The upper floor of the Pacific Rim Institute of Safety and Management facility in Kenai disproves the statement "if you build it, they will come."
The $13.5 million facility was built in 1998. The first floor of the building and the surrounding grounds are leased by the city of Kenai to a company called Engineering Support Incorporat-ed, which runs the fire training operation. While the PRISM portion of the facility has grown in usage since the facility's construction, the upper floor of the building has sat vacant.
According to Kenai Mayor John Williams, the space was designed to house an emergency management training facility. The original intent was to have a facility that could offer training for emergency management personnel on a statewide basis, Williams said. But it was set up to do more than just training.
"It could be converted at a moment's notice to an emergency management center if the need arises," he said.
Williams and the Kenai City Council contend the space would be an ideal home for the Kenai Peninsula Borough Office of Emergency Management, since that is essentially what it was designed for.
"There is absolutely no reason in the world why this facility couldn't serve the purpose it was intended to," Williams said.
The OEM currently operates out of a portable building at the Borough Building site in Soldotna, but there is an ordinance on the horizon for the borough assembly's April 1 meeting that may instigate the relocation of the OEM.
Ordinance 2002-19-35 would authorize the purchase of four lots in Soldotna for the purpose of building a Central Emergency Services administrative facility. The land, which is across Wilson Street from CES, would be bought with $122,500 from the Land Trust Fund. The borough is hoping to get state and-or federal funding to construct a building on the site.
If grant money is awarded, the plan is to expanded the facility to house the 911 dispatch center, which currently is at the Alaska State Troopers post in Soldotna, and the OEM.
"In concept, the idea was all three departments could share the facilities that would be built," said Dave Gibbs, OEM coordinator.
Gibbs stressed, however, that discussions about the use of the proposed facility are only in the conceptual phase at this point, and no final decisions have been made.
According to Ed Oberts, assistant to borough Mayor Dale Bagley, if state and-or federal funding is not secured for the construction of the proposed facility, construction of a smaller facility for just CES will likely go forward.
If an OEM move is on the horizon, the city of Kenai hopes it will be to its building and not to the proposed CES one.
According to Williams, the second floor of the PRISM building offers all the facilities that would be needed for OEM training purposes or in the case of a real emergency.
There is a new media library ready to be stocked, a control room that is being used for fire training operations and a meeting room designed for members of the media and other people to gather in the event of an emergency. Down the hall is a room designed to house a 911 emergency communications center, a room for financial operations, one for public relations and another that could be used for any additional purpose that may arise.
Around the corner are living quarters for emergency management staff that come complete with shower and bathroom facilities, a kitchenette and a day room. Next to that are quarters for the emergency management commander. It also has a sleeping room, day room and shower facilities. Next to the living quarters is a conference room with a pull-down screen where emergency management people could meet and develop strategies, and a main operations room set up for banks of computers and other necessary equipment.
The facility is fully wired for communications and computer equipment, although the actual equipment is not in place. When it was built, the city dealt with the Federal Emergency Management Administration to get a grant to purchase software, computers, communications and other equipment and training materials to equip the facility. Williams said the possibility of being awarded a grant looked positive at first, but after a change in FEMA directors, the matter slid by the wayside.
Now, with the possibility of OEM moving, Williams said it would be a good time to purchase equipment for the Kenai facility, rather than spend money on a new one.
"We contend, instead of (the borough) building a new building, why not let's finish outfitting this building here?" he said.
In addition to the ready-made space, the facility has some other selling points that would be beneficial to OEM, should it move there, Williams said.
The building is constructed to earthquake-proof standards; it is close to the Kenai Municipal Airport, where people from FEMA and other organizations would fly in the event of an emergency; and the company that runs PRISM has the support capabilities to work with OEM, Williams said.
"There's no reason why it couldn't work," he said. "It could serve a purpose that's needed and intended to train managers and function statewide in emergency management."
One argument against locating the OEM in Kenai is that it would be removed from other borough operations.
"Generally, you try to locate your emergency operations center near your center of government, basically because it's generally staffed by the government people. In this case, it would be the borough," Gibbs said. "It wouldn't be very efficient for operational purposes (to locate the OEM away from Soldotna)."
Williams disagrees with that argument, saying the PRISM building's proximity to the airport and technological advances in communications negate the inefficiency that may come from locating the OEM outside Soldotna.
"This facility is as centrally located as anything," he said.
Another argument against locating OEM in Kenai is if the borough gets the funding for an expanded facility, it might as well include the OEM in it, since it is related in its functions to CES and the 911 dispatch. However, if the funding doesn't come through, it might make sense to move the OEM to Kenai to give it a larger and more permanent home.
"The Borough Building is hurting for space and in the event we didn't get a federal grant, this Kenai facility could be used tomorrow and that would free up some space in the borough," said assembly member Betty Glick of Kenai.
At its last meeting Feb. 19, the Kenai council discussed approaching the borough about the possibility of moving the OEM to the Kenai site.
Glick, who gives reports about assembly matters to the Kenai council, said she hopes to facilitate a workshop between the borough assembly and the Kenai council to discuss the matter.
"Or at least postpone the adoption of that ordinance and look at this not from a political point of view, but what's best for the community, and look at it in a more in-depth way," she said.
According to Oberts, the possibility of moving the OEM to the Kenai site has come up in the past and has not been acted upon. He expects this situation will have the same result.
"I think it'll be discussed. It already has come to the assembly's attention," he said. "Similar to prior times, it'll be discussed, but I don't see any move afoot to move OEM over to the PRISM facility."
