New recreation area by Healy!

[akdsmer]

New recreation area may come to Healy

By [email=%73%6d%69%6c%6b%6f%77%73%6b%69%40%6e%65%77%73%6d%69%6e%65%72%2e%63%6f%6d]Stefan Milkowski[/email]
smilkowski@newsminer.com
Published October 10, 2007

Local lawmakers are meeting with Denali Borough residents Friday to discuss a wished-for state recreation area near Healy, and what to do with a long-abandoned, now-famous bus is sure to come up.
Area residents fought hard last year against a plan by then-Gov. Frank Murkowski to upgrade the rugged Stampede Road, which heads west from the Parks Highway just north of Healy. At the same time, the Denali Borough Assembly passed a resolution calling on the state to create a Stampede Road recreation area to ensure the land was well managed under increased traffic.
Gov. Sarah Palin put the brakes on the Stampede Road project in January, but area residents are still pushing for the recreation area. Rep. David Guttenberg and Sen. Joe Thomas, Fairbanks Democrats whose districts include Healy, introduced companion bills in the Legislature that would establish the park.
On Friday, Guttenberg and Thomas are hosting a community talk in Healy to hear residents’ thoughts on the recreation area.
“This is a public hearing on what the folks down there perceive that as being,” Guttenberg said Tuesday. “At the end of the day, they’ll be the ones who are involved with it more than we are.”
The legislative bills, which have not had hearings, are “boiler plate” bills that would ensure current uses are still allowed, and specify that land managers seek input from the public and from the Borough assembly before coming up with a management plan or imposing any restrictions.
Denali Borough Mayor David Talerico said the goal was to develop a management plan to handle the impacts of increased traffic, such as trash, rather than change how the area is used.
“We really don’t want to lose the traditional uses,” he said Tuesday.
An abandoned city bus, located about 20 miles down the Stampede Road and on the other side of the Teklanika River, is adding a new twist.
A wandering Christopher McCandless died of starvation at the bus in 1992 after living there for about 113 days. Jon Krakauer wrote a best-selling book about McCandless, and Sean Penn directed a major studio movie based on the book.
With publicity from the recently released movie, “Into the Wild,” some area residents are expressing concern that adventurous visitors will get themselves into trouble making the trek out to the bus.
“Their biggest concern is tourist traffic trying to get out to the bus,” said Julia Potter, treasurer of the Greater Healy/Denali Chamber of Commerce. “So many people who come up here just have no clue about crossing some of the rivers out there.”
Potter and Guttenberg both suggested it might be better to haul the bus out and display it somewhere along the road, but Potter, who also works with the Denali Citizens Council, said most people in the area sort of wish the whole issue would just disappear.
And while the recreation area is a separate issue from the bus, having the park in place would ensure there was a place for local input on the issue, Guttenberg said.
Talerico, the borough mayor, said he was still on the fence about the bus.
He first camped out there with a friend when he was about 16, he said, and has been back several times since. Moving the bus might not stop people from heading out the road anyway, he added, and simply warning people about the danger might be a better plan.
“I haven’t really made up my mind,” he said. “The bus is a landmark.”
Friday’s event is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. at the Tri-Valley Community Center and run for about two hours.