Butte nixes plans for fire breaks

Residents want less-aggressive measures

January 8, 2006

DARRELL L. BREESE\Frontiersman reporter

BUTTE - The Mat-Su Borough Assembly was ready to award a contract for fire mitigation clear-cutting in the Butte area Tuesday, but a request from the Butte Area Community Council halted the process.

The proposed plan called for clear cutting in order to establish fire breaks in the Burnt Butte area.

The bidding process had been completed and the borough was ready to award Frontier Tree Care a $43,709.97 contract to complete the fire mitigation, but members of the Butte Community Council spoke up, saying they wanted a less-aggressive cutting plan.

Unable to settle on a cutting plan, assembly members voted not to award the contract and decided instead to use the money for wildfire mitigation elsewhere in the borough.

Butte council members sought a plan that would eliminate just the older and decaying trees, instead of cutting a wide swath through the area.

&#8220What the community council expects from the fire-mitigation cutting and what our study prescribes don't match,” Dennis Brodigan, borough director of emergency services, said. &#8220The clearing the council wants will cost about 4.5 times more than the plan called for by the contract.”

Borough officials believed that there was nothing more that could be done to bring the two sides into agreement and voted unanimously to reject the award of the contract.

&#8220We've been in discussion with the Butte Community Council for almost a year,” Borough Manager John Duffy said. &#8220We've given the council ample opportunity to come to an agreement, but if it hasn't happened yet it is not likely to happen.”

Lucille Frey, a member of the Butte Community Council, was thankful that the borough was willing to follow the will of the council regarding the fire mitigation.

&#8220The council believes that it was an exchange for one fire hazard for another,” Frey said. &#8220We believed that we weren't getting any real improvement and I appreciate the borough respecting the desires of the council.”

Contact Darrell L. Breese at 352-2267 or darrell.breese@

frontiersman.com.