Forum enjoys lively debate

MAT-SU -- Five assembly candidates turned out at the first Frontiersman candidate forum Friday night to share their views on topics facing the borough.

Assembly members started the forum at about 6 p.m., and the group of five fielded several questions, from transportation concerns to police protection and coal-bed methane development. Although five were present, only the District 6 race was truly contested, with current assembly member Jim Colver and Sherry Pinckley-Trboyevich both present at the forum. Although the District 7 seat is a three-way race, only Meadow Lakes candidate Betty Vehrs was present. Incumbent assemblywoman Kelly Lankford Ladere, who also chairs the board of the Upper Susitna Soil and Water Conservation District, had a conflicting meeting of that body and did not attend, but sent her daughter to give opening and closing statements on her behalf. Meadow Lakes resident Tom Hood, also a candidate for that seat, did not give a reason for his absence.

Transportation needs were one focus of the questions. The Mat-Su Borough was recently notified that more than $125 million in federal funding had been cut at the state level -- an action that has serious ramifications for projects at the borough level.

"The borough is addressing it," Vehrs said. "I don't think the borough has the power to really change any statutory regulations; we can oppose it, and we're going to have to live with it."

Colver said he, along with several other assembly candidates from the Mat-Su Borough and the Municipality of Anchorage, met Thursday to discuss regional transportation issues -- including the funding cut. The group drafted a letter of opposition to be sent to the governor's office.

"It's going to be more body bags, people, because we have these outdated roads," Colver said. "We have sixty percent of the population, we should be getting sixty percent of the funding."

Pinckley-Trboyevich agreed that the matter was of utmost importance.

"This is something we have to deal with right away," Pinckley-Trboyevich said.

Assembly incumbent Bill Allen, who's running unopposed for the Palmer District 2 seat, said in times of budget reductions, everyone needs to tighten their belts.

"We have to work with our delegation to establish priorities for the money we have available," Allen said, adding that the state needs to set priorities for funding, such as life safety, and hold to those priorities.

Assembly incumbent Talis Colberg, running unopposed for District 3, said Alaska has, in the past, been fortunate in obtaining more road funding than all other U.S. states combined. He agreed the state should set priorities -- but said the borough's dependence on property tax revenues made its budget vulnerable when funding shortfalls come up.

"We are in a dilemma -- our population is such that we are very dependent on property tax revenues," Colberg said. "The slightest touch has a much more magnified … effect."

Candidates expressed a shared overall concern with coal-bed methane development, but differed in what they thought were appropriate measures the borough should take to address them.

"Everybody should be in on the conversation -- including developers," Vehrs said. "I don't know if we can change any state laws that are already done, but people should be reassured that [their] property is safe -- but I don't think it should be a one-sided conversation."

Colver said he favored having citizen representatives at the table, helping write oil and gas regulations, but added that measures could be taken at the borough level.

"We need to move quickly on the borough level, and put permits in place," Colver said.

Pinckley-Trboyevich agreed that regulations should be put in place to protect property owners, but not to chase developers away.

"We need to get some regulations in place so that something like this never happens again," Pinckley-Trboyevich said. "But we need CBM. It's a good thing for the Valley, and I'm behind it 100 percent. I don't think it's [Evergreen Resources'] fault. From everything I've seen, they're the innocent party -- it's not their fault the way they came in."

Allen said he believes it's realistic to think property rights can be protected while coal-bed methane is developed.

"If feel strongly that this industry can co-exist with the attitude of protecting individual property rights," Allen said.

Colberg said he believes the issue had been unnecessarily blown out of proportion by the campaign season. When Evergreen presented information to the assembly last year, he said, the atmosphere was friendly and assembly members indicated support of the company's plans. He suggested discussing issues like water quality and surface rights after the election, when discussions are less politically charged. He later added that although several people have requested the borough come forward with an ordinance regulating CBM development, no one has put forward an idea for such an ordinance that suits everyone.

"I've had no two people come to me with the same idea of what that ordinance is," Colberg said, adding that in such cases it's more appropriate to give the matter an added dose of attention. "Government works best when it works slowly."