Petersburg mayor asks Assembly to decide on a permanent fire training site near Station 1

Mayor Bob Lynn asked Tuesday for the Petersburg Borough Assembly to decide at its next meeting whether to permanently move the fire department's training facility from Scow Bay to a site near Fire Station 1. He also asked the borough manager to bring funding options by the first meeting in December.

The training props must leave Scow Bay by Nov. 30, when the construction project there goes to a contractor, Emergency Services Director Aaron Hankins said. The burn tower is a three-story metal tower where crews light and put out fires, and the container prop is six 40-foot shipping containers converted to look like the inside of a house. Both will be stacked at the borough's 14th Street pole yard, out of reach for volunteer training until a permanent site is built.

Fire Chief Daniel Byrd said the department agreed two years ago to move the props for the harbor work and was told they could go back afterward. Then in June, he said, the department learned they could not return, which he called "out of the blue." Byrd said the borough manager told him the change was being pushed by the mayor. Hankins said a marine-industrial overlay the Assembly approved last year, tied to an Army Corps of Engineers permit, limits the site to marine use. Manager Steve Giesbrecht said the borough might seek a variance.

Byrd said the tower may not survive being taken apart and reassembled, and a new one would cost $400,000 to $600,000. Assistant Chief David Berg said staff estimated a new tower and site work could top $1 million. In June, Hankins put the cost of moving the props at $800,000 or more, Alaska News reported.

Losing the facility would cost Petersburg about 0.37 points on its fire insurance rating, enough to push it from Class 4 to Class 5 on a 1-to-10 scale, Hankins said. Each step raises property insurance rates about 10%, though not every insurer uses the rating. Byrd said that drop would follow if the facility isn't back within 12 months. Hankins said there is no hard time limit.

Members Scott Newman and Jeff Meucci asked about harbor money. "The money could come out of the harbor fund and would not have to be paid back," Giesbrecht said, because of an exception in the borough charter, though he could not say how that would affect planned harbor work.

Hankins presented two permanent sites: one next to Station 1 on Haugen Drive, which firefighters prefer because they gather there before drills, and one on 14th Street beside the tree dump, which would need a modular building with bathrooms and storage.

Member James Valentine said the Station 1 site makes the most sense, and Meucci said he would support a motion next meeting making it the top priority. Lynn said funding could come in phases, with part of it through grants.