Meadow Lakes welcomes new fire station

MEADOW LAKES -- With a lively Dalmatian for a mascot and a new red building for a home, Meadow Lakes Station 7-2 officially went in to service last weekend.

Volunteer firefighters, medics, borough officials, community members and Treasure the Dalmatian gathered at the recently completed fire station last weekend to celebrate its grand opening. Located at the corner of Church and Pittman roads west of Wasilla, the new fire hall was completed just weeks ago, but officials say it has been a long time coming.

"This station should have been here about four years ago," District 2 Fire Chief Bill Gamble said. "It's absolutely marvelous to see it in place." The station will serve one of the Valley's most rapidly growing area and is located about half way between the main station in Wasilla and the next nearest station at Mile 2.5 Pittman Road.

During the open house, Gamble and assembly candidate Betty Vehrs reminisced about visiting the uncleared lot several years ago with hopes of a fire station being built there someday.

Station 7-2 was constructed this year with borough fire service area money on land purchased from the University of Alaska, and Vehrs described it as a concrete use of public tax dollars.

"People want something for their taxes. This is something visual …. we're all proud of it," Vehrs said.

As of Saturday the fire station had one new brush truck, with the remainder of the ambulances and fire trucks borrowed from other stations in the borough in order to get the station on line as soon as possible. However, Gamble said they are in the process of ordering additional new equipment for 7-2.

In addition to the station providing a quicker response to fires, car accidents and other emergencies, local residents will see the more immediate affect of lower home insurance rates. Gamble explained that having a fire station within a certain distance of your neighborhood betters your rating and, therefore, decreases insurance rates.

Gamble also said he felt the fire station was in an important location because of the type of wilderness that surrounds the residential areas.

"This whole area out here is covered in black spruce," he said. Having firefighting capabilities closer to the fire danger area could prove critical in the event of any wildfires.

But even beyond large-scale disaster such as this, Station 7-2 appears to be already on its way to becoming an important asset in the day-to-day lives of its neighbors.

During last weekend's open house, Mat-Su Borough animal control offered a low-cost animal vaccination clinic, sponsored by the Meadow Lakes Community Council. Throughout the day, dozens of residents came to the new fire station to bring in their cats and dogs for shots, borough registration and microchipping.