Archives
This page is dedicated to keeping a record of old council and area business for possible future use. As the site grows I need to delete items on pages that have fairly current or always relevant content. Those deleted items will end here if deemed appropriate or if they could possibly have any future value.
11-20-2016, I added the 2016 remote parking pass for the Talkeetna parking lot to the trails page. I believe that most of the parking passes are due toexpire at the end of December.
11-5 -2016
I didn’t make the Oct. meeting so only have a brief outline of what was discussed.
It was decided to fully fund all the revenue sharing grant applications that were for local projects. I believe there was one for improvements on the Chase Trail along the RR tracks between the bridges next to Talkeetna, one for new bridges for the north end of the Nodwell Trail and one to replace the tractor maintenance fund that was used last summer for our share in the costs of replacing the outside boards on the Talkeetna Rail Road Bridge walkway that we use for access to our trail. There was about $3900 left and it was decided to meet again in December to finalize which grant applications get funded and by how much they are funded.
The Chase Comprehensive plan update was discussed. The draft is now on line at the borough web site and is up for a 90 day review period. Only some of the statistical data was changed to better reflect the present time period (most of the supporting data on the plan was from the 1980’s).
A elections nomination committee was formed. Peg Foster and Beth Pike are on the committee. There will be three seats on the board of directors that are up for election at the January meeting.
The Nodwell Trail easement was discussed and I believe that three applications were submitted in order to make our trails that are on borough land legal except for a short section up near front lake that goes through private land.
Well that is about all I know check back late after the minutes have been submitted and attached for further details.
Chase- Nodwell area Trails.
The Chase Community Council just received notification from the borough that a lot of the trails in the Chase area are not on easements. The borough is giving property owners the right to apply for an easement on their access trails. Please read the PDF attachments below named Chase Community Council 1 and 2 for further details.
July 20th 2016 meeting notes
Our July 20th meeting held in the 232 gravel pit was well attended.
A brief rundown of the meeting is as follows. Please check back at a later date to get a copy of the minutes for further details of the meeting.
For correspondence a request was made for details of our local trail system by a recreational company and they were told there are no recreational trails in our area all the local trails lead to someone’s house or cabin.
A local resident brought up the fact that some folks are driving too fast on the trail and not slowing down for bikers, walkers and runners. It was decided to speak to the main culprit about trail etiquette.
The MSB has had employees in the area mapping our trails which will be located on borough maps in the future. Also hopefully this will result in our trails having a legally established right of way documented in any future land sales. One of our residents said he talked to one of these folks and they said all the property owners will receive a letter after the borough is done mapping giving them a chance to buy their right-a-way but that was not confirmed by the borough.
The Comprehensive Plan update committee had a meeting with the borough planning department and their request for a simple statistical amendment in lieu of a full re-write was approved. The existing Chase Comp. plan will remain as is and an amendment will be added to the end with more recent statistical data that has been vetted by a public process such as census report etc. The borough planning department employee that is assigned to us is currently in the process of obtaining statistical data that would meet the requirements of being vetted by a public process and also pertain to our comprehensive plan. This should be available by our next meeting
One grant for 2017 was already accepted by our board members and the work completed. It entailed the RR replacing the outside planks on the Talkeetna River Bridge. They provided the labor and we paid for the planks with grant funds. Our grant committee person got permission from the borough to use the tractor maintenance grant money to forward fund this project.
Status of this year’s grants, Ray has been working on the Nodwell trail and has a lot of sump type holes dug to help alleviate the standing water problem we get when the rains start plus some trail grading and possibly other stuff.
We are still accepting grant proposals they need to be in by October 15, 2016
There have been an increased amount of bikers and other recreational folks that think they can get to Curry or Gold Creek via our trails because of information located on the web. Anyone finding any of this information should reply with the fact that our trails only go to personal homes and cabins and not Curry or Gold Creek. Thank-you in advance if you do reply.
April 21,2016
Last night was our April quarterly Council meeting the following are the highlights of what was discussed.
We got a letter from the borough stating that we are once again able to get revenue sharing funds of $19300. The Board of Directors accepted the funds and started to discuss area needs that the grant money could fund. The replacement of the two outer boards on the RR bridge walkway was discussed and it was decided to find out if the rail road would be interested in doing the work if we provided the funds. Area residents and landowners are encouraged to also submit grant proposal for projects that benefit the local area. See the grant page for the specific paper work needed.
The CCC also received a letter from the borough stating that they are researching options to dedicate a public use easement along the last four miles of the Chase Trail (I am assuming they are actually referring to the Nodwell trail). It also states that the borough is interested in documenting the existing access trails used off the Chase Trail. Their staff will be using GSP units to document the location of the Chase Trail as well as existing trails.
The borough has also stacked out a firewood area that can be used with a permit located just off the Nodwell trail north of coyote ridge. See the sign on the trees for all the requirements needed to harvest firewood in this area.
The Comprehensive Plan Committee had a meeting with the borough planning department at which they requested a simple amendment to the plan that would contain current statistical data in lieu of a full re-write of the comprehensive plan, thusly leaving the current plan as is. The CCC Board approved a letter to the borough asking for just an amendment in lieu of a re-write and if the simple amendment isn’t possible then to leave the plan as is at this time. It is now up to the borough legislature to approve the amendment process.
The new board officers were elected. The co-chairmen are James Tunnell and Jonathan Durr, The secretary is Annie Helmsworth and the treasurer is Mike Woods.
A permit was requested for cross country travel in our area for the middle of April; our board went on record of opposing the permit due to the late travel date and the early breakup this year (the past permit obtained by this party ended in loss of life due to late travel and insufficient depth of ice). The permit was for the Gold Creek area for supplies to be transported to Stephan Lake.
The need to possibly establish trail etiquette guidelines for local businesses and any other heavy trail users were discussed (possible liability issues? No final resolution).
Mark from the borough also had brought up the fact that a lot of the parking passes in the town parking lot were expired and vehicles might start to get towed if not renewed (the paperwork to submit for a pass is located on the trail page of this web site). This is just a heads up for users of the parking lot.
The Su-Dam committee update is that things are presently hinged on the state budget for this year to see if the Su-dam gets any funding or is allowed to keep the funding they currently have (about 16 million). I believe a lot of the science surveys for the permit have been submitted and the result is that they need more data. Don’t quote me on any of this information as I am not sure if it is 100% correct.
Well that is about all I can think of at present more will be available at a later date in the meeting minutes when they are submitted .
January 22, 2016
I didn’t make the January 21st meeting so only have a brief note acquired by asking one of the board members.
James Tunnell was reelected to serve another term and Mike Wood was also elected to the CCC board of directors. The officers for the coming year were not determined as there was barely a quorum so it was decided to wait till all the board members can get together to decide who will hold what CCC board position.
There was a change made to the meeting dates due to board member conflicts. They will be changed to Wednesdays instead of Thursdays. I have changed the meeting page to reflect this change.
Highlights of the April 23 meeting 2015
Because of trail conditions the meeting at the 232 gravel pit was sparsely attended but we did have a quorum thanks to James, Kip and Annie.
A brief outline of the items discussed follows
AEA still has up to 30 million dollars (not sure exactly how much) toward the dam study. At present AEA and our state government are negotiating who will end up with these funds that have been previously appropriated toward the project.
Mark form the borough who attended our previous meeting has not been heard from since in relations to the possible changes for our town parking lot. Anyone with suggestions might think about relating them to him.
The Mat-Su borough assembly has approved our request for starting the process of updating our Comprehensive Plan to better reflect current data (most of the data was from the mid 80’s). A borough employee has been assigned to us to help implement the necessary borough requirements for an update.
A letter was received from the borough stating that there will be revenue sharing funds available for 2015-16. The board voted and approved the acceptance of said funds ($20,200.). Some discussions was held on possible grants that could benefit our area. Also the fact that many area property owners and residents do not completely understand the grant process and it was suggested that more education of the public on the issue was warranted. A brief refresher of the process is as follows. The person writing the grant is liable for all of the management responsibilities involved in implementing the project plus project progress reports. The Chase Council only approves and provides the funds for the grants. These funds cannot be just kept in an account for possible future needs but must be spent during the year that they are appropriated for or soon after.
Work is ongoing towards last year’s local grants the tractor shed and the Nodwell trail improvement. The rest of the grant funds went to the area non-profits.
It had been suggested that we obtain an easier web address to remember or search. It was approved by the CCC board to allocate funds to buy for 10 years a web domain something like chasealaska.org. Hopefully this will be done by the next meeting. When it is mapped to our site I will post the address on the web site. The original web address that you may have bookmarked will also still work.
Well that is about all I can remember form the meeting check back later when the minutes are posted for any further details of the meeting.
July 23, meeting notes 2015
The following is a brief description of what was addressed at the July 23 meeting. Further details of the meeting will be available when the minutes are submitted. Also note that the April minutes are now available on the minute’s page of this web site.
There have been issues with tourists refusing to give way to ATV’s on the RR bridge and requiring ATV’s with trailers to back up off the walkway taking a chance of jackknifing. It was decided to move the sign closer to the bridge that states that pedestrians are to yield the right of way to ATV traffic. This should help alleviate the issue of who ultimately has the right of way.
Trail comportment especially associated with commercial use of our trail was also talked about. Future policies may be necessary to address this issue.
The parking lot was briefly discussed. I believe the local borough employee has put in for a CIP grant to clear the trees from the existing parking lot to the well house. Being on railroad land and in the Talkeetna town-site it would be assumed he would need their approval to remove said trees. I’m not sure I’ve got all the information on this issue so don’t quote me.
It is time to start applying for upcoming revenue sharing grants. It is rumored that this may be the last year for them so anyone who has a project they would like to do that benefits our community is encouraged to write a grant. All the information and applications are found on the revenue sharing grant page of this web site. I believe there may be one to put a simple bridge over wiggle creek.
The status of last year’s grants that were for local projects is, Orville (Ray) James has finished his work on the Nodwell trail and all the local residents seem pleased with the job he has done so if you ride that trail thank him. The shed for the trail maintenance tractor is almost finished. The main contributor and grant writer was Kevin Foster, he had help building the shed from Donnie Billington, Kip Boers, Jerry Boutte, James Tunnell and Beth Pike. The paint job was done by Peg Foster and Beth Pike and the doors are to be build and installed soon by Tim Cox.
There are some new signs that are to be installed on the trail that refer to breakup trail travel requests. The signs also publicize the community web site address where trial conditions are posted especially breakup conditions. If we all limit our travels during these fragile trail times we could keep from ruining them further.
Also please note that the money that was frozen for Su Dam studies has been unfrozen so some study work will resume and the project is not dead as we Chase residents just downstream of the proposed project were hoping.
The revamp of the comprehensive plan is slowly progressing committee members are being requested by the borough.
October 22 Meeting Highlights 2015
The October meeting was well attended and productive. The following items are what I remember from the meeting further details can be found at a later date in the minutes when they are posted to the meeting page.
The main item discussed and decided upon by the CCC was the awarding of the revenue sharing grant money. We had requests for funds from three local entities one for further work on the Nodwell Trail, another for bridges over streams on the Clear Creek Trail and a grant for funds to maintain the trail maintenance tractor. The local non-profits that submitted grant request are The Susitna River Coalition, Food Bank, KTNA and the Sunshine Transit. All grant requests were funded at least in part see the revenue sharing page for further details.
We have some new signs that will be installed on the trail requesting restrictive travel during break-up see the trails page for further details and exact wording. The new web site address is also found on the signs.
There was a report from the dam committee. AEA is still pushing for funds to complete the licensing process and is asking for a schedule change in the licensing of the dam from FERC. I will ask our dam committee for a summary of what is going on and attach it to the committee page so check back later for a more accurate assessment of where the dam licensing process is now .
The committed that was formed to update the comprehensive plan is on hold the borough employee that was assigned to us to implement the process has quite so no further action is being sought at this time.
There was an e-mail request for a comprehensive map of the area trails by individuals in the tourist industry and our CCC board member who deals with the e-mails has informed them that all trails in the area lead to people’s private property and thusly are not for use by any commercial entity.
The last item I can think of is that the next meeting is the annual election of board members so a committee has been formed to facilitate the elections. Two board seats will be up for re-elections. Nominees will be solicited at a later date closer to the January election meeting.
Well that about wraps it up
January 2015 Meeting Notes
The January 2015 meeting saw the election of three new board members. Tim Cox, Jonathan Durr and Annie Helmsworth were elected to serve two year terms on the Chase Community Council Board of Directors. The new board officers are Kip Boers and Jonathan Durr as co-chairman, James Tunnell is the treasurer and Annie Helmsworth is the secretary.
The recipients of the revenue sharing grants were announced see the revenue sharing page for the results.
The updates on the committees were that the comprehensive plan update is stalled at the borough level as we await being assigned a borough representative.
The Su Dam is in flux pending the upcoming legislature sessions decision whether to uphold the decision to cut the capital budget and stop the project. Governor Walker had announced upon taking office due to the low oil prices and the resulting lack of revenue that all capital projects that were not mandated or at least mostly federally funded were to be cut. There could still be some life to the project. The CCC voted unanimously to oppose the dam.
Some correspondence that was received was an announcement of a request by the borough for CIP grant applications. I believe this is some redistribution of bed tax money.
Mark from the borough parks and recreation department attended the meeting as a person to be heard. He was soliciting ideas for a revamp of the parking lot that we Chase residents and property owners use. He will keep us informed about the progress of this revamp. There needs to be more room to accommodate the summer tourists and the weekend property owners who bring large trailers for their snow machines and ATV’s.
The CCC has joined with another group to officially intervene on the proposed Talkeetna dam which is currently in the licensing process.
The new web page is to aid all and any new CCC Board member with the knowledge of what is required of the board.
Well that about covers all I can remember I will post the minutes when they are available so check back to catch anything I missed. No picture this time my camera battery was dead.
2014 October Meeting Notes
The 2014 October Quarterly meeting of the Chase Community Council was held last night the 16th at the Talkeetna Roadhouse.
Here is a brief synopsis of what was discussed. The meeting minutes have already been posted to the minute’s page so please see them for further details of the meeting.
There are 3 seats on the Chase board up for reelection this coming January all area residents registered to vote in the area are encouraged to run for office.
Trail work has been completed on the main trail from town to 232 by Kevin Foster and Brad ?. There were also some culverts installed by James Tunnell, Donnie Billington and RJ Denny near Snoflake Lake in an area which has experienced water problems.
The grant applications are almost all in and it was decided to post them here on the web site so all can see them, check back latter to see the postings when I receive them. The decision of who will be granted the money will be decided after the last grant is in and the council’s board of directors has had a chance to review them.
Grant applications were received from the Susitna River Coalition, Sunshine Transit, Upper Susitna Food Pantry, Friends of the Talkeetna Library, Chase Community Tractor Building, My House (a nonprofit shelter), KTNA radio and a grant to be submitted soon for work on the Nodwell (sp?)area trail.
It was also discussed that area property owners be encouraged to attend the meetings and give their input and concerns for the Chase Area. Only area residents (individuals registered in the Chase area to vote) are able to vote for the Chase Board Members but all land owners are welcome to voice their opinions and concerns.
The Land Creek property that was discussed in length at the last meeting was pulled from the list of properties slated for an upcoming land disposal by the borough. An application was submitted for another dam in our area this one on the Talkeetna river.
Another Subsistence survey is being performed by a group called Stephen R Braund & Assoc or SRB&A this is in regards to the possible future gas line.