New Emergency Services station opens in Northern Susitna Valley

On Sunday, Mat-Su Borough officials and first responders held a ribbon cutting ceremony at the borough’s newest emergency services building in Sunshine.

The new station, numbered eleven-nine, is located at Mile 99, right across from the ‘Y’ where the Parks Highway and Talkeetna Spur Road intersect.  Its red exterior is easily visible from the highway, even through a buffer of trees.

Inside, the new facility has multiple bedrooms for responders working long shifts, a full kitchen, training room, and living area.  It also has a large garage for ambulances, all of which will be kept warm in the winter with in-floor heating.

Borough Manager John Moosey says the old facility resembled “a refugee camp,” with inadequate facilities for responders working long shifts.  Moosey says the new station was funded with leftover money cobbled together from completed projects, so did not result in an increased mill rate.

Acting Emergency Services Director Ken Barkley says the station will be staffed full-time, and responders could be dispatched from the Y as far away as Mile 202 of the Parks Highway.  Borough Manager Moosey also indicated on Sunday that Barkley may not be the acting director much longer, as he plans to nominate him to take the permanent position at the next borough assembly meeting.