a young adult.

“There was a young girl, 16, who had just had her driver’s license for a couple of weeks and was headed out of town and had an accident. He was the first one on the scene, and it killed her,” she recalled. “And he came back up to my house after, and he was so emotional, so upset. I think maybe he wished he would have been able to help more.”

Rick started as a volunteer firefighter in his hometown of Wallsburg when he was 25.

The volunteer firefighting group was made up of six to eight “problem-solvers” who were tradespeople in their day jobs. The group first operated independently of the Wasatch Fire District before the latter agency began offering training in 1990.

Rick began volunteering at Wasatch Fire District around 2003, becoming certified as an EMT in 2008. He started working full time for the Fire District in 2015.

He said the biggest changes he’s seen in Wasatch County firefighting have stemmed from the rapid growth. When he started with the Fire District, he knew each of the roughly 30 firefighters by name. Now, the department has over 100 employees, and there were some people at his retirement party whom he hadn’t even met. 

Rick said the Fire District is still trying to catch up with the growth, which it hopes to respond to through the upcoming construction of permanent stations in Hideout and near Benloch Ranch.

Rick was promoted from lieutenant to captain, overseeing about 20 firefighters in a given shift, about eight years ago.

At first, he wasn’t sure he liked the new role because it provided him less hands-on time firefighting and helping patients, but he came to love it because it allowed him to train younger people and watch them grow.

Jake Provost is one of those younger people. He’s worked with Rick as a firefighter and EMT at the Fire District for about a decade. He said Rick’s three rules are to work hard, do your job well and have fun.

“When I needed somebody to be a brother, he was a brother. When I needed somebody to be a father figure, he’s a father figure. When I needed somebody to line me out like a rusty piece of wire, he did that, too,” he said. “Because he has so much experience, he’s just a gold mine of wisdom. He’s seen a lot in his years, and he’s really worked hard to try and pass that down to the rest of us.”

Jake’s older brother, Jason, is the assistant chief of operations for the Fire District. Although he was Rick’s supervisor — and, he noted, taller than Rick — he “definitely looked up to him.”

His colleagues in emergency response praised a few of Rick’s key qualities, including his sense of humor and ability to be the calm in the eye of a hurricane.

“He has a calm demeanor about him, and so, it was easy to take a task that was very challenging and bring it down a notch because of his calm demeanor on the scene. He was very methodical over the radio, calming over the radio, never escalated during those calls,” Jason said.

Rick’s son, Justin Mecham, worked directly alongside his father as an EMT for about 11 years. He’s worked for the Utah Highway Patrol for eight years.

“We could just kind of talk about stuff, and that was probably the nicest thing, was that you go on the rougher calls, and just to be able to talk to each other about that …” Justin began, choking up.

Rick’s daughter, Chelsea Richins, said that she can rely on her father’s calm demeanor in her personal life, too. On Christmas Day last year, Chelsea’s husband became ill and was hospitalized after cysts in his brain ruptured and caused an infection. Rick was one of the first people she called.

“When you’re feeling awful, and you’re scared, it’s nice to have somebody that can help talk you through it, take your mind off of it a little bit and give you something to look forward to or laugh about,” she said.

Rick said his demeanor comes naturally to him, though there have definitely been times when he’s “wanted to freak out a little bit, but you just can’t.”

He said his favorite calls as an EMT were psychiatric patient transfers because they allowed him to get to know someone and their struggles during the car ride.

Many of his colleagues in emergency response praised Rick for his ability to see the humanity in both the people he helped and the employees he supervised. 

The latter, Jake said, is a quality that many emergency response agencies have lost.

“He recognizes that there’s so much more to life than this job. We’ve got families and kiddos at home, and he’s always been quick to reach out to offer help,” he said.

Rick stepped into the role of acting battalion chief about nine months ago after the previous battalion chief experienced health problems.

“It was kind of baptism by fire,” Rick said.

The role required increased supervisory duties and hours, which were difficult to manage on top of his construction company. When the time came for his official promotion to battalion chief, he decided to retire.

His wife, Marcia, and JoLene are looking forward to spending more time with him. 

Marcia’s description of Rick’s pager constantly going off over the years made her husband sound like Superman, always wearing a supersuit hidden under civilian garb in case of an emergency. She said the family sometimes celebrated Christmas at 2 a.m. before Rick’s 48-hour shifts.

JoLene lives right next door to Rick but hasn’t seen him much recently because he’s been so busy.

“I got some ‘Honey, do’s’ for him. … ‘Honey, do this,’” she laughed. “I’ve been put on the bottom of his list all the time. I’ll say, ‘I need this.’ He’ll say, ‘I’ll put you on the list.’”

Rick is hanging on to his turnout and wildland gear if he ever needs to help the Fire District respond to a major incident. If that happens, he’ll operate out of Station 55 in Wallsburg, where he began his firefighting heroics 37 years ago.

The post Wallsburg firefighter, EMT celebrates retirement after 37 years of service appeared first on Park Record.

Proposition 18, a sales tax intended to fund emergency services in Summit County, appears to have passed based on preliminary general election results.

Strong support for the ballot initiative was evident, with around 74%, or 10,885 voters, in favor of the new sales tax as according to the latest results from Thursday. 

“It’s inspiring to see the tremendous support for our first responders! This is a fantastic day for the residents of Summit County and for the dedicated first responders who are always there when we need them, no matter the hour,” Friends of Summit County Search and Rescue said in a Facebook post. “Proposition 18 will very likely pass in a landslide vote!”

The nonprofit organized a campaign arguing for the ballot proposition included in a voter information pamphlet that the county distributed. There wasn’t an argument submitted against it.

Summit County officials said the new sales tax would help offset the impacts of tourism, balancing the 2025 budget by freeing up money for other programs. It was seen as a way to avoid raising property taxes or reducing county services. 

Summit County Manager Shayne Scott and Chief Financial Officer Matt Leavitt projected a $7 million funding gap if the emergency services sales tax failed. Scott previously told the Summit County Council it would be a “heavy lift” to balance the budget if the proposition failed.

The sales tax is equivalent to one penny for every two dollars spent. Gas, groceries, prescription medications and a few other items are exempt.

Leavitt estimated more than 65% of the sales tax would be paid for by nonresidents. Tourists create 40% of the solid waste in the county and are responsible for 50% of fire department calls and 90% of search-and-rescue reports.

County staff saw the 0.5% tax as a way to reduce the impact on local residents and force tourists to pay their fair share. Visitors have an estimated $12 million impact on county services.

About $7 million would be generated through the new emergency services sales tax in 2025. Leavitt said that’s because collections would be for a partial year rather than a full year. Between $15 to $17 million could be generated starting in 2026.

The money will be used to pay for programs such as emergency medical services, search and rescue, law enforcement, fire protection, solid waste collection and the expansion of the Three Mile Landfill.

Around 26% of voters, or 3,914 votes, were against the proposition. 

The largest percentage of “no” votes came from the North Summit area, including Chalk Creek, Coalville, Hoytsville and Wanship as well as near Promontory, Peoa, Francis and the Uintas, according to precinct data.

Ari Ioannides, treasurer of the North Summit Fire District, said North Summit residents were less likely to support the proposition because they saw a more than 300% tax increase in December of 2022. 

The emergency services sales tax would not necessarily improve levels of service but rather allow the money the county already spends on those services to be spent elsewhere in order to cover the budget shortfall.

State law requires Summit County to provide EMS as an essential service through the municipal services fund and establish general criteria for services such as staffing two full-time, advanced EMTs on an ambulance. 

The tax would be in place for 10 years before another election is held. It could go up to 1%, but there would have to be a public vote if officials want to increase it past the half-percent rate.

The County Council said it would not pursue the Truth in Taxation process to raise property taxes if Proposition 18 passed.

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