Borough, MSCVB officials address impacts of lost tourism

PALMER — Mat-Su Borough Mayor Vern Halter and Mat-Su Convention and Visitors Bureau President Bonnie Quill both addressed concerns over the economic impacts of coronavirus pandemic that has infected 246 Alaskans and nine Mat-Su Valley residents to date. Halter announced that all playgrounds borough-wide will remain closed until further notice.

“Our challenge in Alaska is that most every visitor arrives either by air or by cruise ship, two modes of travel people are less likely to plan when the travel restrictions are lifted,” said Quill. “I am confident that we will have a strong second half to our summer at this time based on our operators optimism and bookings that still remain.”

Quill said that the MSCVB tracked a record number of visitors to the Mat-Su Valley in 2019 and that tourism companies were reporting an increase of bookings in January of 10 percent. Since the outbreak of the COVID 19 virus, Quill said that staff at the MSCVB have shifted their messaging to encourage residents to stay home and remain safe.

“We will be waiting and ready for visitors when the time is right,” said Quill. “We know that recovery will start with locals. There will be a big pent up demand for people to take a trip, especially a short distance from home with friends and family.”

Quill shared harrowing survey statistics that showed travelers decrease in willingness to take trips and went through a long list of cruise and tourism companies that had canceled or suspended travel to Alaska until the end of June. The Alaska Railroad will begin running the Denali Star train on July 1 and the Talkeetna Lodge will open on June 14, according to Quill. Halter was joined by Assemblywoman Stephanie Nowers who thanked her friends and neighbors for taking the COVID 19 pandemic so seriously.

“I do know that we have bought ourselves time to be able to respond to get the tests ramped up, to find other ways to get creative to deal with keeping our business going while social distancing,” said Nowers. “I know our business community is resilient but I also want to try to do everything we can to help them weather through this storm and then come out on the other side.”

Halter asked Nowers to lead a team of representatives from the borough, Houston, Palmer and Wasilla to determine the economic impact of the COVID 19 pandemic on the Mat-Su Borough. Prior to Wednesday’s press conference in the assembly chambers at the Dorothy Swanda Jones building, Gov. Mike Dunleavy had released his budget vetoes, including $18 million for school bond debt reimbursement in the Mat-Su Borough.

Halter estimated that the $18 million cut handed down to the Borough represented approximately two mills.

“The cost of those mills going out to our residential property tax payers is a distinct problem with us. The Mat-Su Borough has faced, this is our fifth or sixth major disaster in five years and it’s tested our strength and tested our ability to financially absorb those disasters and this is just another one on the line so I was very disappointed about vetoing the school bonds,” said Halter.

Halter was questioned about the upcoming November election and noted that Anchorage had just completed their municipal election on Tuesday with mail-in ballots.

“The best thing for the people in the state of Alaska and certainly in the Mat-Su Borough is to go ahead with elections. Mail in ballots are something I think is worthy and we should pursue,” said Halter. “ think it’s too early to tell but I’m pretty confident that the election in the fall is going to go forward.”

Mat-Su Regional Medical Center CEO David Wallace and Capstone founder Wade Erickson joined the press conference to discuss testing capabilities in the Valley. Erickson estimated that Capstone has the capacity to provide 200 tests and MSRMC has 700. While Mat-Su Health Foundation CEO Elizabeth Ripley did not join this week’s press conference, Halter echoed her words from last week that rates of domestic violence crimes are rising. Stalking and Domestic Violence are the only two crimes exempted from the courts decision to release all misdemeanor defendants without bail for the time being.

“The stats are showing it’s going up 30 to 40 percent. We want everyone in the Mat-su Borough to recognize this, to seek out people that may need help. So let’s watch that very carefully with our fellow residents,” said Halter.