Fish and Game committee re-elects 4, welcomes new member

WASILLA — The Matanuska Valley Fish and Game Advisory Committee re-elected four members, added a new face and took up a potentially divisive Alaska Board of Fisheries meeting location proposal at its Nov. 18 meeting at the Wasilla High School Theater.

Re-elected to the group were Stephen Bartelli, Melvin Grove Jr., Dan Montgomery and Israel Payton. Elected to the committee was Birch Yuknis, according to member Terry Nininger.

“We were happy to get him in,” Nininger said of Yuknis, who added the group also recognized the service of two departing committee members, Bill Folsom and Tony Jones.

“Those guys have been with the AC for over five years and they will be missed,” Nininger said.

Nininger said the committee also devoted much of the evening “discussing at length” a request before the Board of Fisheries to move the 2017 Upper Cook Inlet finfish meeting to the Kenai Peninsula from Anchorage, a move that Nininger said is being opposed by the Valley advisory committee. The Anchorage advisory committee offered its support for the move in a letter to the Board last week.

At an October work session, the Board of Fisheries voted unanimously to change the 2017 Upper Cook Inlet finfish meeting to Feb. 22-March 9, but left open the option to move the location. The Board’s next finfish meeting is Dec. 2-8 to address Bristol Bay issues. Local advisory committee member Andy Couch said he expected the decision to be made at that meeting.

In a Nov. 16 letter to the Board of Fisheries, City of Kenai Mayor Pat Porter, Soldotna Mayor Pete Sprague and Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Mike Navarre offered up more than $61,000 in service savings if the board were to hold the 2017 meeting on the Kenai Peninsula instead of Anchorage. The letter said the borough and the two cities would commit to providing a venue as well as coffee, tea and water for the meeting at no cost to the state, adding that the last BoF Upper Cook Inlet finfish meeting on the Kenai Peninsula was in 1999.

Nininger said Kenai City Manager Rick Koch addressed the group on the proposed change at the Nov. 18 meeting, but members still felt the potential Peninsula move was not a good idea.

“We are opposed to that and have sent a letter stating that opposition to the board,” Nininger said. “The regional meeting is the largest in the state — it can go up to 14 days — and we feel Anchorage is the best suited location for all involved. It’s a long way to travel to the Kenai and very expensive to move the staff.”

The next meeting of the advisory committee is set for 7 p.m. Dec. 16 at the MTA building.

Contact reporter Steven Merritt at steven.merritt@frontiersman.com