We’re not ready for the ‘Palin effect’

To the editor:

This is an open letter to Mat-Su leaders. We are getting tons of media attention in our area and I feel we are really missing an opportunity to make this a major tourist destination. We lack facilities, campsites, signage and an advertising message that changes the image of Alaska as a high-cost vacation area to a great place to see at a reasonable cost via our roads and parks system.

This should be at the top of the capital budget list.

If Sarah Palin does a reality show about our area, the reality is we are not ready.

On a busy day, you can’t get into Finger Lake or Wasilla Lake parks now. I would hope you would rethink this and put this at the top of the list and coordinate with the cities, borough, parks and Department of Fish and Game.

We are missing hundreds of millions of dollars in tourism revenue that will come yearly with very little capital budget expenditures and little or no legacy fees. The Palin effect is worldwide and we should be preparing our area to host visitors with a variety of things to do, places to stay, un-manned pull-off areas with helpful maps, bathrooms, campsites and so on.

I do not think we are ready. Do you?

Bob Andres

Wasilla