Girdwood Trails Committee
Minutes of Regular Meeting
Glacier Ranger District Headquarters, 7:00 pm 
Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Call to Order
Vice Chair Norman Starkey called the meeting to order at 7:03 p.m.  Kate Sandberg acted as secretary for the meeting. 

Others present: Carolyn Brodin, Matt Wedeking, Alison Rein, Diana Livingston, Andy Morrison, Shirley Fritz, Jonnie Lazarus, Ann and Kevin Klinefelter.

Approval of Agenda
The agenda was approved as written.

Approval of Minutes, March 6, 2007
The minutes were approved with one deletion. 

Introduction of Guests
New residents to Girdwood, Ann and Kevin Klinefelter, were welcomed to the community and committee.

Old Business
1.  Trails Issues  
•	Alyeska Highway Bridge/Bike Path Repair—Alison reported that MOA has put in
an application for $450,000 to fund the repair of the bike path bridge.  Diana said that Mary Jane Michael, MOA Executive Director of Economic and Community Development, has included a $2.2 million request to the AK State Legislature, and Rep. Hawker will do his best to get this request passed.

It is important that we email Hawker to encourage him to find funding. Diana will post an announcement on the post office bulletin board to that effect.

•	Virgin Creek Trail and HLB—HLB’s Art Eash will fund three days of SAGA
crew work this summer to improve the safety of the trail. He has committed $4,000 for improvements and another $5,000 is committed for 2007.  Norman will call Art to confirm this and find out what Art wants to accomplish with this year’s extra funds.

Art will need to have HLB buy supplies and store them. He may store them in or near our shed.

•	Winter Use/Grooming Issues—Mark Jonas has asked Andy Morrison to take over as lead volunteer groomer next year, and Andy has agreed.  Mark will create a grooming map for next year.  
•	Andy’s concerns are the heavy use of the snowmobile and how to structure future grooming agreements with the Resort.  The Committee agreed that in the future, we would like the Resort to groom the new trails and we groom the original trails on a volunteer basis. These older trails will be for multiple use, but primarily XC skiing. We also agreed that the community does not want a lot of heavy grooming on these trails.

Andy will bring in a tally of volunteer hours for the winter to the next meeting so that we can budget more appropriately.  

Matt will show Andy the Chugach State Park’s grooming equipment that attaches to a snowmobile ($4,000-5,000 as new).  

Diana mentioned that GBOS could add an allocation for winter use. We could figure out a contract for someone to use their own equipment to our standards and stipulations.  The Committee will pursue these options.

•	Hand Tram—Norman will contact Rob Martin of the Resort to get an update on 
the purchase of the new rope. 

•	Other Trails Issues—Alison and Diana wanted to know if the Committee was
interested in applying for a National Forest Foundation Grant. It is a $35,000 per year grant for two years with annual matching funds of $10,000.Alison will apply for a grant to work on the Historic Trail between Glacier Creek and MP 1.6 Crow Creek Road. This would be cleared wider so that the Nordic Trail could be located in the same corridor.  The grant would help us start implementing MOA’s Nordic Trails Feasibility study.  
The due date is May 18.

2.  Budget Discussion
No further discussion on this item.

3.  SAGA Priorities
The SAGA priorities in the March minutes were confirmed.  After discussion, the Committee decided to have Jonnie ask for 16.5 days at $1,200 per day for SAGA. At a minimum, we want the most number of days that $20,000 can buy. 

Norman will write an email to Art Eash and copy the Committee confirming the Virgin Creek trail agreements.

4.  Dedication of Trails—Alison confirmed that Art is working on the dedication of Virgin Creek Falls, Tract F by Old Winner Creek, and Beaver Pond Trail. He has asked the Committee to give him three more trails for dedication during 2007.   The top three options mentioned were Stumpy’s Winter Trail, Wagon Trail, Tiny Creek Trail. Others were California Creek Trail and Abe’s Trail.

Norman will confirm with Art what “dedication” means, then Kate will write a notice for the GBOS about these three proposed trails. She will send it to Kris Malecha, GBOS Secretary, as an informational item for their next meeting.

5.  Comprehensive Trails Plan—It was agreed that we still do not understand which MOA plan governs Girdwood Trails even after various responses from MOA officials. Jonnie passed out copies of the 1993 Girdwood Trails Committee Recommendations for the draft Turnagain Arm Management Plan. This appears to be the most specific document on hand. Contact Jonnie for a copy.  Matt will contact MOA officials for further clarification.

We agreed that some sort of updated trails plan should be included in the revised Girdwood Area Plan. 

New Business
MOA Summer Activity Guide—Jonnie passed out last year’s MOA Summer Guide for Girdwood and asked for modifications. Changes were made at the meeting, and other changes may be sent to her by April 17.

Other Business
Beautification--Jonnie asked if the Committee was interested in involvement with beautification projects; the committee agreed that it should be only concerned with trails.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:45 pm.

Next meeting is May 1, 2007, at Glacier City Hall.