Borough assembly talks timber

PALMER — Jesse Sumner and Tam Boeve saw their first action as members of the Mat-Su Borough Assembly at a joint meeting Oct. 23 with the Mat-Su Borough Planning Commission.

The borough did not pass OR 18-093 at the Oct. 16 meeting. Three tie votes came down to Mayor Vern Halter to break before the assembly ultimately decided not to take action that night.

The proposed changes to borough code would allow for the number of logging trucks traveling on borough roads to jump from two to 12. Members of the Talkeetna community spoke in opposition to the ordinance, citing safety as their main concern.

Deputy Mayor Matthew Beck made the original motion to postpone the ordinance. Assembly members questioned if this would allow for further study of what was determined to be an arbitrary number.

“The crux of the biscuit here is that transportation and safety go hand in hand,” Assemblyman Jim Sykes said, opposing the amendment. “There’s just an intense lack of evidence that there’s anything behind this and it’s an arbitrary number.”

The ordinance cites a need to log forests that have suffered damage from spruce bark beetle. At the time this ordinance was written, the sale of Chijuk timber to China had been all but a done deal. This ordinance was designed to help make it easier for smaller timber operations to get in on the infrastructure put in place to sell the logs, but without ships bringing Mat-Su timber to China, concerns were raised over the amount of traffic on rural roads.

“This is really important stuff and to arbitrarily change the code is really not a good thing, and if you think this needs to be changed, bring it to us! We would be happy to sit down and talk and see why two is too few, but I do not think we need 24 trips a day,” Ruth Wood said.

Assemblyman George McKee felt that the original ordinance, passed in 2005, did not foster economic development. He stated that he understood the concerns of those who came forward during public comment, but that the borough also had a responsibility to the economy to allow for operations to exist and not restrict them.

“I and several others in here had a close enough experience with the sockeye fire to be concerned about that,” Assemblyman Randall Kowalke said. “If it’s choice of the citizenry that you don’t want the local folks involved in this business, so be it. People can afford to get these permits and they will, it just won’t be your local guys. I urge the passage of this ordinance.”

Sykes made a second amendment on top of the original amendment by Beck to postpone for two weeks, and moved to postpone the passage of the ordinance until the middle of December. Both amendments were voted on, back to back. Halter voted no, twice, to break a 3-3 tie and not postpone the ordinance.

Sykes, Dan Mayfield, and Beck voted yes on postponing, twice. Kowalke, Ted Leonard and Mayor Halter voted no.

Following the failure of the two amendments to postpone, McKee suggested that the number be changed from 12 to six. The assembly was again conflicted on the passage of an ordinance that relied on arbitrary numbers. Beck moved to refer the ordinance to the Planning Commission for 90 days.

The Oct. 16 meeting was the last for Kowalke and Barb Doty, who was absent from the meeting.