Troopers get new home
Col. Julia Grimes, director, Alaska State Troopers, cuts the ribbon on the formal dedication of the Anchor Point Alaska State Troopers Post on Monday afternoon, Oct. 10, as Captain Thomas Bowman, head of E Detachment, right, holds the ribbon.
Photo by Michael Armstrong, Home
With the snap of scissors, Col. Julia Grimes, director of the Alaska State Troopers, cut the ribbon to the entrance of the new the Anchor Point Post of the Alaska State Troopers on Monday afternoon.
About 50 people attended the formal dedication of the relocated post. The troopers assigned to the lower Kenai Peninsula of E Detachment had worked out of leased office space at the Homer Police Department in downtown Homer. Last May, the troopers moved to the new post.
The Department of Public Safety transferred the post to Anchor Point after Anchor Point residents asked the troopers to relocate its lower peninsula base 14 miles north. Anchor Point cited the need to have troopers closer to the area where troopers responded most to service calls.
In his remarks to citizens attending the dedication, Sgt. Tom Dunn, head of the post, noted the town's campaign to relocate the troopers.
"I want to thank the people of Anchor Point," Dunn said. "I have never been anyplace where the community wanted us as badly as you do here."
The new post is in a building leased by Kyllonen Enterprises to the state. Located on the Sterling Highway near Chapman School, it had been a Laundromat and roadhouse until Kyllonen bought the building in 2003. After the Department of Public Safety put out a request for proposals last summer for a post in Anchor Point, Kyllonen won the bid and remodeled the building to meet trooper specifications.
The 3,200-square-foot space includes a squad room with trooper workstations, a conference room, interview room, evidence storage room, break room, supervisor offices and two suspect holding cells. There also is a 3,600-square-feet outside storage area.
Dunn said a standby generator for emergency power will be installed soon. The post also is near a landing strip, which trooper aircraft can use.
Commissioner of Public Safety Bill Tandeske said when he was a trooper on the lower peninsula from 1981 to 1983, he worked out of the same 500-square-foot space as Homer Police. Tandeske said in the past few years, lower peninsula troopers also have received a new patrol boat, the P/V Augustine.
"We're getting the tools our employees need to serve you," he said.
Dunn supervises five troopers — including two Alaska Bureau of Wildlife Enforcement troopers — and an administrative clerk. A position created when Dunn was promoted to sergeant, replacing former Sgt. Jim Hibpshman, and a second position created last year by the Legislature remain to be filled.
The Anchor Point Post troopers respond to calls from Clam Gulch to the lower Cook Inlet villages of Nanwalek and Port Graham.
As troopers have settled in, Dunn said area residents have welcomed them, even bringing food by. He extended the welcome in return.
"We truly appreciate the support you've given us," he said. "Don't be a stranger."