Rasmuson grant helps light the way for Nordic skiers

HATCHER PASS — With financial help from the Mat-Su Borough and the Rasmuson Foundation, Government Peak Recreation Area has a brighter future.

According to a borough press release posted Tuesday, the borough recently received a $200,000 grant from the Rasmuson Foundation explicitly for the upgrade of GPRA, one of four beneficiaries of recent Rasmuson grants in the Mat-Su Valley. Specific projects include upgrading the chalet kitchen to a catering facility, installing a fire suppression system, and lighting the Government Peak trails.

Mat-Su Ski Club President Ed Strabel said most of that grant is going toward chalet additions, which is not exactly on the top of the club’s wish list, but they’ve been in the process of securing funds for trail lighting for some time. With roughly $9,000 of the Rasmuson grant, the club will have a total $115,000 to go toward lighting the trail, and both the club and the borough have applied for other grants through the Mat-Su Health Foundation, which will be awarded in the spring, if they are awarded.

“Hopefully between all these different sources we will have enough money to light the Pioneer, Stadium and Matanuska loops,” Strabel said, referring to various parts of the GPRA trail system.

The borough has already spent $11,000 on a lighting design study, and Strabel has already tested out potential LEDs, but no one is going to start installing light poles until there is enough money to light those three loops.

“It’d be fantastic if we were able to get all the money by next year and get contractor working in May and June ’cause that’s the driest time of year,” Strabel said.

But while those months offer the best opportunities for minimal impact and high efficiency, Strabel’s not holding his breath.

“In reality it may not occur until the following year,” he said. “It depends on how fast the money flows in.”

To increase their chances of getting it done earlier rather than later, club members are discussing an Adopt-a-Light program, as has been employed on Anchorage trails, such as the Hillside ski area by Service High School.

In such a program, individuals, families and businesses would have the opportunity to put their name on a light pole along the trail by donating funds to the light system.

Mat-Su Ski Club is also looking to cut costs of the lighting project for the borough by recycling.

“If we’re able to get recycled wooden poles, we can do it a lot cheaper than if we get new or metal poles,” Strabel said.

The club is looking at various different sources for these poles, he said, the cheapest of which costs about a dollar per foot, so transportation of the poles would probably be the biggest expense of that

effort.

Right now, GPRA just has one or two lights secured to trees in the stadium area, which Strabel pulled from the trailhead at his bed and breakfast down the road. The new lights will be relatively low to the ground and facing downward, so as not to create light pollution — or blind passing skiers — in accordance with the Government Peak Asset Management and Development Plan.

In the meantime, the chalet is available for lease year-round for events such as weddings and parties, and the trail system is open to skiers and fat-tire cyclists, as well as people on snowshoes and skijoring with dogs during the winter.

The club is also hosting adult ski lessons and a moonlight ski for the family Saturday at 12:30 and 7 p.m. respectively, following the 11 a.m. high school ski race at GPRA.

Contact Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.