The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly passed an ordinance this week to allow voters to decide on the establishment of the Western Emergency Service Area, the result of efforts to expand the Anchor Point Fire and Emergency Medical Service area boundaries to include the Ninilchik area.
Ordianance 2020-31 was up for public debate during Tuesday’s borough Assembly meeting. It aimed to address the needs of the Ninilchik area, and how the Anchor Point’s Emergency Medical Service could be utilized to serve both communities. A working group appointed by Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Charlie Pierce, and approved by the borough Assembly, held public meetings in late-May to discuss the possibility of forming a joint Ninilchik-Anchor Point service area.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Assembly member Brent Johnson said that the people of Ninilchik are ready for improved services: “The Ninilchik Emergency Service Area was an entity in and of itself. It wasn’t elected by the people of Ninilchik. At any rate, they came to this hiccup where the chief was fired and the assistant chief as well. The long and short of it is that the people of Ninilchik voiced a desire to have improved services. They wanted to have something that they knew was going to be functioning if one of them – and there are many of them that are elderly – had a health problem or a fire.”
He then explained why a joint service should be titled Western Emergency Services: “We have Central Emergency Services and we have Kachemak Emergency Services, and this will be Western Emergency Services. It fits right between Central and Kachemak.”
The working group found that a joint service area would generate a number of benefits for both areas, both in quality of service for residents as well as cost.
The ordinance passed an Assembly vote, so the issue will go before the voters in Anchor Point and in Ninilchik during the regular election on October 6. It must pass with a majority in both areas for Western Emergency Services to be established.
