The wail of CES sirens responding to a call served as felicitous background noise for the community-wide groundbreaking ceremony, which was held in the vacant lot next to the office of emergency management, where the new station will be built. Several key community figures, including Borough Mayor Peter Micciche, CES Service Area Board Chairman Ryan Kapp, and CES Fire Chief Roy Browning, took the stage to celebrate the event.
“Getting here has been a long journey, and several of you have been very instrumental along the way,” said Chief Browning. “Today, on this site, we look to the future, but in doing so, we can never forget those in the community who volunteered in building the current station that has stood ready and willing since 1957. By laying each cinder block at a time, one by one, the community came together.”
The new 26,665-square-foot firehouse, designed by K&A Design Studio, a local architectural firm, will include 10 bays for fire trucks and other emergency vehicles and 10 sleeping units for crew.
According to the press release from the Borough, replacing outdated structures and equipment was the primary purpose of pushing this new station through. “The current building that houses Central Emergency Services was originally built as a community hall in the late 1950s and expanded in the early 1980s,” the release stated. “Today’s service area and the community’s EMS needs have outgrown the small, aging, and expensive-to-maintain existing facility.”
“This partnership with the borough and CES works,” said Mayor Micciche, speaking on the need to move CES into updated and more functional environs. “You know the problems with the existing buildings, and you, as voters, strongly supported this new building.”
The new station mirrors the borough’s steady growth over the past 50 years, a sentiment that CES Service Area Board Chairman Ryan Kapp calls progress. “This is a great day to see this project come to fruition,” said Kapp. “The new station one is a sign of progress in our community. Fittingly, this weekend happens to be Progress Days. Soldotna has been celebrating Progress Days for 67 years, and this station will be a striking example of just that. Progress.”
New Station #1 capacity will house up to 12 EMS personnel, a significant increase from the four that the current building can accommodate. The new Station 1 will include additional storage for supplies and equipment used at the Soldotna facility and at the other four stations in the expansive fire service area. Other improvements include additional parking to accommodate all the station’s vehicles and crew and public parking. The current parking space is inadequate and shared with the Soldotna Police Department. The new fire station will be far more efficient and fit for purpose and will deliver operational savings and efficiencies.
The bond passed in 2022, which provided the funding for the new station, received substantial community support, a fact Mayor Micciche lauded at the groundbreaking. “We don’t have to live like Cavemen, but we leave those decisions up to you,” said the mayor. “And the public very strongly supported that our men and women that put themselves at risk every day on our behalf have a fit-for-purpose facility.”
The new Station #1 has an estimated completion date of Fall 2025.
