Assembly OKs loan for Willow fire station

PALMER — About a dozen Willow residents turned out Tuesday night to ask the Mat-Su Borough Assembly to consider raising their taxes.

The assembly voted unanimously to approve a $200,000 loan to the Willow Fire Service Area, an item listed among about a dozen others in the assembly’s consent agenda. The funds, combined with state money, will be used to purchase land and a building used for a warm storage fire station for the Nancy Lake subdivision.

The loan’s repayment could potentially lead to higher mill rates — Willow residents currently pay 1.37 mills, or $1.37 for every $1,000 of assessed property value. (A home assessed at $200,000 would pay $274 under this mill rate).

Supporters of the measure — who outnumbered opponents, based on a show of hands — say the absence of multiple fire stations to support the Willow Fire Service Area potentially threatens both property and life. That mill rate places the Willow FSA among the lowest in the Valley.

Firefighters had written a letter to local and state officials saying they didn’t have equipment up to the task of protecting the community.

Without a fix of any kind, a fire-related fatality is a matter of time, said Nancy Lakes resident Rene Gonzalez.

“We have become very concerned about the fire service equipment we have,” he said. “To put it bluntly, it is outdated. All the equipment’s outdated.”

“My biggest concern is that so far we have been fortunate that there has not been loss of life,” Gonzalez said. “And I can assure you that is just around the corner.”

Many of those who spoke at the March 17 meeting were from the Nancy Lake subdivision, worth about $65 million in assessed value, or about 20 percent of the fire service area’s total value, according to Mike Klawitter, from the Nancy Lake Homeowner’s Association.

The importance of this fire apparatus is the high concentration of value that you have around the lake as well as the potential for conflagration, which is just a fancy fire term meaning that the houses are pretty close together on lakefront properties,” he said.

Fire Service Area supervisor Doyle Holmes said a mill rate increase is most likely against the wishes of area voters who overwhelmingly rejected a mill rate increase in 2012, leaving the department with a single fire station for coverage.

“Will the payments draw down our funds balance and probably bankrupt the FSA? Yes it will,” he said.

In closing remarks, assembly members said they supported moving the mill rate to 2.75, which would increase the bill for a $200,000 house to $550.

“I hope you guys can take some politics out of it, and some of the divisiveness out of it,” said assemblyman Vern Halter. “I’d like to see the mill rate in this year’s budget set at 2.75. That will get their money up to where they can pay this back very quickly. I would like to see this loan repaid in two years.”

At the very least, the politics surrounding the fire service area appeared likely to remain divisive.

On Thursday, Holmes denied rumors that he had attempted to buy the property in question to prevent potential rate increases. In response, he accused a political rival of authoring the letter attributed to Willow firefighters.

A spokeswoman for the firefighters, Kel Jacobs, said the accusation was false.

“The firefighters did this out of frustration,” she said. “This is not a political agenda thing.”

In other business, assembly members voted 7-0 against a proposed advisory referendum for marijuana, saying any such vote would likely duplicate the November ballot initiative.

They also voted 4-3 to approve a 17-member marijuana advisory council to consider and recommend legislative action for the assembly.

Additionally, a proposal by assembly member Jim Sykes to move assembly seating to floor level was rejected on a 5-2 vote.

Contact Brian O’Connor at 352-2269, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano.