Talkeetna EMS spat settled

TALKEETNA — Operations largely remained normal during a brief dispute between Talkeenta firefighters and Mat-Su Borough Department of Emergency Services officials in early September, officials said.

The temporary dust-up arose after Talkeetna Volunteer Fire/Rescue Department Captain Eric Chappel announced via a Facebook post that he had been terminated. Chappel said he was fired after he responded to a overturned cargo trailer on August 31 along the Parks Highway as a private citizen and offered to help right the trailer and clear the highway. The incident made its way onto the agendas of the Susitna and, briefly, the Talkeetna community council meetings.

According to Chappel’s post, he met Deputy Director of Emergency Services Ken Barkley, who ordered Chappel not to help during the incident. Chappel instead offered his tow strap to a private citizen who used his truck to right the trailer, clearing the highway.

Chappel’s apparent resignation or termination — officials said Chappel was never terminated, and kept as a first responder — essentially left the fire department without any on-duty officers for a brief period, and officials worked to bring on an officer to fill in the short term, after a string of departures among officers at the post.

“I care about the people of these communities, but I will not work for the MatSu Emergency services any longer,” he wrote. “I cannot work under the same policies and procedures that they use in Wasilla.”

Borough officials had overstepped their bounds, Chappel wrote.

“My issue is whether the borough can tell me how I can spend my time when I am not a firefighter,” he wrote. “They believe that if I have a radio or pager on, they own me and can tell me what I have to do. I have been talking with community members & former volunteer firefighters who would be willing to be part of the fire department, if it was locally managed.”

Chappel also wrote that other Talkeetna firefighters were considering not responding, either. That would have shifted the burden of fire response along the Talkeetna Spur to Willow and Caswell, both of which are between 30 and 40 minutes away from the center of Talkeetna. Chief Mahlon Greene runs both departments. Greene said Talkeetna volunteers responded throughout the brief period while Chappel’s status was being resolved, and that no major calls required a response from Caswell or Willow. Bottom line: the brief tensions did not affect service, Greene said.

“Right now, it’s pretty much status quo,” he said. “They’ve settled their differences for the time being.”

Talkeetna volunteers met with Barkley on Monday morning to clear the air over the dispute. Both sides described the meeting as amiable, and said they were satisfied with the result.

“It went real well,” Barkley said. “A lot of things were ironed out. A lot of things that were felt to be issues were not.”

The only call that occurred while the parties worked to resolve the issue was a single nuisance call about a burn barrel, Chappel said.

Chappel said he couldn’t comment other than to say the issue has been settled.

“We came to an agreement, and as part of that agreement, I’ve agreed to say that we both came to a resolution that we’re both happy with, and have agreed essentially not to say anything more than that,” he said. “We did resolve our issues for the fire department.”

Emergency service officials worked this week to draft a written policy to clear up the incident. They could not immediately provide a written copy while officials worked to clarify the policy, Barkley said.

Meetings on the subject had been constructive, Barkley said.

“I said this all along, and I say it to this day,” he said. “Everybody was actually on the same sheet of music. We just had to talk. We had to get together, that’s all. Everyone has different views, and once you sit down and gather all the facts, it’s like ‘Oh, I see. I see the light.’”

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