PUBLISHER'S NOTEBOOK: Emotions burn hot over woodstoves issue

Tuesday night’s Mat-Su Borough meeting was interesting one and one that makes the point of why public comment and public meetings is so important. The right to address our government and voice our concerns is fundamental to our existence as a free society. That being said, provoking public comment with misinformation can be detrimental to the process. The issue at hand was resolution 18-004, which would allow the Mat-Su Borough to enter into an updated memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC).

Through the magic of social media misinformation about the borough and in particular, Borough Manager John Moosey, a canard of the borough wanting to ‘take your woodstoves away’ spread like wildfire. Nothing rousts the ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ crowd like a statement that the government is here to take something away from them. During the three-minute public comment period, many residents spoke their peace about the resolution and some of their testimony did, in fact, have influence on the assembly. But it was those who presented their concerns in a calm, factual manner that appeared to have the greatest persuasive effect.

For example, there was Bill Kendig, President of the Knik-Fairview Community Council, who stated he didn’t have an understanding of the MOU until he actually read it. But in his mind there were too many questions about the MOU and asked that the Assembly table it until more information was made public. He was spot-on and others echoed his statement. He didn’t stand at the podium with an accusatory tone and threatened a lawsuit. He didn’t tell John Moosey to fight the federal government on this issue as others did. Sure, that’s a great idea! Let’s send our borough manager into war against a well armed battalion with a pointed stick and hope he wins. That’s an unreasonable expectation.

The area in question is Butte. Quite a few of the public comments spoke to isolating Butte and leaving the rest of the Mat-Su Borough out of it. I doubt that if Butte fails the Fine Particulate Matter (PM2.5) test again the State of Alaska or the Federal Government is only going to isolate Butte. Besides any expense that the Borough has to take on because of Butte is still a Borough expense. Assembly Member Dan Mayfield (District 5) tried to substitute the resolution with a resolution that would have isolated the affected areas but it was voted down by the assembly.

Some of those who spoke wanted more air monitoring stations in hopes that the EPA would use an average of the borough’s air quality, rather than isolating the two monitors in existence — one in Palmer and one in Butte. The monitor in Butte is the one that has exceeded the acceptable level. The Palmer monitor has not. I would think it would only take one monitor to be over the accepted level to count as one violation and another would count as two violations. But again, it’s a question that couldn’t be answered Tuesday night.

Then there is Brian Endle, who opposed Assembly member Jim Sykes (District 1) in the last election. District 1 includes Butte in its boundary. Endle’s solution is to write a letter to the DEC and take down the towers and send them back. Then what? Does Endle think the DEC or EPA is going to write back and say “Okay, thanks for your past participation.”

If it was that easy I’m sure that the Borough would have done so. Why would the Borough want to be managed by the State or the Feds? In some capacity the Borough and in particular Moosey has to be able to work with them. He has to show that there is an effort to educate and inform the community on a wiser way to burn wood and trash. I’ve learned in Alaska it’s a little more complicated than just cutting, splitting and stacking wood outside letting it dry and burning it as my family did in Colorado when I was a boy.

The borough made it clear that they are not out to confiscate wood stoves and, in fact, many of the Assembly members pointed out that they are long time Alaskans and use woodstoves themselves. To accuse them of wanting to take away woodstoves is a scare tactic and an untruth. We will never come to resolutions to problems if we throw a smoke screen in the people’s eyes and use fear tactics to get them to fight against a mere proposal that is really about education and information. What the majority of citizens proved Tuesday night is this.

Appearing before your local government and using your three minutes to speak and ask reasonable questions or point out deficiencies within a resolution in a non-combative way can have a great influence. In this case the resolution was voted down out right but this won’t be the last we hear about pollution levels in the borough. The next time I’m sure we will all be more informed and hopefully we can come to a solution before we have that dreaded fourth violation and some outsider comes to a resolution for us.