Hikers, tiny train collide over trail use

WASILLA — These trains may be tiny, but they’re generating a lot of steam among some Lake Lucille Park trail users.

When the city of Wasilla informed the Alaska Live Steamers in 2008 that it would need to move its trains off property it leased from the city at the Wasilla Airport, the popular summer tourist attraction shifted into an area off Riley Avenue that local hikers had used. That 20 acres near Smith Ballfields is also leased to the club for the next 10 years, with an option for 10 more, said Wasilla Mayor Vern Rupright.

At a June 27 Wasilla City Council meeting, one of those trail users expressed her frustration with the move.

“I’m disturbed that Trail 4 at the park, in existence since the 1980s and the longest and most scenic trail at the lake, is still fenced off by Alaska Live Steamers,” 20-year Wasilla resident Kelly Dau told council during public comments. “The lease agreement states that Alaska Live Steamers is a worthwhile public service. I question how this was determined. I do not understand how restricting public access to an existing trail and charging the public to ride on miniature steam trains provides a worthwhile public service.”

Dau, of 1760 Harvest Loop off Knik-Goose Bay Road, said that while she’s been in contact with Wasilla Public Works Director Archie Giddings, she’s unhappy with the city’s rate of progress to remedy the situation.

“Mr. Giddings informs me that the Alaska Live Steamers are concerned with people being harmed by their trains,” Dau said. “If this is their concern, why can’t the trail be open now? No trains are operating there. From my understanding, that would be every weekday all summer and every day from September through May. Alaska Live Steamers only operates on the weekends during the summer months.”

She argued that the trail should be preserved as is for the common good and pleaded with Rupright to direct his staff to look into the matter and open the trail as soon as possible.

Rupright said the issue with the location of the train has been around for a few years and that the city’s hands are tied. Recent upgrades at the airport put the train club’s operation too close to airport facilities, according to Federal Aviation Administration guidelines. Because the club has a valid lease for the new property, it’s free to use it, he said.

“It was a 2008 council that approved it. I ended up having to sign the lease because it was a directive,” Rupright said. “I walked the property through the muck. It was great. They had to get off the airport, otherwise we’d get nailed the way bombers get nailed with huge fines.”

Giddings confirmed Rupright’s statement, adding the city can’t force ALS to leave the trail open. He said the city is hoping to put in another trail along the ridgeline. The work has been slow going because the city had run out of funds and manpower and needed to wait until the start of the new fiscal year July 1.

“I’m going to walk it with them to see if there might be access for joint use,” Giddings said of ALS and local trail users. “It’s basically going to be a construction zone, so I wouldn’t recommend having the joint use now because of that.”

The Lake Lucille Park trail system off Endeavor Road is a total of 1.6 miles, but the portion blocked off runs east of the soccer fields and around Carson Amphitheater for one-half mile.

Until this conflict arose when ALS moved onto the property, the city didn’t even know the trails were there, Rupright said. The trails were put in by the Mat-Su Borough once upon a time without prior notice to the city, he said.

The Alaska Live Steamers website, alaskalivesteam.org, gives a history of the attraction, which was located behind the horse barns on the Alaska State Fairgrounds in Palmer from 1976-93.

It moved to its previous location behind the Museum of Alaska Transportation and Industry and was open for business again by the end of summer in 1994. That site featured a 1,900-foot point-to-point line with a 40-foot tunnel.

In a web post June 3, ALS announced the city had extended Riley Avenue alongside the club’s leased property.

“ALS crews have already cut down trees and need to remove stumps for the first of the ALS buildings,” writes Jim Pappas, a club member. “More work needs to happen at the new site in order to get the planned 2,800-foot loop in the summer of 2011.”

In a post dated June 16, Pappas says ALS was able to rent a bulldozer to clear and level most of the parking lot, along with prepping the pad for the caretaker’s cabin.

“We have a large amount of gravel piled up and ready to haul out to the swamp to start the rail bed for the first loop.”

Contact K.T. McKee at kate.mckee@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.