The Fairbanks North Star Borough does not have area-wide powers for road construction or maintenance, fire or police protection, water and sewer services, or other local services. A service area is a taxing jurisdiction of the Borough established at the request of the voters within a geographical area to provide certain of these services within their specific area. The Rural Services Division provides full administration support to 109 service areas. Some of the support services provided are contracting, procurement, bill payment, engineering support, technical advise, inspection, budget management, training and research. The Division also acts as an intermediary between service area commissioners and other state and local government units. The Division is also responsible for processing boundary changes, annexations, formation of new service areas, tax cap adjustment requests (as pertains to service areas), as well as recommending appointments to fill service area commission seats.