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Resident urges borough to avoid duplicating EMS service in Bear Creek, points to Seward Volunteer Ambulance reliability
Summary
A Bear Creek resident told the assembly that planned ambulance additions and spending by the Bear Creek Fire Department would duplicate services already provided by Seward Volunteer Ambulance Corp and urged officials to prioritize unmet rescue capabilities instead.
During public comment on April 15, Albie Tatum, a Bear Creek resident and member of Seward Volunteer Ambulance Corp (SVAC), urged the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly to reconsider Bear Creek Fire Department priorities, arguing the department's plan to add an ambulance and related staff would duplicate services SVAC already provides.
Tatum told the assembly SVAC is a private nonprofit (501(c)(3)) founded in 1953 that provides full‑time advanced life‑support response and transport over a wide area without taxing borough residents. He said SVAC currently operates three advanced life‑support ambulances and that the service covered multiple simultaneous calls while maintaining ALS staffing.
"We provide all of this at no burden to the taxpayers. 0 burden to the taxpayers," Tatum said. He also disputed response times included in a fire department report, saying SVAC's FY24 average call-to-enroute time was "5 minutes and 42 seconds, not the 12 minutes that Bracken put in the report." Tatum asked the assembly to scrutinize the facts and urged focus on gaps he said were not being addressed, such as low‑to‑high angle rope rescue, swift‑water rescue and other specialized water rescues.
Committee background Earlier in the day the committee of the whole received presentations on several service areas, including the Bear Creek Fire Service Area and the Bear Creek Flood Service Area; Chief Bracken and Nick Chapman presented those reports. At the meeting, some officials had described perceived service gaps in Bear Creek and the department's intent to expand ambulance capacity.
Tatum questioned that prioritization for a relatively low‑call service area (he estimated roughly 50 calls per year) and urged the assembly to gather full information from all providers before approving duplicative spending.
Why it matters The exchange highlights a local tension over how borough resources and fire‑service area budgets should be allocated: whether to invest in local ambulance capability within a fire service area or to rely on an established nonprofit ambulance provider. The borough will consider service‑area budgets and any related appropriations as part of its ongoing budget and service planning.
