Chalet construction underway at rec area

PALMER — With any luck, Nordic skiers at Hatcher Pass will have a new chalet in which to warm up before this winter ends.

“It’s not official, but from what I understand … it should be pretty much finished by the end of the year,” Mat-Su Borough Manager John Moosey said Thursday of the chalet the borough is building in the Government Peak Recreation Area.

The foundation was poured Oct. 3 and required 150 yards of concrete, according to a press release from borough spokeswoman Patty Sullivan.

“Innovation through a Team Build approach to construction made a slim $1 million budget deliver a building twice the size as originally expected: 4,000 square feet. In-floor radiant heat was the result of Team Build as well,” Sullivan wrote.

Moosey described “Team Build” as going into a project without a set design, seeing how much building the borough could get for the money it had on hand. He said the borough happened to get lucky in that the contractor building the facility is a Nordic skiing enthusiast.

“There’s no way we felt we could afford the in-floor heat, but he’s able to do that and I think just because of personal interest and they want this project to succeed,” Moosey said.

According to borough documents, that contractor is Davis Constructors and Engineers.

Moosey said projects in Hatcher Pass are starting to come together.

“Last year the trails, this year it is the chalet. Hopefully next year we will start seeing some private development up there, too,” Moosey said.

He said that if a private partner wants to come work with the borough on an alpine — downhill — skiing area the borough would be all ears.

“If we could get a partner on that, that could actually happen,” Moosey said.

He said the chalet itself is also kind of a work in progress. He said the borough is mulling plans to expand it in the future.

“It’s not going to be everything that we want it to be yet, but it’s going to be a building, a solid building with heat and some bathrooms,” he said.

On Tuesday, the Mat-Su Borough Assembly annexed the road that runs past the chalet into the South Colony Road Service Area and most of its Government Peak Recreation Area into the Greater Palmer Fire Service Area.

“I have gotten concern from road service area people up there that are going to be burdened with this maintenance and they’re the ones leaning on me,” Mat-Su Borough Mayor Larry DeVilbiss said at Tuesday’s meeting.

But assemblyman Jim Colver, who represents the area, said the road and fire service areas boards of supervisors actually approved the plan.

Colver said that a service area feeling put upon in this situation is an unfortunate consequence of the way the borough is structured. The borough provides road service through service areas, and does it that way because it’s a second-class borough, unable to take on the duties itself without the local boards.

“If we want to spread out the burden equally among all the citizens we’ll have to form a different kind of government,” Colver said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270

or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.