Residents of eastern Twin Falls County may be closer to getting a new fire station after county commissioners agreed Thursday to sponsor a block-grant application.

Though it seemed in doubt at this time last week, the Rock Creek Rural Fire Protection District should be able to meet a deadline today to apply for the grant through the Idaho Department of Commerce.

If secured, it would cover $500,000 of a $2.4 million fire station in Kimberly. The rules require the county to apply on the district’s behalf.

But one county commissioner, Tom Mikesell, wasn’t feeling so sure about attaching the county’s name to the effort last week after a county resident told him the district may not comply with state statute.

Mikesell said at a public hearing Nov. 12 that he wasn’t sure the district complies with a law requiring fire districts that overlap county boundaries to have board members from both counties. Rock Creek covers seven families in Cassia County.

The commissioners conferred with the Idaho Attorney General’s Office before Thursday’s meeting and said that even the state attorneys thought the current statute could be interpreted two ways. Language about county representation can be found in a section about forming a district, but not in another section about annexing new territory across county borders.

All three commissioners said they still have concerns about some aspects of the application, mainly that the short time frame kept them from reviewing it more closely. But they unanimously approved allowing Urie to sign off on the application and naming Region IV Development as the grant administrator.

“I want to support the district in any way, and this is it,” Mikesell said.

Mikesell urged the fire district to work with its state association to get the Legislature to change the statute. And the county commissioner also said he has some issues with the way the district plans to borrow money — approaching a judge for permission to take on $1.47 million in debt — that he’ll bring up sometime in the future.

But for now, the district has what it needs, one week after the potential obstacle took firefighters by surprise. Fire Chief Mike Hendricks said an attorney is already working on possible statute changes, and that he’s pleased to be able to move on.

“I’m glad they chose to do what they did,” he said of the commissioners.