•State dollars designated for Homer Forestry office used for Soldotna upgrades instead
By Layton Ehmke
Homer Tribune
June 20, 2007
For 10 years the Homer forestry office housing the area’s initial attack squad has been located in a building borrowed from the Department of Transportation abutting the runways of Homer Airport.
Funds acquired last year through local representation in the Legislature were supposed to have been used to find the office a more permanent home — but they weren’t.
Now local lawmakers are asking why. Prior to the fiscal year, Paul Seaton, R-Homer, had a hand in placing $50,000 in the Department of Natural Resources budget, thanks also in part to public demand.
He considered the funds a specific designation, per the language of the budget, for the Homer station’s building lease.
Once the funds were set, the overseeing office in Soldotna distributes them through the area — and Borough Assembly representative Milli Martin is of the mind that the funds were drained in Soldotna before making it down the road.
Homer did, however, get something out of the effort: a photocopier, fax machine and some utility payments —roughly 10 percent of the $50,000.
But for years, the local fire crew has been saying they really needed was a home and a new fire truck. “I’m going to ask Seaton’s office to pursue this to see that it is corrected — and I want it corrected now,” Martin said.Martin said her chief concern remains that Homer has traditionally been shortchanged when it comes to the Soldotna office dolling out funds for equipment — exemplified by unfulfilled equipment requests through the years.“And in particular, Paul (Seaton) put in that $50,000 specifically for Homer,” she said of what she called a grassroots effort to reinforce the forestry’s presence in Homer.
“The public came to Paul and said it wanted support for our local firefighters. Just look at the Anchor Point fire this weekend and the Tracy Avenue Fire (of 2005),” she said. “We need that support in Homer, and we need the space.”
In turn for the space they currently occupy, the Division of Forestry pays the utility bills each month — amounting to between $350 and $500.
The Department of Transportation delayed dozing the current Homer forestry office for another year, allowing the foresters to cuddle with DOT for another season. While other locations for the Homer crew teeter on availability and suitability, some have found it frustrating why a better location has still not yet been secured with money tethered to a plan.
“We’re in (DOT’s) space, and they put up with it. But we don’t have a secure place to park the equipment,” said Wildland Fire Technician Terry Anderson. Currently, local wildland firemen use one Type 6 brush engine and a pickup packed with a water tank.
The local firefighters on that four-man team keep an $80,000-ball-park fire truck on their wish list. But Soldotna area forester Ric Plate, who holds the financing pen over Homer, said his analysis of interagency cooperation and the delay in building demolition mean the wish list will have to wait.
Plate said the $45,000 leftover from the copier, fax and utilities is being used on the renovated dispatch center and warehouse truck with modifications in Soldotna, as well as funds from other sources.
“It’s not like we’re neglecting Homer, because the HVFD (Homer Volunteer Fire Department) does have a lot of equipment, and they work cooperatively with each other … I’m not going to knock the Legislature, because I think they do what they do really well.
We will continue to forward the requests up the line, but sometimes it takes a few years. It’s a process we have to go through,” Plate said.“We’ve been putting in requests to get more engines.
The fact is, none of the stations are staffed up to meet the need, so what we have is a really good cooperative agreement with HVFD. We have to rely on each other,” Plate said, adding that their current hold in the DOT building is fine for now — so why move out before DOT asks them to? “It’s a really good location.
It’s easy to head east if you need to, or to go off to Anchor Point,” he said. Through this year’s forest fire season, Plate said his intent is to continue to search for a more long-term facility.
Seaton staffer Katie Shows said finding a better home for Homer forestry is imperative, and worries that since the money was used elsewhere, it could strengthen the argument to snip if from the next year’s budget.
While Seaton’s office is pressing the Department of Natural Resources to track down where precisely the money went, Anderson finds himself asking, “Is that really what the Legislature and the people pulling for a station intended?”
When the operating budget was being discussed in committee in April of 2006, Anderson said Plate asked the foresters to go to the finance committee and state the case for leasing location for the crew. Meanwhile, no lease has been put together to put out to bid for Homer.
That could prove problematic, since the purchasing process piped through the division’s finance office in Palmer is known as something of a choke-hold. Any expenses more than $5,000 has to go through a lengthy leasing and procurement process, and staff in Seaton’s office worry a lease won’t be ready in time.
Director of Forestry Chris Maisch said he knows it’s important to have space, though much of it isn’t needed for the better part of the year since so many foresters are seasonal workers. “We’ll definitely maintain a presence in Homer,” Maisch said.
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