MINUTES

Thursday, July 10, 2008

 

Chairman Jim Sykes called this Lazy Mountain Community Council general meeting at Lazy Mountain Bible Church to order at 6:30 pm. Community Council Board Members Jim Sykes, Celeste Moore and Shannon Rochelle and 12 general members and guests were present. As 10 Community Council Members constitute a quorum, a quorum was present.

 

The meeting began with the Pledge of Allegiance. A report from Borough Assembly member Lynne Woods was added to the agenda, which was then approved with no objections. Next, we considered the minutes from the June meeting. Mark van Diest’s last name was added to the minutes, then Helen Munoz moved that we approve the amended minutes. Celeste Moore seconded the motion which passed with no objections. 

 

Pat Larrabee reported that we spent $7053.30 on roads in June. Pat has been working on the matrix for our CIP list. He mentioned that we will need a new RSA representative when Shannon Rochelle leaves in the fall.

 

The next order of business was discussion of initiating the SPUD process. Jim Sykes checked with the borough and discovered that our process to this point has been correct. The borough is low on staff right now and asked that we wait until fall to begin work on the SPUD. Jim will work with the Planning Commission to move the process to the point where we can advertise the need for members of our SPUD committee.

 

Lynne Woods reported that she has been working on getting money for capital improvements for borough roads. The state pays 70% and the borough pays 30%. We are behind on roadwork throughout the borough and our RSAs can’t generate enough money to pay for the needed work. The focus initially is roads that traverse multiple RSAs and have large traffic counts. The immediate need is estimated at $40 million. Lynne stated that tower-related issues are a big part of her work now as well. The borough’s tower working group is in progress and working on that. Helen Munoz asked Lynne about the regional plan and whether it will include septage. Lynne was not sure.

 

Steve Coleman from WH Pacific, Chickaloon Village Transportation consultants, presented information about the right-of-way issue involved in building a road to access Wolverine Lake and their property in the area, IRR Rd #1000, Wolverine Access Road. He distributed maps showing several possible routes for the road. Conversation ensued focusing on the potential use of a section line easement for access rather than use of the RS2477 easement that crosses Celeste Moore’s property. Gary Stevig and Marilyn Staggs from the Chickaloon Village, Steve Coleman and Diana Riggs from WH Pacific, Bruce Paulsen from the borough, and  the Lazy Mountain Community Council members who spoke all indicated willingness and consider pursuit of  route Alternative 4, use of the section line easements to access Chickaloon land. 

 

In a straw poll asking people to express a preference among the proposed routes, Alternatives, 1, 2a, 2b, and 3 all received no votes while Alternative 4 received 12 votes. Celeste Moore moved that Lazy Mountain Community Council wait until after our August meeting to reply to WH Pacific, and that we request the engineer’s report with additional information on all the route options, especially Alternative 4. Joanne Smith seconded the 

motion, which passed with no opposition. We will invite an Alaska Department of Natural Resources (DNR) representative to our August meeting to help answer questions since much of what is happening with respect to easements seems to be dictated by the DNR..

 

No status report was available on the Morris Communications tower on Doug and Jill Warner’s property. 

 

Questions about the cell tower on Mark van Diest’s property on Huntley and have been resolved to the satisfaction of most concerned parties. Tom Harmon expressed appreciation for Lazy Mountain Community Council’s involvement and assistance.

 

Jim Sykes shared three informational items: (1) Alaska housing energy rebates are still available, (2) Senator Huggins’ energy forum on 6/25 focused on the cost of fuel for farmers and encouraged all to buy food locally (3) at the Alaska Energy Authority meeting the primary conversation was about linking all 6 railbelt utilities together to provide cost savings to all, (4) our August 14 meeting will be held in building #3 here at Lazy Mountain Bible Church.

 

With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 7:55 pm.