Borough mayor vetoes assembly approval for new fire station

PALMER — Citing his desire to have the public weigh in on the matter, Mat-Su Borough Mayor Larry DeVilbiss has vetoed an ordinance that would build a new fire station near Mat-Su Regional Medical Center.

“I believe it is inappropriate to encumber public indebtedness for 20 years without a vote of the taxpayers,” DeVilbiss says in his veto memorandum. “I am aware that it has been done before, but when that concept was approved before — for the Mat Su station 6-1— it was to be a joint facility with the city of Wasilla for trooper dispatch. In that context, the certificates of participation had some rationale. In this instance we are doing it to avoid a vote of the people and that is wrong and more costly than would be voter-approved bonds.”

Usually when the borough wants to borrow money it has to use general obligation bonds and put the issue to a vote. By using something called a certificate of participation, the borough can borrow money without asking for permission. That’s how the borough built the big downtown Wasilla fire station 6-1 and how it built the borough animal shelter after voters shot it down.

Assemblyman Ron Arvin said there are plenty of good reasons to go with a certificate of participation in this instance.

“That facility is needed and if it went to a (general obligation) bond it could fail,” he said. “And then what? That asset is needed. We still have an obligation to give that service to the public.”

Assemblyman Darcie Salmon said he was mayor when station 6-1 was approved and now that station is a major borough asset used for so much more than just firefighting.

“Getting the station through the COP process is the thing that I’m most proud of, besides the port,” Salmon said.

DeVilbiss responded that if the borough were ever caught in a cycle without growth and was having trouble paying its debts the certificate of participation would come back to haunt them.

Currently, a rented fire station covers the hospital, but it can’t house the department’s large aerial platform ladder truck, a truck bought specifically to protect the hospital and nearby buildings.

The $8 million station the borough would build house that truck and also have things like crew quarters. It would be a dual-use building, paid for 46 percent by the fire department and 54 percent by the so-called areawide fund that pays for, among other things, ambulances.

The borough Department of Emergency Services wants to use half of the new building as a warehouse for medical supplies. Currentl,y those supplies are housed in a training room at the station on Seward Meridian.

“We have a lot of trouble again with OSHA compliance keeping hallways clear,” Emergency Services Director Dennis Brodigan said at a meeting June 18. “There are drug stores around the area that would love to have the volume and inventory we have there.”

Central Mat-Su Fire Chief James Steele said at the same meeting that it makes a lot of sense for the borough to put that warehouse by the hospital.

“When ambulances are turning around at the hospital when they’re dropping a patient off, it’s much more easier and economical for them to just stop there at the new station and restock,” he said.

The station would hopefully also have a skills laboratory so medics could brush up on their skills and receive continuing training there as well.

The certificate of participation passed the assembly without objection, meaning it was unanimously consented to, meaning that at the assembly’s next meeting — scheduled for Aug. 20 — the mayor’s veto is likely to be overridden. DeVilbiss mentioned this in his most recent podcast.

“There are certainly the votes there to override it, but I strongly don’t approve of incurring 20 years of debt without going to the voters,” he said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.