A land planning alert from Roy Earnest

The Department of Transportation has several Ester-area projects on its slate. Roy Earnest sent me this note about the plans:

The STIP (Statewide Transportation & Improvement Program) is money set for the future at best and money that can be pulled at any time when it is at its worst. Please keep in mind that nothing is for certain when looking at monies set to future programs. The Gold Hill Bike trail in probably the firmest of the three projects that fall under STIP. Futher letters from the community are helpful but the ranking (or points given to the program) are high and the project looks like a go.

The Old Nenana and the Potter road project are both well place point wise but letter or comment to the DOT (specifically to Margaret Carpenter) are needed and necessary.

First, the Potter road to Destiny Drive (Name: Cripple Creek Road upgrade has an ID number 24522. The upgrade will use asphalt concrete to pave the existing gravel surface, including realignment of the substandard series of curves. The road will give better access to VFD and residents. The project is slated to begin and end work in 2010. If this upgrade interests or affect you directly please let Ms. Carpenter know at margaret.carpenter@alaska.gov.

The Old Nenana/Ester Hill Rehabilitation Project has an ID number of 7461

Project Description:
Rehabilitation along the ONH will include improving shoulders, drainage, signage, and guardrails.

Issues:
1. The Old Nenana Highway has steep grades, narrow roadway (20-22 feet), poor pavement conditions, and steep slopes. The sharp curve at the bottom of the hill is an issue to the DOT so they are looking into safety-related improvemnets. Because this area is especially hazadous in the winter when the road gets icy, there is probably going to be some kind of change in this area.

2. Recreation traffic on the ONH has increased ten-fold. The UAF ski team, Fairbanks Cycling club and walkers are all users of the road. A bike trail would be the most safest answer the money nedded for this kind of upgrade is large.

3. Fairbanks North Star Borough continues to sell off large tracts of land. They are in the process of trying to build a subdivision with 31 lots on it. The increase trafic load in the next 5 years alone are staggering.

Answers:

Widen the ONH wide enough for driver visibility and recreation users dafety. Upgrade the road to a asphalt surface that does not come apart every year due to substandard chipseal and poor foundation. Either a trail on the side or standalone seems appropriate.

The deadline for public comment is Friday, October 16. Please comment!

Still in Anchortown

Well, my flight got canceled. Rather than spend five hours at the airport waiting for a flight that might or might not actually go anywhere, I decided to stay another night and attend some more of the Alaska Press Club conference. I had to catch the bus as Dimitra had already left. I'd forgotten what it was like, it's been so long since I've used a bus. All kinds of interesting people.

It's snowing. Big fat fluffy flakes that turn to slush fairly quickly.

Last night's blogger panel was pretty lively. It was especially interesting meeting people I've only known or heard of via the internet: Phil Munger, Andrew Halcro, Shannyn Moore. I've met Amanda Coyne and I think also Tony Hopfinger in the flesh.

Today the conference has been fairly low-key, given the dearth of speakers and attendees (volcanic ash in the vicinity does tend to put a damper on get-togethers like this), but good. Tonight is the Anchorage Press party, which ought to be fun.

Ester bus line redux

Well, turnout at the bus meeting last Saturday was, in a word, disappointing. I talked to about 20 people before and after, all of whom were excited about the idea of a bus out here but a bit skeptical that we'd get one that would work (almost everyone mentioned the debacle of last time they tried this). Most had forgotten about it, or had other stuff to do, or weren't feeling well, like me.

I ran into Ken Woods at the Eagle last night, who had gone to it. Tylan Martin, the instigator for this, told me that only eight people showed up (which isn't really bad for around here, actually). So now he's distributing a survey to get more information. The borough won't do anything unless they have more response from the public, so if you want a bus line out here, LET THEM KNOW. You can get the surveys from Tylan Martin, and there will be a stack of them at the Eagle and the post office. If there's enough interest, Ken told me, then the borough will do its own, more comprehensive, survey, sending them out to everybody within a quarter-mile of the proposed route. But if they don't hear from enough people initially, then it's dead in the water.

You can send surveys to:

Tylan Martin
4463 Dartmouth Rd.
Fairbanks, AK 99709

or to

David N. Leone
Transportation Manager
Fairbanks North Star Borough
3175 Peger Road
Fairbanks, AK 99709

So somehow a week went by

Without a single post from me! Well, five days, actually. Life has been busy: playing ukelele at the Eagle with the Crusty Olde Minstrels (sorta--one of 'em, anyway); doing the royalty calculations and payments and statements for my book authors (glad that's out of the way!); a library meeting; data entry and final finishing on the Republic (now out on the newsstands!); updates to miscellaneous websites (rather slow and still ongoing); regular work (which has been nutso). Et cetera.

I was feeling cruddy on Saturday, so I missed the Ester bus line meeting. I haven't found anyone yet who went, but I will report on it as soon as I find out what happened.

At the library meeting on Sunday, we had pitiful attendance (only 5 of us), but we fixed the date for the 5th Annual John Trigg Ester Library Lallapalooza & Book Bash: Sunday, March 1, 1 to 6:30 pm at the Annex. We hashed out a new and improved mission statement and goals for the library (with one objective to fulfill those goals: get the building built!), which I'll be sending out to the library membership this evening. (Don't have it with me or I'd post it here.)

Events this week in Ester

Well, the paper will be out shortly, but I realize that (gack) I forgot some things in the announcements list. I just knew there was something important that I was forgetting…

1. Meeting on a potential bus line to Ester, Hartung Hall, Saturday, January 24, 3 pm. Tylan Martin, who runs the Publine, will present the idea with a map of proposed bus stops, and get feedback.

2. Meeting to get the Ester library mission and proposal for incorporation started. Deirdre & Hans' house, Sunday, January 25, 3 pm. (This was in the paper, just not in with the announcements.)

ECA park meeting on Sunday

At the Ester Community Association Meeting, there turned out to be a lot of park-related issues to discuss, so a separate park committee meeting was scheduled for Sunday, 3 pm, at Hartung Hall. Ye Olde Paper Plate went up in the local pub last night, and you'll probably see posters for it at the post office today. I called Mark Simpson last night to confirm that it really was happening (before I went to the Eagle and found Hannah drawing up the paper plate announcement).

Topics include: an Ester bus line, work parties, the rink, possible hockey boards, the kiosk, refurbishing the pavilion, park committee members, parties, etc. If you use the Ester Community Park, this is your chance to get your two cents in. Come on down!

The Ester bus line

Susie Fenner of SCANFairbanks alerted me to this. The Fairbanks North Star Borough is once again considering the possibility of having a bus line from Ester to the university. Last time this failed miserably because of the stop times, apparently, and also because there were a lot fewer people out here back then. Fenner and others are advocating for a line that would go along Gold Hill Road from the university to Ester and back. She asks:

What are your thoughts on this? Would you ride public transportation at least one way, or at least once a week? Is carpooling or a park & ride arrangement of interest to you? Please let me know if this is something to pursue. David Leone, DOT Public Transportation Manager, is interested in your response (dleone@co.fairbanks.ak.us) and so is Tylan Martin (publine@yahoo.com), the private contractor with whom David is working for this project. And please don't hesitate to contact me directly with your comments.

I'd certainly use this in the winter, probably three days a week, and on rainy days in the summer, if there was a bus going in between 8 and 9 am. It would be nice if it would make a loop to Fred's and Safeway, too.

More sensible thinking from UAF

Dang. If this keeps up I'm going to have to have some label for UAF other than "bobblehead U." Now the borough and UAF are planning on a cooperative program to encourage use of public transportation! Here's an excerpt from the Zoo of A's publicity release about it:

The plan, which is slated to come before the Borough Assembly for review this month, would institute a Large Employer Subsidized Transit pilot program on the borough bus system. Under the program, UAF's PolarExpress student and employee identification cards would serve as passes on all borough buses.

The program stands to benefit both the campus and Fairbanks community, according to UAF Chancellor Brian Rogers. "We hope this partnership will help improve our air quality, as well as reduce the number of cars on campus and free up parking spaces. It could also offer students and employees a real savings on their transportation costs."

The PolarExpress card would, in effect, be a free bus pass.

Now, if we can only get the borough to add a bus line out here to our little republic...