By Nikki Lewis
Turnagain Times Correspondent
Monday, Nov. 16, the Girdwood Board of Supervisors met for its monthly meeting. With the budget for next year voted on last month, the issue of future projects was on the minds of board members and concerned citizens, and the future of Glacier Valley Transit—the community's public transportation provided by Alyeska Resort.
The board started with discussion of the 2010 Girdwood Capital Projects List. Currently there are 18 projects that exist and will be presumably tackled this coming calendar year. The list has been in existence for some time and includes many projects that have been in rotation for years, and board members were most concerned at this meeting about the prioritization of these projects.
What should be first on the list and what last?
“I want to complete projects that have already begun or initiated,” board member John Gallup said.
His comment created a solid debate.
“Just because the project is on the list doesn't mean it needs to go forward,” chairman Jake Thompson said, addressing the reality that many of the 18 projects will most likely not be realized in 2010. “I agree that projects with available funding need to go forth, and we need to have progress on those.”
Projects that have funding coming include repairing and rehabbing Olympic Mountain Loop and the completion of Girdwood Town Square.
But even though these projects have funding, some board members felt that other projects require more urgency.
“We can come up with this prioritized list, but different projects will get bounced back and forth,” said Thompson. “We create a top five list, take that forward and the rest can fall where they fall.”
Quickly the board agreed that a top five list on the Capital Projects list would be the most plausible solution in terms of prioritization
However, during the discussion, one citizen in the audience was upset that a project to improve the bike path and safety corridor may not be included in the top five list.
“Ever since the bike path was built, I have always said it was built in blood,” the audience member said. “I travel the bike path every summer. The last ten years there have been certain spots where I must take my bike out on the road and go around. Recently I have seen children have to do this. This path was built because of fatalities on the highway. This project has to be a priority.”
“Instead of five projects, let's go to eight,” board member Bryan Epley suggested.
“Let's get past the five projects and move on with another three,” said Thompson. “I have no problem with eight projects, again nothing is coming off the list at this time; we are trying to prioritize the sequence of items on here.”
Epley called a motion to establish the first eight projects, and the motion passed with all in favor.
The eight projects decided to be included on the priority list were: completion of Girdwood Town Square, Girdwood LRSA local road and drainage rehab, repair and rehab Olympic Mountain Loop, Alyeska Highway Pedestrian Safety Corridor rehab, completion of the Girdwood Industrial Park, Arlberg extension to access the upper valley of Heritage Land Bank land, Hightower Road upgrade from Alyeska Highway to the Girdwood Library, and air equipment for the Girdwood Fire Station.
The next important issue that was brought before GBOS was the state of Glacier Valley Transit, Girdwood's only form of public transportation, owned by Girdwood Transportation LLC and Hotel Alyeska LLC, which has majority ownership by John Byrne, and operated by Glacier Valley Transit and Alyeska Resort.
Dii Hiibner, Ski Area General Manager for Alyeska and the operations manager for Glacier Valley Transit, stood before the board with a request for funding.
In discussing the benefits of the shuttle Hiibner exclaimed, “We wanted to break away from the old shuttle system. We used to just run back and forth from the day lodge and didn't provide rides to nonmembers. Now we only charge a $1 for a ride and $25 gets you a pass. We also provide DART (dial-a-ride) services, which are available to those unable to physically walk to a bus stop. Our buses also come with bike racks and ski racks.”
Many on the board agreed that GVT has been good for the community.
Hiibner described some other benefits of the three public transportation buses operated by GVT.
“Because no taxi service exists in Girdwood, GVT is Girdwood's only option,” she said. “For $1 someone can avoid drinking and driving, keeping everyone on our roads safer. For a mere dollar a Girdwood child can be provided with a safe ride to a friend's house, avoiding having to walk the edges of the highway.”
Glacier Valley Transit even offers students at the Girdwood School a free month pass on the shuttle in light of public safety, Hiibner added.
Now GVT is asking for community support.
“Glacier Valley Transit has applied for and received rural public transit grant money,” Hiibner said. “It was discussed that after the three-year trial period, if public transportation seemed viable for Girdwood, that the operation would be taken over by the community.
“Although 60 percent of riders on the shuttle are hotel guests, we pay for their transportation and provide an outlet to support local businesses by bringing Alyeska's guests to spend money at places such as Chair 5, The Bake Shop, Jack Sprat, etc.,” Hiibner said.
However, the community and local businesses have not financially supported GVT to this date, she said, and more support from businesses was expected when GVT was conceived.
In the first year in 2007, Hiibner said GVT received approximately $25,000 in support of the buses with large donations from Chair 5 and the Double Musky, which both contributed $5,000 each.
“In 2008 we received about $5,000 in support,” she said, “and in 2009, we have received zero dollars in support of the bus service.”
Some of the board members suggested ideas to offset costs.
“What about increasing your fees?” Thompson asked.
“Yes, we have thought about that,” Hiibner responded. “When we started the bus company we wanted it be something easy and that didn't cost a lot of money. If we raise the fees, we are afraid that we would lose ridership. It's so hard because we don't want to shoot ourselves in the foot for raising prices. So we are going to stick with $1 rides.”
“As long as I can remember the discussion of public transportation has always come up,” said Diana Stone-Livingston. “It is the obligation of the community to take care of their citizens; public transportation is one of those things.”
Some asked if the municipality of Anchorage could help.
Hiibner said the municipality does not have the funds to support GVT.
After her presentation, Hiibner spoke to the Turnagain Times about the amount of money GVT needs to operate. She said a requirement of the grant they received stipulates that the business must match a percentage of the operational and administrative costs. The grant covers 60 percent of operational costs and Alyeska has to match 40 percent. $84,972 is paid by the grant and Alyeska Resort must match the remaining 40 percent.
“What we want to do for operational costs is to split this 50/50 between community of Girdwood and GBOS and Alyeska Resort,” Hiibner said. “Alyeska would still pay $38,700, and the community would pay $38,700 (for operational costs). For administrative costs, the grant pays 90 percent, we pay 10 percent, which we also would like to split 50/50. The total amount of money we are looking for is $41,550 between operational and administrative costs.”
Board members seemed unsure if they had the capabilities of helping GVT financially.
Last year GVT reported a loss of $83,000. Hiibner said they are essentially asking the community to contribute about 17 percent of GVT's total costs.
Epley spoke to the Turnagain Times the day after the meeting and addressed the possibility of public tax dollars being used to cover part of GVT's costs.
“We don't know if we can oversee a public transportation system, so we need to look into that,” he said. “We also need to determine if we're able to oversee a public transportation system, but if we were to contribute money, how would we go about doing it.
“We have about a year to work on this, also we have that year to let it go to the public and get public input on it. It really needs to go to the community, and the community needs to determine if they can take this on. It's important that if the community is going to fund GVT then the community needs to give input and decide if it's something that they want to pay for.”
