Funding moves several borough projects forward

The nearly $20 million in federal funds headed for the Valley will fund a host of projects ranging from improved roads, to the battle against spruce bark beetles and fire protection education.

On top of appropriations for work at Port MacKenzie, several other projects will keep borough staff busy during the coming months. A $3 million appropriation was secured for upgrading substandard roads. Mat-Su Borough Manager John Duffy said Thursday the borough road service area boards will submit requests for projects to be funded by the appropriation -- typically roads that need improvement, but lack either the necessary traffic counts or other information to move it forward in the normal rotation of road improvements.

Two million dollars, Duffy said, was earmarked in the transportation section of the spending bill to go through the Alaska Department of Transportation and back to the borough to fund a float plane base in the Valley. While not a part of the borough's federal funding request list, Duffy said the subject gathered support from individuals in the area.

"Apparently, a lot of individuals have been asking for a float plane base in the borough for a couple years," Duffy said. "Right now, we're in the process of contacting DOT to identify all the funds going to be used. We'll work on it."

Spruce bark beetle-killed trees garnered some attention in the federal spending bill, as well. An appropriation of $1.7 million was earmarked for urban wildfire mitigation in the Valley, part of a package of appropriations distributed around Southcentral Alaska. Program manager Bea Adler said $1.5 million was appropriated for the Kenai Peninsula Borough and $2 million for the Municipality of Anchorage. Adler said the borough is taking a three-pronged approach with the funding, the first step of which will be to identify where the largest problems relating to spruce bark beetle-killed trees lies. That step, she said, will involve aerial and satellite photography that will map vegetation, while also locating roads, fire access and water sources.

The second step, Adler said, will be education -- making people aware of Firewise programs, the need for defensible space, and the need, not only for monitoring vegetation around homes, but for keeping houses clear of other debris that could turn into tinder. The third step, Adler said, will involve actually clearing trees. Under the proposed structure, she explained, homeowners can call a hotline that will be set up, and have a free assessment of their property done to see what areas need to be cleaned up. They'll be provided with a list of businesses who will clear any dead trees, Adler said, and can present the receipt from the tree-clearing to the borough for a partial refund. Adler said she's basing the setup on the model used last year in Anchorage, which offered a 70-percent refund.

The South Denali Visitor Center, indirectly as a result of the spending bill's passage, received $750,000. Mat-Su Borough Planning Director Susan Dickinson said the funding will go toward completion of an environmental impact statement for the project. Much about the project -- to provide a southern access to Denali State Park and Denali National Park -- is still up in the air, such as where the visitors' center will be located, but Dickinson said agencies working on the project have begun the process of narrowing the field of potential sites.

A trail that has been long discussed in the Valley -- a multi-use gravel trail stretching 20 miles from Wasilla to Big Lake -- also got a nod through the federal appropriations bill. An appropriation of $500,000 was earmarked for the project, which Assembly Member Jody Simpson, who has worked on behalf of that and other trails in the area, said should help cover some of the cost of determining land status along the proposed route, which would follow Lucille Creek.

The trail, Simpson said, would allow area residents to use motorized vehicles such as snowmachines and four-wheelers along the Big Lake to Wasilla route -- an act that is presently illegal within the DOT right of way. The funding is just a start, Simpson said -- the total project cost is estimated at $8 to $9 million.