Assembly postpones Jonesville Management Plan

PALMER — The Mat-Su Borough Assembly voted to postpone Ordinance 21-006 until August by a 4-3 vote on Tuesday.

Assemblyman Tim Hale, who represents the area, moved to adopt the ordinance which would support a management plan for the Jonesville Public Use Area, which was established after the unanimous passage of District 9 Rep. George Rauscher’s House Bill 6 in 2018. Borough Natural Resources Manager in the Community Development department Emerson Krueger presented the staff report on the history of working with the Sutton Community Council to form a committee for the Jonesville Public Use Area Management plan. The first drafted management plan was completed in 2016 and modeled after the Knik River Public Use Area to capitalize on natural resource and recreation opportunities while decreasing errant gunshots. Hale attended the Jonesville cleanup day this summer, which has been ongoing for over 20 years.

“It’s a mess up there right now and I think this is going to be a huge improvement for everyone, so I would encourage unanimous adoption of this,” said Hale. “I think they’ve done a great job of balancing all the different uses in this plan and of ensuring that all uses will have representation going forward. This is really going to be a great public use area you know we had the same type of issues down at the Knik River along many years ago and the state developed the Knik River Public Use Area and it has improved that area for everyone from day ones and this is going to do the exact same thing.”

Krueger detailed the plan to use reallocated land management funds to build a shooting range, parking lot, day use area, restrooms, and signage to alert users what was permitted in which areas within the JPUA. House Bill 6 set aside 14,600 acres to enhance both motorized and non motorized trail use with a priority placed on public safety improvements. Krueger noted that the estimated cost of operation and maintenance once built was $3,000 and that staff believed proper signage would deter reckless gun use. The Informational Memorandum originally presented with OR 21-006 at the meeting on January 5 details the unwillingness from the state to participate in management planning due to a lack of funding, but direction from the state to approve a management plan for the JPUA. Once approved, additional amendments from the Department of Natural Resources and Department of Fish and Game were expected to be added and would need to be reapproved by the Assembly before DNR commissioners would be allowed to sign the agreement allowing the borough to enact the management plan.

“Do you think limiting the use of ATV’s in any way would affect hunting negatively,” Assemblyman Rob Yundt II asked Krueger.

Krueger noted that within the state land portion of the moose range, the recommendation was to limit motorized uses to established trail heads, which has potential to affect hunting. During public comment, questions were raised as to the availability of motorized boats and restrictions on motorized uses to existing trails.

“It wasn’t anybody’s intention to clamp down on the extent of motorized use on the established trails in Jonesville,” said Krueger. “It is intended that off highway vehicle and highway vehicle use continue on the forested uplands adjacent to the Slipper Lake area and the remaining forested uplands with established trails.”

Krueger cited specific pages within the management plan and recalled discussion in the Jonesville Public Use Area Management Planning committee that detailed safety risks of small families with children swimming, ATV’s driving through the shallow lake and the lack of a need for a motor on such a small body of water, restricting motorized uses only in the summer but not to snowmachines in the winter.

“This sounds to me like something the State Troopers could mitigate pretty easily but how it started at 40 acres and became 15,000 I’m still trying to figure out. But is code enforcement going to be on the hook for this here at the borough because I don’t see us having the wherewithal to do it,” said Yundt. “If you feel like you guys haven’t had enough time to read this 203 pages then I would like to make a motion to postpone for 180 days.”

Yundt cited the concerns of Andy Andersen during public comment that Krueger had addressed using specific pages of the management plan itself.

Assemblyman Hale also opposed the motion to postpone, noting that the committee had been meeting twice monthly for over a year and that the 14,600 acres were established by HB6 in 2018.

“There’s been plenty and plenty and plenty of opportunity. It went before the Trails and Parks Committee, it went before the Planning Commission, this thing has been thoroughly vetted by the public,” said Hale. “All these issues had been addressed in lengthy and multiple public meetings for many years.”

Deputy Mayor Tam Boeve noted the numerous public comments submitted prior to the meeting that had been in favor of OR 21-006. Assemblywoman Stephanie Nowers asked if the state had shut down Jonesville over the summer.

“The community council asked the state to shut it down but the state did not comply,” answered Hale.

Hale objected to Yundt’s question about enforcement, noting that the KRPUA is over 200,000 acres and also does not have a dedicated Trooper presence, but the local DNR employee is a more effective means of alerting law enforcement to a problem. Hale argued that signage and expectation for how the area was to be used would provide much of the enforcement. Assemblyman Jesse Sumner moved to call the question and end debate on Yundt’s motion to postpone the ordinance for six months. Sumner’s motion failed 4-3 and debate continued.

“We’ve been talking about the need for shooting gun ranges and this is a spot to have it happen and you’ve got the community support. You can’t just drag a community on and on I do want to get to some of the gentleman’s questions so I’m going to oppose postponement because I’d like to ask something in reference to his questions and I think that this is something that maybe needs to move forward,” said Assemblywoman Stephanie Nowers.

Assemblymen George McKee, Sumner, Mokie Tew, and Yundt voted in favor of postponing the ordinance. Deputy Mayor Boeve, Hale and Nowers voted against.