Kenai Peninsula Borough to Participate in Statewide Exercises

Today, the Kenai Peninsula Borough met with local media to discuss agency roles in the upcoming “Alaska Shield 2016” exercise March 31 and April 01, 2016. On these days, you may see uniformed first responders or Army National Guard, staged vehicles and equipment as well as directional signs in the Soldotna area.

The Alaska Shield 2016 exercise is a statewide exercise that is held every two years. Planning for the exercise is based upon a theme that allows participating jurisdictions to design local, preparedness exercises. The Borough is one of 62 government and non-government agencies around the state that will be participating in Alaska Shield.

Locally, the Borough, School District, Soldotna Police, Alaska State Troopers, Alaska Army National Guard, Central Emergency Services and Community Emergency Response Team members have been preparing for exercises that will focus on the three areas of preparedness: (1) assessing Borough departments’ Continuity of Operations Plans (COOP); (2) evaluating cyber security reporting protocols; and (3) training employees in an active shooter program. All of the exercises will be held in Soldotna at the Office of Emergency Management or at the Borough/School District Administrative Building.

These are preparedness exercises intended to evaluate multi-agency interaction and capabilities. You may see uniformed first responders or Army National Guard, staged vehicles and equipment as well as directional signs on-scene at these two locations on March 31^st.

NOTE: There is no known terrorist or cyber security threat at this time. Over the next two weeks, the borough and participating agencies will continue to provide regular notifications through the local media and on social media sites. Information flyers will also be distributed to neighboring residents and businesses located near the exercise locations. For regular updates, enter your email address for notifications from the Borough’s emergency information blog at www.kpboem.com.

Brenda Ahlberg, Public Information Officer

Kenai Peninsula Borough

907-714-2153 or bahlberg@kpb.us

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