Petersburg Borough: Public Safety Advisory Board

The last page of the packet. It's on the back. Yeah, that was— that's her right there.

All right, I'd like to call the June 11th Public Safety Advisory Board meeting to order. Clerk, could you please call the roll? John Lichtenberger. Here. Stan Hort.

He's excused today. He called in, he's sick today. Dr. Tussillo should be joining us now. He is here. Hang on.

I am here. Okay, great. Thank you. We can hear you fine. Okay.

And Devrin Bennett? Here. Greg Browning? Here. Thank you.

The forum is established and present. I'd like to welcome Greg Browning, our new member to the Public Safety Advisory Board. And we're a fun bunch of guys. All right, um, our assembly person is not here. Chief Kerr is here, and Director Hankins is present.

All right, did we notify the assembly member? Okay, all right. Um, if there are no objections, the minutes for the February 11th, 2026 meeting, uh, will be approved as presented. Are there any objections? Hearing no objections, the minutes are approved.

Um, if there are no objections, the agenda for today's meeting will be approved as presented. Are there any objections to the agenda? Hearing no objections, the agenda is approved. Um, now we have persons to be heard related to the agenda. Are there any members of the public who would like to speak on any item appearing on the agenda?

Step forward and state your name, please. Hi there, my name is Sarah Fine Walsh. I wrote the letter at the back of your packet, so I figured I better come in. I appreciated that you guys talked about the snow removal, and there's a part of our neighborhood where we live where cars go a little fast. I figure better take my shot at seeing if we could put a stop sign in there.

Um, I, speaking briefly with Chief Kerr, sounds like there is a reason why it's a two-way stop and not a three-way stop at the entrance to Odin Street. But, um, just I'll say my perspective as a mother of a toddler who's very, very fast. Um, the grade of Odin Street kind of tips down towards Surf Street, so he kind of tends to travel to the other side of the road, I do run after him. It's a great workout for me, but, um, you know, it does make me a little nervous. Um, the kind of anecdote I placed in there about a car almost hitting us— we were borrowing someone's truck for buy and sell and trade, and it was a large, very large pickup, much larger than ours, very, very visible, very tall.

Um, but, uh, I believe he looked young. It could have been a student driver. He went around that took a right turn onto Oden really, really quickly and almost slammed right into us. And we were going like 5, 10 miles an hour. So we didn't collide, but it just made me, it put into the back of my mind, you know, most people do drive respectfully and do follow the speed limit there.

But, you know, about 20% of people do really take that right turn or even a left turn with some speed. So I thought I would try and see what you guys thought about considering making that a 3-way stop or doing some other safety precautions to get people to enter Odin Street a little more slowly. Thank you. Thank you. Are there anyone remote that want to be heard?

No, there's no one. OK. We now have persons to be heard on unrelated items. Are there any members of the public who would like to speak on any item not appearing on the agenda.

Any remote? No, there's no one. Okay, all right, we're moving on to staff reports. Uh, Chief Kerr will now give his report.

Be quick. Um, we had the The training, the active threat drill with the fire EMS personnel, that went great. Basically what that does is it gets everyone in the same location. Even though we're working on different things, you're still working together. There's still communication, understanding what is expected from each group and when.

It also makes them more familiar with their gear. Putting on different gear that's completely different than what they're used to and just kind of understanding that environment that we hope we never have to be part of. So, I mean, it was great. There's great communication between everyone involved, and I think we need to keep that up and make it at least twice a year, if not more. Just get everyone where— it doesn't have to be at the school, it can be anywhere.

So I really like seeing everyone there working together on their different parts of it because everyone's responsible for their own thing. Another thing, we're down another dispatcher, so we have 3 openings in dispatch, 2 openings on the patrol side for a police officer. Hopefully the union can work something out with the borough and increase some wages and get some longevity steps worked in so we can better fill and serve— fill the positions and serve the community. Outside of that, I don't really have anything unless you guys have questions. Questions for Chief?

All right, thank you.

All right, Director Hankins, you have a report for us. Okay, um, I'll start with, uh, membership of the volunteer department. So currently, um, we have 79 members on our roster with 3 paid staff. Um, in fire, we have 28 members discounting the paid staff. 11 Of those are engineers, and of those engineers, 2 are paid staff, 5 are officers, so they're also fulfilling other duties.

So it does sometimes make it difficult to come up with an engineer, drive the truck. Officer has to decide what they're going to do. EMS, we have 3 paid staff in there with 33 members. Of those 33 members, 11 of those are drivers, 3 are emergency trauma technicians, 10 are EMT-1s including 1 paid staff, 7 are EMT-2s including 1 paid staff, and in addition to that, we have 1 AEMT, um, that's Ryan Gilkey, our new EMS coordinator. Um, one seasonal paramedic that comes up and volunteers with us, and then, uh, Dr. DeCillo as our medical director.

Um, of those 11 drivers, 4 of those are currently awaiting to take their state EMT-1 exam, so they might bump up. Um, we're just waiting for them to be able to go in and test. Search and Rescue, there are 37 members, including 1 paid staff. Of those members, 16 are wilderness first responders, and 14 of those also dual-certed as an emergency trauma technician, in addition to what you've heard on the EMS roster. So in a large event, they could come help with the medical side of things.

Currently, I'm working on grants. FEMA dropped all of its firefighter grants right now, and that deadline is June 22nd.

Working on our application for the Assistance to Firefighters grant and AML, the Alaska Municipal League, is trying to do a regional SAFER grant, which they've invited the department to pop in on so that we can get some funds, hopefully, for recruitment and retention. We also are already included in a regional grant for the engine 6 replacement. Merkowski did pick that up for one of her proposals for congressionally delegated spending, in which we may be able to use those funds to get a ladder truck. That remains to be all federally approved and will probably be a year, year and a half before we hear anything on it due to the process.

Also working on the training prop removal questions. I got a list of questions on May 27th from the borough manager. If you'd like, I can read them to you, or you can just see them. I can pass this around, whatever you guys want to do. But they have some questions they'd like answered about both the 14th Street site and the site right next to the current Station 1.

Working on answering all those questions so we can bring it back before the assembly so they can make a determination of where we are going. Um, I've heard there may be a plan on how to pay for it, but I'm not familiar with the details, so I'm not prepared to speak on it at this point. Um, but, uh, that's still in the works right now. Um, congressionally delegated spending for SCBA replacement— thank you guys for your support. Um, with that.

We did get that approved. We had to— even though Murkowski appropriated the money, we had to go back to the USDA and essentially get it— the grant, a dispersal of funds approved. That has been approved in the amount of $225,000 with about a little under $77,000 some supplementing that. For a total of $101,000. That gives us 30 SEBA units and 70— or including 70 tanks, which is a tank in the pack and a backup tank, plus 10 extra, and some new RIT packs for rapid extrication.

So those are ordered. We expect those to be in sometime, maybe beginning of August at the earliest. They're currently being manufactured now, and we'll know more in some time. Um, other news, the MIT and partnership with the Department of Defense, or Department of War, whatever they're going by now, um, they have a radiation study going on for high-frequency communications. They asked Petersburg to participate in that.

I just met with a guy 2 days ago We're looking at site plans. They want to temporarily put up a monopole high-frequency receiver to essentially study data in the area, and they're going to use a Starlink to ship all that data back to themselves. So they should have it out of there by the end of September. I think they're going to put it up sometime late July, early August, somewhere in there. It's tentative on shipping and how all that goes.

Other sites include Wrangell, Gustavus, Juneau, and a few others on Prince of Wales. We are currently working on setting up our drone program. We just had two members go up for a drone search and rescue course, and then we can share those with the PD and the Power and Light, the two departments that helped us purchase that. So then we have a comprehensive program that we're working with other people with. Um, and then the borough's emergency plans, um, they— I had put in a request in this budget cycle to pay for both an all-hazards plan update and an emergency operations plan update.

The emergency operations plans have not been updated since 2010. The all-hazards plan's not updated since 2018. I just did receive notice that we might be awarded some money for our all hazards plan from a grant I applied for, the BRIC grant in 2022. So that plan might be covered. And right now we're working with the AML grant writer that the borough paid $10,000 to write 3 grants for.

One of the grants that we're going to fill out is the Emergency Manager Performance Grant. Which would allow us to contract with the service to do the EOP. And so that might be covered as well. And that's what I have in my current report unless there's questions. So you mentioned the training prop being moved, and so the SCAL base station is going to be allowed to remain there for how long?

Currently, officially, the plan is, is that it's staying there for now. I have been asked to look into plans to relocate it, right? But currently nothing concrete is moving that station right now, right? And when it's just the training props themselves, right? And when that project was, was planned— there was no, no funds available put in the plan to, to relocate that station, is that correct?

That is correct. Okay. All right. And there's still, as far as funding for that, there's no source that you know of so far? I've been told there may be a working plan, but I have not been included in that conversation, so I cannot speak to how it is being funded.

Okay, I believe that is something the mayor and the borough manager is working on.

Question. Go ahead. Um, could you go back over that, whatever it is getting put up and it's collecting data in town? Um, I wasn't quite sure what that— what type of data it's collecting. So the study itself is to study high-frequency radio skip, so high-frequency radio signals like ham radio, for example.

When you send out a signal, it can skip off the ionosphere, down off the ground, and back up, and so it travels long distances. It's a pretty effective means of communications, done since like the 1940s and '50s. What they are doing is studying the effect of the Aurora Borealis on that because it tends to interfere with that signal and distort it a little bit. So they have a transmitter in, I think, La Pine, Oregon, and they have it facing our way. So they're sending like a little tiny 2-watt signal that's coded so they know it's their signal up to these sites where they're putting this antenna up.

And so they'll be able to like, "Hey, did we receive the signal strongly? Was it weak? What's going on? What are the atmospheric conditions?" and things like that, and it's part of a study the DOD is doing on radio transmissions.

It's a very— 2 watts is, as I understand it, pretty low. I might look at our electronics expert sitting on the panel and ask him. He's nodding his head.

It's, yeah, I mean, what's your standard handheld radio put out, 5 watts? 6 Watts. So it's like a walkie-talkie signal that's just managed to reach it here. I'm not quite sure how it all works, but it's not costing us anything. They just ask, "Hey, can we stick a pole up in the Mustang?" And they're using Starlink to send their data back to them.

Which they're all paying for. So they just, they asked a bunch of the fire departments around Southeast if they would allow them to put up a monopole for a couple, or for a month or two. And I think it's not very big, it's like a 10-foot pole. So it's not like a giant tower or nothing.

So, Aaron, um, the training center, when was it we have to be out of there? Um, officially it is the end of the year, so December 31st. Um, they have a notice to other leaseholders in the area that they are to stop operations by the end of September. And so I'm hoping to get that stuff out of there before the snow flies, but, uh, it's— containers are pretty easy to move as long as we can go in and we can disconnect. They're all connected on the inside because of how they're set up to make like the inside of a house.

Um, the training tower is a little bit more of a problem to move. If you take it apart, it's likely not to go back together. The hope is to be able to separate the little one-story attachment to it, the— what we call the burn room, from the tower itself and be able to either brace or secure the tower itself so that we can pick it up and lay it down on a large oversized trailer and move it. That would be ideal. I have those quotes out and I'm just waiting information back right now.

If we can do that, great. That tower was built in 1993. It was purchased for $80,000. I think it was through some type of state grant, but I don't have all the details. I just found a receipt for it and the original plans in my records.

To replace it today would be extremely more expensive for an equivalent. Um, so I'm hoping not to have to buy a new one right now because it's just adding to the cost of moving, which I'm already kind of in the $800,000+ range based on the numbers that I'm accruing. So I will have all that in an official report that will be sent to the assembly, and I'm happy to share that with the Public Safety Advisory Board as well if you guys would like it, um, with all the details and Shouldn't be everything in one, one report. So I'm kind of curious about that feasibility of that, moving that, something that'll—. Yeah, so working with contractors in the area, see if it is even is feasible.

If not, it would be torn down and scrapped, which is a shame. Um, but so provided there's a delay, um, any sort of significant delay in actually moving the training center, are there any repercussions? Um, to the borough or community members if, if we lose that training center, even for a short time? So according to the ISO report, um, the ISO people, um, they say that if we lose the drill ground, our total aggregate ISO score drops from 61.1 to, just a hair over 60, which would be enough to bump us from a Class 4 to a Class 5 community. Um, in talking with the administration about it, um, they've talked with their insurance provider and they believe that ISO does not have the weight that we claim, so they don't think they would see an insurance increase on it.

I don't necessarily believe that myself. Based on my knowledge, but that's what the borough's insurance provider is telling administration. So, um, my information on the ISO stuff has carried no weight in any conversations we had. Um, if ISO is correct, that would be an approximately increase in 10% across the board for those who do have insurance.

I've polled a few people that I know that do live outside of Service Area 1, which is our current essentially fire district. We only operate by service area officially. People who live out towards Pappies and all that, as I've spoke with them, most of the ones that I spoke with do not have any form of insurance on their property.

So they have no cushion if they were to, uh, you know, their property burns or there's an incident or something, they just lose the property. So that makes me think that there's some weight to the ISO conversation, but that's between the insurance companies and the individual property owners. And then the last part is for fire and for EMS. You said 28 members in fire, 33 in EMS, but how many are actually active? Members?

That's the question. So as volunteers, they are never like 100% ready, always able to respond. So we usually get a fraction of that. Um, I don't have like a running count off right here in front of me of actually who's responding, but I mean, a good rule of thumb would be a third of that amount to, you know, at best a half at any one time. So if you cut those numbers in half, it would be 14 members of the fire department, for fire, about 16 to 18 members in EMS.

And in search and rescue, it's a little skewed because a lot of those members are actually Forest Service employees who, you know, they have large projects that they do off island. And so, when they are away for those projects, I mean, there's very little search and rescue members still in town. So it's as they are available.

Yeah. Are there any other questions for me?

All right, on to unfinished business. We have one item of unfinished business: snow removal from the sidewalks along Hogan Drive. We spoke about this topic at our last meeting. Any comments on that? Yeah, I feel that's a valid, valid issue that should be not dropped.

I think it's definitely something that needs to be pursued. I don't remember if it was discussed at the last meeting, but Has the borough sent a letter to Department of Transportation about that hazard and what our concerns are? I can speak to that. So there's been a draft, a resolution drafted, and the mayor is reviewing it, and he wanted me just to reach out to DOT just to have a conversation about it and to to say what we're looking for, to see if we could tweak that resolution at all. I think it's just a matter of staffing.

That DOT doesn't have enough staff in town to clear the airport first, right? And then the roads, and then also do that sidewalk. So a letter might not necessarily— they already are aware of the hazard there, and, um, okay. But I think it's worth sending the resolution, so look for that, that possibly at a meeting in July, at the assembly meeting, one of the July meetings.

Okay, new business presentation by Kat Mai for emergency operations plan.

Citizen. Yeah, disregard that note. That was— okay, okay. Stop sign, Surf Street and Odin Street. You're on the wrong page.

It's, uh, one on the bottom.

Business request for stop sign at Surf and Odin.

Yes, if you could, Chief. I'm so—. I totally understand and respect that whole topic right there. And I mean, anytime you have little kids around those areas, I mean, anytime they're around roadways Everyone gets nervous. But when we talk about the specific location of this one with it being on Surf Street, we already have the stop signs on Oden.

The problem with putting one on Surf Street is you're going to be stopping all the vehicles on the downhill side. And the reason why they're not there is because wintertime and being able to stop on an incline and then go again, it's not going to happen. In the wintertime. You have accidents sliding backwards in the cars. You're gonna—.

It's—. I mean, I understand the concept, but it's— that's the— that's the reason why there's not a stop sign there, is to get people around the corners. And if there's issues, if we see like a time when there's issues with people driving unsafe, we'd be more than happy to go up there and do some extra patrols, stuff like that. I can send out an email to the guys. I know a while back, years back, we had an issue with people running the stop sign up there on Oden, Oden and, um, was it Tango?

And so a little bit of special attention, uh, fixed a lot of that stuff. So if there's an issue, we'll be more than happy to do some extra patrols for making sure people stay in their lanes. So As an alternative, could we just post the speed limit? I don't think it's posted in the area, just as a reminder when you go up any of the entry points to Severson's.

That's— I mean, when you take your test, the residential area is 25. I mean, that's— that would be up to Public Works, if they have extra signs or something like that, they could do that. Would it be appropriate to sign that with pedestrian-type signage just to alert the drivers that there's pedestrian traffic? I don't know how much people walk up there. I think, I think the best thing to do is let us see if we're writing tickets, stuff like that, give it some extra special attention.

And then see what type of stuff we take away from that. I mean, because it is a residential area, so I mean, it's— there's no— one of the biggest things right there is Odin Street does not have a sidewalk. So I mean, that would be a— if, if we had a sidewalk on there, or even just a little bit extended roadway, that's why when When people talk about reducing roadway width and stuff like that, you're creating this sort of a problem because you don't have an escape route except for a ditch for people. So, I mean, technically you could always propose and reduce the speed limit to like 15. That's always something.

I drove up there yesterday and I'm in that neighborhood a couple times a week. And I've noticed that the kids do not use the edge of the roadway a lot. And I kind of understand that, having been a kid myself. But I don't know if there's a mechanism for reminding the parents to— ironically, when I drove up there, there was a teenager riding right down the middle of the road, and I just followed him at 10 miles an hour or whatever. He was not aware of traffic.

And I know that's— I probably was the same as a kid. But there's a mechanism to do some sort of reminder for parents to talk to kids about. I don't know if that's a feasible option or not. Yeah, I'm— I don't know how to fix that. I mean, the only thing I could recommend is, I mean, if that's something that some of the homeowners want to entertain up there is reducing the speed limit.

I mean, we could always reduce it to 15. I mean, because that is the area that gets all the Halloween trick-or-treaters. It's— I mean, it's— and I mean, we could use the justification of the roads with no improvements on the sides for that. I mean, so I mean, there is a way to deal with it is lower the speed limit, but I mean, that would definitely— you would want to advertise that, put that out for input from the people who live up there. So that's, that's my suggestion.

Yeah, it would bring up conversation about why, and, and then people could talk about other—. Yeah, you know, maybe they'll get sidewalks.

Yeah, Sarah Fine-Walsh again. I do, um, I'll just speak speak to pedestrian— my experience viewing pedestrian foot traffic in the neighborhood. It is very, very popular walking neighborhood for people of all ages. Lots of families with dogs walk right in the middle of the road. Lots of elementary school-aged children will ride their bikes.

There's kids on the motorized scooters. It's a super, super popular pedestrian neighborhood from everyone age 2 to 80. You know, it's, it's— people are definitely out and about. I, I would personally support a lower speed limit if that's what the will of my neighbors are, but I would support it personally. I like the idea of a speed limit reminder sign when entering the Severson neighborhood just because I think I do empathize with— I mean, it's for when it's icy.

I mean, I do empathize with that reasoning for why it's a 2-way stop and not a 3-way stop. But, you know, a pedestrian warning sign reminder or speed limit reminder as when entering the neighborhood, if Public Works has those signs available, that would be fantastic to do right away. And then maybe in the future consider lowering the speed limit would also be great. Because it's very, very popular pedestrian area. Thanks.

Would anyone want to make a motion to address this in some fashion? I think holding off a little bit and having the PD do some standbys and hand some tickets out might just be the public education event that might be required to open some people's eyes. Worked when I was doing it.

So, okay, so then everybody's satisfied to just try and see if we can up the presence of police up there and see if that will slow things down? I guess I have one question. I'm ignorant to the process, but if, if there were— if we wanted to open the discussion about a speed limit change, what would be the process for, for that through the borough? Is there public comment periods? Uh, so what I would do if I was doing it, I would put out a public safety announcement or put out some sort of announcement from the borough.

We put on our web page.

Collecting people's thoughts on something like that. And we could always go about it that way. And that's the way I would do it, is put it out there for public comment and then see, because like I said, I mean, that road does not have improvements. It's not like the south streets where it's flat and people can just go away. I mean, it's— It just goes off to the ditches on either side.

So, so, yeah, well, I guess I'd like to make a motion that we— I'm not sure on the wording of this, but make a motion that we, um, open that for public comment, or however that process. I think that, that, that, um, bring, bring apart, you know, about some good conversation. Public comment in regards to, to a, a potential speed limit reduction.

Chief would still go forward with some additional attention up there.

Um, we need a second for that motion. Yeah, I'll second it.

All in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

None opposed, so the motion carries.

All right, anything else? Um, understand, uh, Miss Martinez, you have Would like to make some comment.

My name is Susan Martinez, and I'm speaking for myself. Um, I have some grave concerns about children riding their bicycles on the sidewalk over our 5 or 6 block section of stores. School's out. We're going to have cruise ships in here. You're going to have all kinds of people coming and going out of those stores.

And to me, that is a very inappropriate place for children to be riding their bicycles, skateboards, and those scooters. Now, I've seen little kids riding those scooters. I don't know if there's an age limit for those rented scooters or not, but some of them seem like they shouldn't even be on them. But I've already had two friends that have come out of stores that have already been hit by kids on bicycles and, and an animal. So I think that if something isn't done about it— nobody seems to want to take responsibility for how to educate these kids that the sidewalk is not an appropriate place to ride a bike or a skateboard or a scooter.

We're just opening ourselves up for all kinds of liabilities and lawsuits. If somebody gets gravely hurt. And if it's not the kid, it could be the person coming out of the store, the kid, and maybe even a vehicle. And, you know, I, I don't know what the answer is, and I don't know what forum to address this. I've tried to address it, um, in a couple different avenues, and I've gotten absolutely nowhere because it's— if the police can't do anything, if they don't see the kids on the bikes And I can't take pictures of all these kids riding their bikes and stuff on the sidewalks because that's an inappropriate thing for me to do and opens me up for liabilities.

Um, but, uh, it needs to be addressed seriously before somebody does get hurt and before this city gets sued by somebody that gets really hurt. And I guess that's about all I can say about it.

Okay, thank you.

We had the conversation this fall, didn't we, about sidewalk use and the scooters and age limits. On some of that? Was that at a meeting we had? Yeah, that was where they were. I know we talked about the scooters.

I don't remember the sidewalk specifically.

What was the— what are the—. What's that current rules for bike riding on the sidewalks in downtown.

There's a section of the borough the borough ordinance where skateboards aren't allowed downtown. And then there's the— I believe it says in there about riding bikes on the sidewalks in the downtown area, but it's just that from First Street down area. So I have a question. Do you, do your guys do foot patrol during these summer time when we've got more people in town? Yes.

Okay, would that help to address some of that, you think? Or it's just— but the— like what she said, it's, it's one of those things where they might do a foot patrol and not see anyone, and then 2 minutes later there's 3 of them. Um, that's, that's the hard part of it, is timing all that stuff. That's why, like, the extra enforcement up on Oden, it's all timing. It's all timing thing is if we see it or people reported at the time.

There was during Mayfest, there was, I had a booth right next to TU where we got really upset with some kids that thought it was appropriate to come flying down the hill on their rollerblades. And so that was addressed, but of course the officer wasn't there when that was happening, but it did get addressed. And so that was one of the huge concerns I saw. But that's another thing that should be included in that group of things. Yeah, so it's—.

That's pretty dangerous. It's a timing— it's a timing thing. And we have the current city ordinance. I think it's like a $25 ticket or something like that. So, well, I guess I would just ask that you guys keep an eye open and, you know, vary the times and maybe we'll catch a few.

If you catch a few, maybe the word will get out that that's inappropriate. I don't know. Yeah, I think it's one of those education things too, because I mean, I mean, this time of year you're getting the small kids that are the elementary kids that, and you don't want them riding in the street because they're not that experienced, but the kids are riding. So I mean, it's, it's one of those double-edged swords type thing. I mean, definitely the older kids, the, all the, all the e-stuff should not be on the sidewalk.

That stuff should be riding with traffic. With the flow of traffic.

As far as the age limit with the scooters, the governor, I believe it was House Bill 8, he vetoed that last year. With a new governor, they'll probably take that back up, and that created age restrictions, motor size limits. Speeds and all kinds of stuff that state law was working to correct because we're not the only place facing these. It's all over the state. And so I think with the new governor, they'll get another bill pushed through that will regulate all these things as far as the e-stuff.

So. Okay, thank you.

More discussion on this? It seems like we need to— somebody should be PSAs, putting advertisements out on social media and all, and hoping that parents can read it and pass that on to their kids. I mean, it's the only reason, only way we're gonna—. We can create some flyers for Um, also if those same flyers might be available at places where we see kids often, um, maybe give some to like the Little League, Parks and Rec, the library, other youth-attended activities. That might also help get the word out just more than social media.

Great idea. Yeah, if we can get something— I don't do social media, so, um, it would not ring a bell with me, but I'm not riding my bicycle either, so, um, but if there's a way that you guys can put out something or whatever you have whatever form of communication. And then, like I said, hit and miss on the foot patrol and catch one or two of them. You might be able to get the word out that way too. So, all right, if— are there any discussion items for today?

Okay. So in the upcoming assembly packet, I wrote something in there about the missed public safety opportunity with the Title Network land sale. Um, I know it's being revisited. Um, I know there's people for and against it, but I'm not looking at that avenue of it. I'm looking at it for the public safety aspect of it.

So I wrote a letter to them. I don't know if you guys want me to read it or not, but it talks about— or you guys could just look it up in the assembly packet. It talks about the missed public safety opportunity. In the land contract sale, there was a provision where we could hang our public safety radio equipment out there on their stuff, and that we would have the first right of refusal for the other locations. Uh, to me, um, it's only a matter of time until the state says they're not going to start doing PAP keys or other areas.

EMS is already responding out of Service Area 1, which is against borough code. So they— I mean, we do it also as a police. If someone calls 911, we're responding out there. If it's life or death, technically we shouldn't be. So it's only a matter of time until, uh, services start going out there on a regular basis and being taxed appropriately.

And so what I don't want to see the borough do is say, oh, okay, we're going to start providing services out there without the infrastructure. The agreement with the land sale here provides us that infrastructure to be able to hang equipment on their towers, which, I mean, if you guys go out there, there's— you have to use the vehicle-mounted radio, and even then, sometimes it doesn't work that good. Having the ability to hang equipment on those towers, increase the range of public safety radio equipment, um, it's in the borough's best interest, I believe, because we would save hundreds of thousands of dollars by not having to construct towers or other avenues, however it's decided. But having that ability I think cuts down on long-term, like, long-term funding of the borough trying to figure out how they're going to pay for infrastructure when they have the tools right there by selling the land and having it written in the contract. So I wrote a letter as far as that.

I got a question. So when that land sale fell through, Did then the ability to put equipment on the tower that's going up at Papke's is also off the— they took that off the table then? Yeah, that was— that's why it was written into the contract. So the sale of, um, of land had that as part of the sales agreement. So, but it's going back, I guess they put it back on the— for the assembly to vote on again.

So maybe it'll pass, and I mean, I just see that as a huge cost saving for generations to come for the taxpayers of the borough. So, all right, thank you, Chief.

Yeah, I want to expand on part of what, uh, Officer Kerr or Chief Kerr was saying. So I agree with him on the public safety aspect of the communications towers. I mean, that would be very helpful. We've looked at previously hopping on other constructed towers further away, and they were way outside borough's budget. So that's actually a pretty good incentive that Tidal was sharing with us.

So they are acting in good faith. But on the expansion of services, Um, I forgot to put this in my report. They are currently working on the adaptation of a new service area that is Thomas Bay. Um, in that there's a proposal to include fire, EMS, and police services to that area, specifically the Thomas Bay area. That does not include Agassiz or other outlying areas.

It's restricted to currently the property of the the borough and the state own out there. Any further expansion by service area would require property owners to be involved and want it. But as the population increases, we are looking at larger subdivisions out towards Papke's and things like that, and I do think it is in the borough's best interest to look at going to an area-wide model. I mean, there is no other fire department there is no other police department. Dean, if the members of the public got a chance to vote on it and make a determination on whether or not they actually wanted these services out, I think would be the honest thing to do.

Um, and if they actively said, hey, we don't want this, we're fine with this, and they make their voice known in the form of a vote on a charter change, I think that would be the right way to go. And I think it's something at some point the borough should be encouraged to entertain such a question. So just thinking down the road. They're working on a Thomas Bay service area? Correct.

This is based on land that was obtained as part of borough formation that we're finally getting from either the feds or the state. I think it's the state. And that ordinance will be forthcoming to the assembly sometime in July, it's proposed. But we were able to include response out there. So, all right, from my standpoint, I was in Juneau when the state troopers took everything, uh, outside of the basic downtown service area.

And at one point, the state said, we're done with holding your hand, so to speak. You have a population here, you're going to have to do the service. They withdrew a number of the troopers and forced the city to expand its service area, which was appropriate. Um, and that may be where we're headed with this. If they refuse to respond out there, if they don't have the manpower to respond, then There is no protection out there.

You're not obligated, neither are you. In fact, probably not even supposed to do it. At least when we were there, they had cross-designated our police officers as public safety so we could make arrests statewide, actually, but in that area. Oh, that's not, that's not the issue.

The issue is right now is the Berto Charter says we're not supposed to use service area assets outside of the paid service areas for those assets. Well, that makes sense. I mean, monetary sense anyway.

What's ahead, must say.

All right, any other discussion items?

All right, well, thanks everybody for attending, and if there are no objections, we— is there— can I have a motion to adjourn? Motion to adjourn. Second. All in favor? Okay, we're done.

Thank you. I was getting— I was moving that, just slowly getting there. I appreciate it though. I'm.