by Leyla Santiago
Wednesday, August 26, 2009

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Every year firefighters fill up boots with money on Anchorage streets to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

But this year may be the last year -- the city contends it's a public saftey issue having firefighters in the street without the right of way.

MDA has permission to fill boots with money on the streets of Anchorage this year. But next year the city is giving fundraiser the boot.

"Every year, if I take this Fill the Boot and I say, let's do it per capita, it's number one in the nation," said Sandy Baker, Alaska MDA's executive director.

This year the boots are expected to bring $125,000 -- a major fundraiser that helps pay for services that help more than 300 families in Alaska dealing with muscular dystrophy.

"It's a very worthwhile cause and no one is questioning that at all," said George Vakalis, Anchorage city manager. "They do great things with the money that people provide and that's not the issue."

And while the city gave MDA a permit to keep raising money on the streets of Anchorage this year, that's not the case for next year.

"The primary concern we have right now is the liability issue," Vakalis said. "The code does not allow for that type of activity in the right of way. And the code has been in existence for quite some time, and so the concern of course that we have is that we are allowing an activity to take place that by code is not allowed to take place."

But that's just one reason the city claims it's putting a stop to the event.

"The issue is public safety and liability," Vakalis said. "Under the current conditions that we are operating today, with the current ordinances, they will not be able to conduct this activity next year in this manner. That doesn't mean they can't do it some other way. But they just can't do it in the right of way until certain things change."

It's a disappointment for the organization who says it has the same priorities the city claims to have -- serving Alaskans.

"The mayor asked all of us in his inauguration speech -- he asked us to redouble our efforts to provide services to those we serve, were his words that he used," Baker said. "That's all we're trying to do."

As for the safety issue, MDA says that's not something it takes lightly.

"MDA invested in making sure that we would have enough safety vests for the firefighters, because not all of them have them," Baker said. "We invested in some new signage that we could put further down on the intersection so that people are again aware."

But that's not enough for the city, which says in order for MDA to continue the fundraiser there must be a change -- be it the law or the fundraiser.