Part of pass closed to snowmachines

PALMER — In what may have been the conclusion to months of debate and hours of testimony, the Mat-Su Borough Assembly has decided to advocate Government Peak remain closed to snowmachines.

A resolution passed this past week provides the assembly’s input to the state’s Department of Natural Resources as DNR reworks its 24-year-old Hatcher Pass Management Plan.

With changes to DNR’s plan on the horizon, a group of snowmachiners came to the assembly with a proposal for a snowmachine trail running through the Government Peak area. Snowmachiners argued there are fewer and fewer trails in the borough that allow them to enjoy their sport. They wanted this one trail.

Skiers aren’t banned in any portion of the pass and argued that snowmachines shouldn’t be used on ski trails; it’s dangerous and the machines tear up trails.

Tuesday’s assembly meeting was a decidedly one-sided affair. The only members of the public who testified were opposed to opening up the area to snowmachines.

“There’s been a lot of talk in the past year about compromise and I agree that compromise is a wonderful thing,” said Palmer High School ski coach Darin markwardt. “However, compromise should never come at the expense of safety.”

The assembly had two resolutions on the table. One came from Assemblyman Vern Halter and recommended that DNR look into somehow structuring the plan to accommodate motorized and non-motorized uses in the Government Peak area.

That resolution drew fire from the crowd and little support from the assembly.

“I was not trying to breach the non-motorized uses of that area,” Halter said. “I was trying to present a picture where you could have a well-defined corridor going through there so there could be a way to pass through.”

He said it is not his intent to let snowmachines take over the area, but it’s an issue that’s not going away. Trying to balance the desires of snowmachiners and skiers in Hatcher Pass will come up again.

Assemblyman Mark Ewing had Halter’s back and they were the only two assemblymen to vote for the resolution.

“If we don’t do something about it there’s going to be more and more snowmachine tracks in area that they’re not supposed to be,” Ewing said.

One assemblyman who notably changed his mind on the idea was Ron Arvin.

“I heard something tonight that hasn’t been put as clearly as it was,” Arvin said. “There were residents there that bought their property knowing that that was a non motorized area.”

He was referring to the testimony of local resident Norm Stout.

“Those snowmachines up on that hillside echo like chainsaws down into the residential neighborhoods,” Stout testified. He said he and his neighbors “built up there knowing that that area was designated … non-motorized.“

But a different plan that Assemblyman Jim Colver proposed passed and without controversy. Everyone who testified in opposition to Halter’s motion and also mentioned Colver’s expressed only support.

Colver explains his resolution in a borough press release.

“The resolution that I sponsored crafted a compromise creating a new motorized play area for beginning to advanced snowmachiners to the right of the Archangel Road and into the Hope Creek Valley in exchange for trading out the winter motorized use of the Archangel Trail. It’s just not safe when we have snowmachiners and skiers on the same trail,” he said.

The resolution eventually passed in the assembly’s consent agenda, in which multiple items are passed with a single vote and no debate.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.