Iditarod, Donlin Gold among items discussed at borough assembly meeting

PALMER — With Mat-Su Borough Mayor Vern Halter absent and a light agenda at the Mat-Su Borough Assembly meeting on the April 3, Deputy Mayor Matthew Beck breezed through the meeting in just over an hour. The assembly passed a resolution recognizing and honoring the Iditarod Trail and updated elections dates as a result of the November ballot.

Noticeably absent from the meeting was former Public Information Officer Patty Sullivan, who after 13 years with the Mat-Su Borough, took a job with ConocoPhillps.

“I’d like to thank Patty Sullivan for her 13 years of service with the Mat-Su Borough. Patty understood the importance of communication. She worked tirelessly to bring us news updates, stories about our community, she was a dedicated professional and she will be missed,” Assemblywoman Tam Boeve said.

Sullivan worked in fisheries, emergency communications, grant writing and priority projects. Sullivan established the first Borough Office of Public Affairs and added social media presence, produced videos photos and podcasts to present to legislators. Sullivan also helped put together presentations that have brought in $154 million in state appropriations to the Port Mackenzie Rail Extension and wrote two grants for over a half a million dollars for the Government Peak Recreation Area. Sefan Hinman is the new point of contact for Public Affairs.

Daniel Graham, permit and environmental manager for Donlin Gold, gave an update on their proposed pipeline project and the permitting process they are going through currently. The project is nearly 20 years in the making, and when construction begins, it will provide thousands of jobs to build the gold mine and mill. The 313-mile proposed pipeline would run from the mine site north of Crooked Creek through the Mat-Su Borough to the Cook Inlet.

“We do live here, we spend our money here, we have Randy Jenski fix our cars and buy tires at Diversified Tire. So we do have an impact on the borough even now,” Graham said.

Graham said that nearly 30 percent of Donlin Gold’s current workforce are Mat-Su Valley residents. The proposed gold mine would provide hundreds of jobs once built at a rate of 1.1 million ounces a year for the 27-year life of the pit. That is three times as large as what the Fort Knox facility outside of Fairbanks produces now. Donlin’s 20-year permitting process has acquired permits from F&G, DNR, DEC, BLM, and USACE, and just finished a 60-day hearing period on the pipeline right of way and land use authorizations. Crews began geotechnical drilling early this year and the mine and pipeline still have a long road of permits ahead of them. Once the financial analysis is done, the 50/50 owners NOVAGOLD and Barrick will have to decide how to proceed once state permits have been finalized in 2021.

“The two proposed access routes, one is Oil Well Road and one is Willow Creek Parkway. Could you just speak to the potential impact to the community of the roads themselves,” Assemblywoman Tam Boeve said.

Graham noted that a final route has not been selected yet, and that the use of the road would only occur during construction season. Donlin still has to produce 27 plans to that the state will review concerning all of the construction aspects of the project. Boeve asked about additional public comment on the proposed road use.

“From the state side, no. But from the project side, Donlin is a very transparent company and we’d be happy to sit down with you or anyone else from that district and hear your concerns about that access and then work that into the construction phase on how we’re going to get in and out of there,” Graham said.

The assembly passed ordinance 19-035 to recognize and honor the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Assemblyman Jim Sykes passed an amendment so that the second whereas statement would read, “Whereas the Iditarod trail sled dog race involves human and canine athletes making their way across 1,049 miles across Alaska’s wilderness and weather and serves as a tribute to Alaska’s history and importance of sled dogs.” It passed with George McKee and Jesse Sumner opposed.

“I think it retains the intent of what’s there and I think it respects a larger variety of what actually happens in the race,” Sykes said.

Borough Manager John Moosey noted that with everyone tightening their belts around the state, the borough is doing the same. Moosey and Beck met with Gov. Mike Dunleavy to go over priorities earlier this week.

“He is essentially pretty much all in on his budget, there’s not much talk about a compromise,” Moosey said.

Moosey noted that the House passed an additional five year moratorium on school building as a part of a compromise with the governor for not removing all of the matching funds for school bonds. Part of that belt tightening has already begun, as animal control will no longer take personal pets. They will still pick up stray and nuisance animals, but no longer accept personal pets that owners do not wish to care for.

“As I reported in the past we have a smart hiring freeze and we have made individual cuts. [We’re] asking all departments to do that now in anticipation because it is my view that the more reserve we can have, it will allow us to deal with whatever comes, and my fear is that decisions will have to made at this assembly table before we really know the final result of the state budget and so with potential loss of revenue sharing of over $2 million, the loss of the $5 million match for the work that was done, infrastructure work at the port being at risk, and then the $19.5 million school bond debt reimbursement, I think it’s just prudent to take those measures. So we’re trying to do that where it doesn’t negatively impact our citizens, but it will certainly have some inconvenience factors,” Moosey said.

Moosey is engaging in ongoing discussions with A2A for the rail project, and described it as not imminent but making progress. The assembly voted to continue voluntary performance reviews of the Clerk, Manager and Attorney. The motion to continue reviews passed with Ted Leonard, McKee and Sumner opposed. The assembly approved three motions unanimously. Ordinance 19-041 approved $64,200 for enhance 911 software and equipment for Wasilla. Ordinance 19-043 approved $2,500 for the Equestrian Acres Homeowners Association to build a pathway from Folsom Drive to Bogard Road. Ordinance 19-044 approved $9,601 for animal care equipment and supplies for animal control.

Sumner submitted Ordinance 19-045 to change the election date to the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November following the passage of the measure on the November ballot. The measure also eliminates the mayoral runoff. If candidates were in a race too close to call or a three way race without a majority, the candidate would be chosen with the most votes, or a plurality. This eliminates the $100,000 possibility of a mayoral runoff. The measure also moved the date that the election brochure must be published to 20 days prior to a regular election and 15 days prior to a special election in an effort to have a more informed population of voters. Helen Munoz continued her well-natured berating of the assembly, arguing that the borough’s septage problem needs to be solved sooner rather than later. Sarah Williams testified that ‘hemp is hope,’ for the second meeting in a row.

Contact Frontiersman reporter Tim Rockey at tim.rockey@frontiersman.com.