By John Gallup
Special to the Turnagain Times
Humans have been using alcohol for many thousands of years. The Old Kingdom tombs in Egypt show beer and wine being made and consumed with what might be pleasure and energy (hard to know with the restrictive style of their art.) Beowulf guzzled mead in the Mead Hall and managed to get himself up the next morning to slay monsters. Down to today alcohol has been a part of celebration. And celebration is almost always a good thing. Every day should contain some celebration.
Too much of any good thing can bring problems, though, and in Girdwood we have something we have to deal with. It would be great if we could deal with it ourselves - “Girdwood Style”, but we've been told it will be dealt with one way or another, so it's time to listen up.
Alcohol use in Girdwood's parks and on public lands in Girdwood has gotten out of hand and has to stop.
If everybody who had a beer at the Sunday night baseball game kept it out of sight or wrapped in one of those foam things, we'd probably not be at this crossroads. If every person playing Frisbee golf kept it in their pack and wasn't staggering around, we probably wouldn't be here. If the parties at the Nissman and in Forest Fair Park and up and down the creeks were in somebody's house or were quiet and mellow, we probably wouldn't be here. But we have arrived at this point through our own inattention to the effects of our behaviors, and complaints are streaming in to the Girdwood Board of Supervisors and Girdwood Parks and Rec.
Girdwood as a town has no police force to enforce the municipal alcohol laws. The Troopers do their best, but they are few in number and busy covering large stretches of highway. With the increased freedom we enjoy comes increased responsibility to monitor our own behavior, especially as it affects others.
Most know that the Anchorage Police Department doesn't serve Girdwood, and because of that we pay lower property taxes. Most would say that having APD down here would be overkill, as we have a relatively crime-free town and have had for decades. Not surprisingly, what problems we do have seem to be largely related to alcohol. We're the “little drinking town with a skiing problem.” Last night we were told that the mayor's office as well as the Parks and Recreation Department in Anchorage are receiving formal complaints about alcohol use and late night parties in the Girdwood parks. Their solution is to request APD assistance on a drop-in basis and/or request more support from the AST to solve it.
Rather than have a solution imposed on us, let's try to fix this ourselves. Every one of us can change our behavior a little bit. As a Board member I have to say, “No alcohol in the parks,” but as a long time resident who used to be at those parties by the creek, I say, “Be a little discreet, already.” Your celebration shouldn't negatively impact someone else, whether it's a parent in the playground trying to explain to their kid why those people playing baseball are behaving so strangely, or our campground hosts who keep the Nissman area clean and have to deal with loud parties basically in their front yard on a frequent basis.
The other thing lurking out there is the possibility of something really tragic happening at an unsupervised party—a drug overdose, a drowning in one of the creeks, or an act of violence, which launches us all into the news. Then we all have to go to a memorial service, After that we'll all sit in a very well attended meeting wringing our hands and making plans to “prevent this tragedy from happening again.” I think I've been in four of these so far.
So open up a beer and think about it. It's time to be grown-ups, just a little. By all means celebrate. If alcohol is part of that celebration, so be it. Just think about its impact on you and those around you, and like the Forest Fair sign says, “Be Cool.”
