“Hope is not a battle plan.”
It’s a phrase you’d expect to hear from anyone who cares about safety, and preparation. It’s a phrase you’d hear from Soldotna’s newest police chief, Gene Meek.
Soldotna may be a small community, but it is not immune to the most unthinkable situations, even something as unthinkable as an active shooter. With a year of chief-tenure now under his belt, Meek is well aware of this, and aims to be prepared in the event the Kenai Peninsula ever finds itself in a worst-case scenario.
Again.
“We have a lot of national media going to all these active shooters nationwide, and we’re not exempt from it here on the Peninsula,” Chief Meek says in a phone interview. “I mean we had one in 2008 at the hospital.”
The peninsula was shocked by the unthinkable on November 26, 2008, when Joseph Marchetti carried a rifle and handgun into into Central Peninsula Hospital, and opened fire just before 10am. Marchetti murdered one person, and critically wounded another.
It’s impossible to know when a mass casualty event (MCE) may occur, but Meek and the Soldotna Police Department, want to be as prepared as possible if one does. Now, with the FY24 Appropriations Bills on their way to the U.S. Senate floor for full consideration, there’s a great chance the SPD will have the funds it needs to acquire MCE training, and response equipment.
In her congressionally directed spending requests – earmarked appropriated funds – Senator Lisa Murkowski designated $110,000 for the SPD “to supply emergency care equipment.” Meek sounded thrilled when he spoke on the potential of his department receiving these funds.
“You’re not just benefiting Soldotna. We’re a rural agency combined with other rule agencies – with Homer, Kenai, Seward, AST. If we had a situation like that, it’s going to be a mass response no matter where it’s at, and [now] we’re able to bring that with us.”
This is another point the chief heavily leans into: it’s not just about the Soldotna Police. According to Meek, all emergency responders on the peninsula are hoping to establish a better response and care plan for any potential MCE.
“We recently had active shooter training with Kenai PD, over at the Kenai Middle School. We’re planning a training [course] – I’m trying to set it up right now – with our hospital and our hospital staff. I mean, that’s still in the early portions, but I’ve been speaking with their security director, and we’re wanting to have that same active shooter response training at the hospital because that’s where we’ve already had one event.”
But the aspirations go beyond being well supplied, and well prepared for a mass casualty event. Meek and the SPD also want to see the community, and Kenai Peninsula at large, prepared for such an eventuality.
“We want to take those supplies, and the equipment and go out and train the community. So, your schoolteachers, your school staff, people from the grocery stores, people at the government buildings, people who may need to know how to do this in case of an emergency, and we’d be able to train them.”
No one wants to think about the potential of a tragedy striking in their community, but when it comes to those sworn to protect and serve the safety of the public, that’s their job. And it’s a job Chief Meek takes seriously.
“Hope is not a battle plan,” he says. “You can hope for the best, but you’d better be planning for the worst.”