The volunteer fire department in tiny Interior is struggling with the cost of search and rescue operations in Badlands National Park and on other federal lands, the town’s firefighters told legislators Wednesday.

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Cliff McClure is the fire chief in Interior, which has a population of only 105. But the national park next door attracts more than 1 million visitors annually.

When those visitors have an emergency, they call 911. And Interior’s all-volunteer fire department often heads out on the call.

The cost of the calls is problematic, McClure said, because only 18 percent of the fire department’s vast territory is privately owned. The rest – including Buffalo Gap National Grasslands – is owned by the feds and isn’t taxed.

McClure said the department doesn’t have enough of a local tax base to generate funding, so the department seeks donations. He said the department has had to buy $20,000 worth of specialized search-and-rescue equipment.

“That’s all coming out of our fundraising, out of our department as we have no tax base,” McClure said, “because we have not been able to figure out how to make 18 percent of our community taxpayers cover a national park and public lands.”

Sometimes, McClure sends bills to people rescued by the department, hoping to get money from them or their insurance. But he said he there’s no force behind his efforts, because there’s no state law specifically authorizing him to collect.

State Sen. Lance Russell, R-Hot Springs, wants to change that. He filed a bill authorizing state and local governments to collect up to $1,000 from people who benefit from search and rescue services in national parks, national forests and state parks.

The bill was approved Wednesday by a legislative committee, even though the state Department of Public Safety opposes it. The department's Jason Husby testified.

“We have some serious concerns that those in crisis shouldn’t be essentially discouraged from calling for help,” Husby said.

Nobody from the National Park Service or any other federal agency testified on the bill, which now goes to the full Senate.