Proposition No. 3 is going to be on Soldotna area ballots for the upcoming October 4 Municipal Election. It centers on the approval of a project to build and replace the Central Emergency Services Soldotna Fire Station #1.
According to the fiscal note, the estimated cost to build and equip the replacement fire station shall not exceed $16.5 million in addition to seeing a mill rate increase of 0.36. If approved, service area residents will see an annual tax increase of approximately $36 to retire the debt for each $100,000 of assessed real and personal property value in the Central Emergency Service Area.
“A portion of that fire station is where the living quarters are, the office space, those original bays were turned into living quarters and the kitchen,” says Roy Browning, Fire Chief for Central Emergency Services. “That part is what we’re really concerned about as well as it has no seismic capabilities for any earthquake type stuff. It doesn’t meet code. It’s a cinder block building that’s not reinforced. It has several cracks. The plumbing is pretty much worn out. it’s a slab floor that’s got heaves in it and we just don’t have the space. The other thing about it is we don’t have enough land around it. We share it with the property that the borough owns is 0.86 of an acre.”
The bond proceeds will be used to pay the costs of planning, designing, acquiring property for, site preparation, constructing, installing, and equipping new Central Emergency Services Fire Station located within the Central Emergency Service Area and pay the cost of issuing the bond. Also, no additional staff will be required to operate the replacement fire station.
Browning added, “We have purchased with service area funds, with our taxpayer dollars, we have already secured the land for our new fire station. The location is going to be generally the same, right behind the Soldotna Police Department and Wells Fargo Bank. We’re talking the old Foster Construction office. That land there, we purchased with some additional property that’s behind the Office of Emergency Management or the 911 dispatch. That land right there, we’ve got 2.45 acres designed for this new fire station and any future expansion.”
CES Fire Station #1 was constructed in 1956 as a community hall. Subsequent additions in 1964-1967, 1973, and 1984 converted the building to the current fire station it is today.
“Our goal is to make this fire station something that will last for 40 years,” Browning concluded.
Click here for more information on Proposition No. 3.