Mayor hopefuls talk trails

September 1, 2006

By Michael Rovito/Frontiersman

Candidates for Mat-Su Borough mayor seemed to ban together Thursday night in support of dog mushers and the mushing culture during a political forum at the Willow Community Center.

The event, put on by the Willow Dog Mushers Association, posed four questions directly related to the sport of mushing to the candidates, who consistently showed their unwavering support for the organization.

Issues ranging from changing the standards of the borough noise ordinance - to differentiate rural standards from core standards - to an active musher holding a seat on the borough's Animal Control Advisory Commission were posed to the candidates in the form of four questions.

Perhaps the hottest issue of the evening dealt with the Willow Area Trail Plan and the candidates' position on trail preservation and creation.

Jody Simpson, a mayoral candidate from Big Lake, said, as she did in a past debate at Houston High School, that she is fully in favor of preserving the Mat-Su's trail system, citing her involvement in the dedication of the 2,005 miles by 2005 trail project.

Other candidates, including borough assembly candidate Tom Kluberton of District 7, echoed Simpson's desire to see the trail system in the area thrive, with mayor candidate David Straub, an ex-Iditarod racer, pushing for what he calls responsible development.

&#8220The whole borough needs to go back and look at trails and make them safe,” Straub said.

Charlie Fannon, a candidate for mayor and Wasilla resident who said he has worked on trail issues, pointed to his hometown as an example of what happens when the Mat-Su's trail system is allowed to be overrun by development.

&#8220Wasilla is behind the eight ball,” Fannon said. &#8220They wish now they would have kept all the trails.”

The harmony of unanimous support among the candidates ended when the audience was given time to ask questions near the end of the forum.

A question about a proposed prison to be built in Houston deviated from

the purely mushing-related questions

and raised mixed opinions from candidates.

Many candidates, except for Straub, said they support a prison in Houston as long as that is what Houston wants, with Kluberton adding that a significant boost to the economy will come from the project.

Currently, inmates from Alaska are shipped to Arizona because of severely limited space in Alaska jails. A prison in the Mat-Su Valley would not only help to rehabilitate prisoners, according to Curt Menard, a mayoral candidate from Wasilla, but would bring 1,600 new jobs to the Valley.

Straub, however, who holds much the same opinion as fellow candidate Bruce Walden, who was not present, said a new jail is not the answer to Alaska's crime problems. That answer, he said, lies in the education provided to potential criminals that would prevent them from committing crimes.

The issue of a prison in Houston was only the beginning of controversial topics addressed by audience members.

The crowd of about 40 reacted with cheering and applause when Willow resident Ed McCain, a surveyor in land development who has lived in Alaska since it was a territory, expressed his concerns with the rewrite of Title 16 in the borough assembly, something he called &#8220a threat to the Alaska dream.”

A requirement of the Title 16 rewrite is that when subdividing land, utilities such as water and electricity must be connected. Many residents in rural areas such as Willow have said they feel a threat to their way of life because of Title 16.

Fannon, who estimated that at least 90 percent of the people at public hearings are against passing Title 16, said it still has a long way to go.

&#8220It's been years in the works, and it needs more work,” he said. &#8220Title 16 would be a nightmare for rural areas.”

Mayoral candidates will meet again at a debate put on by the Frontiersman newspaper in the evening Sept. 27 at Mat-Su College. The time of the debate is still to be determined.

Contact Michael Rovito at 352-2252 or michael.rovito@ frontiersman.com