The details remain fuzzy, but if the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly approves a resolution at its meeting next Tuesday, a contract with the city of Homer to provide fire and emergency services to the Kachemak Emergency Service Area will end July 1.

That means a lot more than reassigning equipment and volunteer firefighters and emergency medical technicians. The KES area covers an area of about 4,400 people from Diamond Ridge on the west, East End Road on the east and Skyline Drive to the north surrounding the city of Homer.

Borough taxpayers in the KES area pay a tax of 1.75 mills, or $175 per $100,000 of property assessment. Under a contract with the city of Homer, Kachemak Emergency Services has paid $215,000 yearly to the Homer Volunteer Fire Department for fire and emergency medical services.

In effect, KES and HVFD have functioned as one big unit under the command of Chief Bob Painter. Calls made to 911 go through the police and fire dispatchers at the Homer Police Station. Firefighters and EMTs carry radios tuned to the same frequency and are paged together.

If the separation goes through on July 1, Homer would lose $107,500 in revenues from its budget. A similar contract with Kachemak City would not be affected, said Homer City Manager Walt Wrede.

Details remaining to be worked out include:

* What will be the mutual aid agreement between HVFD and KES?

* How would some less-trained KES firefighters integrate with HVFD firefighters on mutual aid calls?

* How many firefighters and EMTs will remain with HVFD?

* How will insurance rates in the KES area change?

The KES area board supports the separation, as do Borough Mayor David Carey and assembly member Milli Martin, who represents the KES area.

"They are absolutely ready," Martin said of KES. "They have the volunteers. They have the equipment."

KES already has one fire station, the McNeil Canyon Station near Mile 11 East End Road. Deputy Chief and Administrator Bob Cicciarella runs KES, and would be its chief.

Key to providing full service is having a fire station on the west side in the Diamond Ridge and West Skyline Drive area. KES has applied for federal stimulus money under a $215 million national program to build new fire facilities, and has plans and a building site on Diamond Ridge Road near the Alascom building and antenna farm.

"Hopefully we'll be moving forward with that construction a lot sooner than expected," Cicciarella said.

In the meantime, KES proposes to house fire trucks and ambulances in a garage on Ruth Way off the west end of Diamond Ridge Road.

At its meeting Monday night, the Kenai Peninsula Borough Planning Commission recommended signing a lease with Samantha Cunningham, a volunteer EMT and widow of founding KES area board president Scott Cunningham, to rent a garage and apartment. That $1,500 a month lease is up for assembly approval next Tuesday. The west-side station would house an attack fire truck, a tanker truck, an ambulance -- now used by Anchor Point Fire and EMS but owned by KES -- and a brush truck. The apartment could allow a volunteer or paid firefighter-EMT to stay on site, but a decision to do hasn't been made, Cicciarella said.

Having a paid firefighter-EMT on duty 24 hours, seven days a week is one benefit KES gets from HVFD -- and that could go away for both areas with the end of the contract. HVFD has three paid firefighter-EMTs who work 48 hours on, 24 hours off, and are at the fire hall to start responding to emergencies. If a fire call comes in, those firefighter-EMTs have to wait for a full crew to arrive at the station.

"They're the anchor of the crew. They coordinate the response, either the medical or fire response," Painter said.

The main advantage is that as EMTs they can respond immediately to life-threatening emergencies, Painter said. For some emergencies, EMTs have to wait for a full crew, but the on-duty EMT at least can start cardio-pulmonary resuscitation or automatic external defibrillators, or AEDs. Some Homer police have AED machines in their patrol cars, but they aren't always available to respond to emergencies.

With a $107,500 cut coming to the city budget, HVFD might lose one or more of those positions, Painter said.

"We have to either reorganize or restructure the department, or eliminate positions," he said.

Another stumbling point is how HVFD would provide mutual aid to KES. Under one scheme, KES could ask for assistance, as with a major fire or car accident. Another form of mutual aid is automatic aid, where both departments are paged on their own frequencies and equipment and crew closest to the scene respond first.

Some KES firefighters, including a class of 12 recruits expected to graduate next month, only have basic firefighter training. All HVFD firefighters are trained at the firefighter 1 level. The main difference is that firefighter 1's can attack fires from inside structures and know how to use airpacks, Painter said. In a mutual aid situation where some firefighters can't do interior attacks, incident commanders would need to know who can do interior attacks.

"You can just say 'you, you, pack up and go in,'" Painter said.

Current volunteer firefighters and EMTs would have to sign letters saying which department they will join. A firefighter doesn't have to live in the city to join HVFD or in KES area to join KES. Some members with long histories might be allowed to work in both areas, as with a member who works in the city during the week and could respond to HVFD calls but lives in the KES area and could go to KES calls on the weekend or at night.

Cicciarella said KES has 30 volunteers of varying training ready to go and join KES. Building up a force ready to respond had been the main factor holding back KES from separating from HVFD.

Under the current contract, KES had planned to separate some EMS services on July 1 anyway. Painter said the contract has "stair-step" provisions that would work in levels to achieve separation, not separate all at once as is now proposed. If the contract remains, KES EMTs would start providing basic life support east of Fritz Creek, with advanced life support by HVFD. As able to, KES also would take over EMS on the west side.

Another key difference with the separation would be dispatching. A 911 call made from the KES area would go to dispatchers in Soldotna, who would then page out calls.

Insurance ratings could change, too. Those would be recalculated the next time inspectors visit the lower Kenai Peninsula. The last inspection was done in 2008, Painter said.

Borough and city officials will begin working out details next week, assuming the assembly approves the plan. Cicciarella said KES and the board will start fine-tuning plans over the next few months to make sure all the details are worked out.

"The key to the success of all this -- this is a small community. We're all going to be working together as much as possible," Cicciarella said. "This is adding more resources to the community, not taking away any," he added. "When you can add more resources, that's probably a good thing."

Michael Armstrong can be reached at michaelarmstrong.@homernews.com.