Girdwood Trails Committee
Minutes of Regular Meeting

Girdwood Community Center, 7:00 pm 
Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Call to Order
Carolyn Brodin called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Kate Sandberg acted as secretary. Others present: Jonnie Lazarus, Brian Burnett, Deb Essex, Todd Foisey, Norman Starkey, Jonathan Lee, and Diana Livingston. John Gallup attended for his update.

Approval of Agenda
The agenda was approved as written.

Approval of Minutes, September 2, 2008
The minutes were approved as written.

Introduction of Guests
No guests.

Old Business
Trail Issues
•	Alyeska Highway Bridge Repair--John reported that the Alaska Railroad permit is
not finalized, so he cannot begin the repair. The committee agreed with John that the project should be rescheduled for the weekend of either May 1-3 or May 7-9, 2009.  The purchased wood will be stored in Alpine Air’s hangar over the winter, and John anticipates Larry Daniels and Rotary to be his main crew. Alyeska Resort manpower and Trails members will be instrumental as well.   

A port-a-potty may have to be ordered, and the Trails chainsaw tuned.

This topic will be back on the agenda in March. 

•	Other Trail Issues
o	Horses on Trails—A community member asked about allowing horses
on our trails. Horses are not prohibited, but are discouraged because of the heavy toll they take on wet trails. Horses have used our trails in the past, but unsuccessfully.

o	Lower Virgin Creek Trail—Todd has been working on clearing this trail,
but much more work needs to be done. SAGA crews will be asked to work on this trail next year.  The trail needs to be added to the GAP map as well.

o	Winter Grooming—Carolyn will call Marc Jonas for input on
grooming this winter.

o	Fungus Fair Fun Run--Jonnie reported that the Fun Run was successful,
and trail conditions were not negatively affected. 

Budget
Our Park & Recreation (P & R) budget has been spent.  Jonnie will submit our usual request of $20,000 to John Gallup, P & R GBOS member, for next year’s budget.  

John Byrne gave the Trails Committee $5,000 which will be spent on SAGA crew materials.  Carolyn will write a thank-you letter to him. Brian will include some pictures of the SAGA work.

We owe $2,195 to Redmonds for gravel.  This will come from Mr. Byrne’s money.  The other $2,800 will be used to fund materials that the current SAGA crew requested.  These materials include planking, footers, and beams for the Beaver Pond Trail and Abe’s Trail. 

Norman will verify these requests with the crew and also prepare for the late October crew. Carolyn will order the requested materials.

SAGA Crew
Norman praised the current SAGA crew by saying how productive and what good representatives of SAGA they are.  The crew worked enthusiastically on our priority projects, including Abe’s Trail, the sledding hill area, Tiny Creek, and the Enchanted Forest bridge. The bridge is wide enough for snow mobile grooming, not a snow cat.  Eben Stone is thanked for his time and expertise on helping with this new bridge.  

The Committee gave Norman their thanks and praise for a great job again in leading this crew through their projects. Other Committee members who helped were acknowledged as well. Norman will send Kate a list of community members to thank in the upcoming Turnagain Times article.

Projects for the late October crew include stacking and removing wood at Jonnie’s house and brushing the Lower Virgin Creek Trail.

Nordic/Multi-use Trail 
Deb reported that she has filed an application for the Girdwood Nordic Ski Club to become a 501(c)(3).  She has heard from a dozen Anchorage and Girdwood people who support the trail. 

Carolyn said that since the article came out in the Turnagain Times, the Trails Committee has heard from four Girdwood community members, one against and three for the trail. Deb has emailed these people.  Carolyn was disappointed in the Turnagain Times article’s omission of the map key.

Girdwood Area Plan Map—The map is basically done with a few corrections to be made. 
The disk was sent to the MOA. Carolyn will email Matt Wedeking to find out our progress with the text. 

Updates
•	CA Creek Parking Lot—Carolyn announced that there will not be a parking lot at
the CA Creek Trailhead. There will be space for a few cars to park along the road by the CA Creek Bridge. The project manager told her that because the lot would be so close to the creek, the cost of permitting far exceeds the cost of hauling the gravel out. 

Members expressed their keen interest in keeping the gravel for future projects. Norman and Brian volunteered to ask DOT if we could haul it to a Girdwood location and store it for our use.

New Business
Summary of Trails Committee work article for Turnagain Times
Kate will write the first draft and send it to Carolyn for her and other committee members’ review.

Other Business
None

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 8:45 pm.

Next meeting—November 5, 2008
Girdwood Community Center