Fairbanks borough weighs a $303,346 replacement ambulance

The Fairbanks North Star Borough is set to buy a new $303,346 ambulance for the medical service that covers Fairbanks-area residents outside the city limits, with the Assembly Finance Committee due to approve the purchase Thursday, Sept. 3.

The vehicle, from Rocky Mountain Emergency Vehicles, would replace an aging unit in the borough's non-areawide EMS fleet. It comes in roughly $39,000 under the borough's own budgeted estimate, and the money is already set aside in a replacement-vehicle account.

Rather than put the purchase out for local bids, the borough would buy through an existing multi-state cooperative purchasing contract — the same arrangement Anchorage is using to buy two ambulances of its own, at about $394,000 each. Borough code allows the cooperative route, and staff noted that local-bidder preference does not apply to this kind of purchase. The borough has used cooperative contracts before for big equipment, including a landfill compactor in 2021 and a sidewalk tractor that came up earlier this month.

The committee can approve the contract on its own; it has authority over borough contracts above $200,000.

Two larger items share the agenda: a $699,500 contract to Trost Construction Inc. for an indoor community playground at the Carlson Activity Center, and a $1.2 million appropriation from the General Fund for the borough's ongoing litigation over how the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System is valued for taxes. A closed-door session on the pipeline case is possible.

The meeting is at 5:30 pm in the Mona Lisa Drexler Assembly Chambers at the Juanita Helms Administration Center, 907 Terminal St. Public comment is capped at three minutes and limited to the contract and bid awards on the agenda.