Fairbanks borough moves to study rural emergency coverage it flagged in 2018

A Fairbanks North Star Borough plan warned back in 2018 that emergency service in some areas "is challenged by uncertain state funding and poor coverage." It recommended figuring out where fire stations and ambulances should sit, and floated merging fire and ambulance coverage into one large service area. Seven years later, the borough is finally moving to buy that analysis.

Emergency Operations presents a draft request for proposals Monday to an Assembly advisory committee, which may recommend the Assembly pay for the study. The committee only advises; the spending decision rests with the Assembly.

The review would cover the ground outside Fairbanks and North Pole. The borough has five fire service areas — Chena Goldstream, Ester, North Star, Steese and University — and runs ambulance service everywhere outside them through contractors. Mayor Grier Hopkins told the Alaska House Finance Committee in May that the borough has no public safety powers and leans on the Alaska State Troopers, but that "our EMT service is all borough-provided outside of the city of Fairbanks."

The stakes fall on rural residents and the volunteer departments that hold those ambulance contracts, since redrawn boundaries would reshape who covers whom. Rural residents hold a single seat on the advisory committee, filled by Grant Galvin.