Minutes

Mid Hillside and Hillside East Community Councils

October 21, 2004

John Weddleton, Chair, opened the meeting at 7:02 p.m. with 18 members present.

Brief presentations were made by State House candidates Jeffrey Todd Brown for District 32 and Chris Tuck for District 29.

Assembly Report: There were no Assembly Members present

Legislative Report: There were no current Legislators present

Anchorage Fire Department John Fullenwider of the Anchorage Fire Department spoke on the Firewise Project, Emergency Medical Services, and department restaffing.

The Firewise Project has spent approximately $6 million of the $15 million allocated, cutting down dead trees and creating firebreaks, performing home assessments, and contingency planning.

The Fire Department is rearranging the staffing of EMTs and paramedics and equipment to reflect the reality that 80% of the calls are from north of Tudor Road. Full Advanced Life Support (ALS) Units will be located at Huffman, Eagle River, Downtown, Airport Heights and Spenard. Individual ALS paramedics will be on duty at O’Malley and Rabbit Creek.

The typical crew on the main fire engine at Anchorage stations has been four people including an engineer and a paramedic. The changes will result in one person acting as the engineer and the paramedic so the crew would be reduced to three. To provide a fourth person at an emergency, the station’s tender truck would be sent out so the driver could act as the fourth person as necessary.

The fire chief acknowledged that nationally it is common to have a crew of four people on the main fire truck.

The national rating service, Insurance Service Offices, recently assessed the department and their fine showing should result in lower insurance rates throughout the community.

Electric Utilities

Michael Travis, of Travis/Peterson Environmental Consulting, spoke of the potential routings for a high voltage (138 kV) line connecting the new South Anchorage Substation (between the Old Seward and King St. on East 100^th Ave.) to the existing line along Abbott Loop. The east-west portion may be along Lore Rd, Abbott Rd., O’Malley Rd., or Huffman Rd. They are looking for community council representatives to the route selection committee.

Phil Steyer, Chugach Public Relations Manager, spoke on the proposed revision to the undergrounding ordinance. The old ordinance called for the utilities to spend up to 4% of revenues on undergrounding existing power lines, in addition to the 1% required by the State. This was to be based on plans prepared each year by the Municipal Planning Department, but no plan has been produced since 1996, so the system has stalled. The revision calls for the utilities to spend up to 2%, including the State mandate, based on plans that the utilities prepare.

It was moved and seconded that combined community councils support the proposed revisions to AMC 21.90.030. This passed with 9 in favor, 0 opposed, and 9 abstentions.

Large Animal Ordinance

Work continues on this document. Kim Ross was appointed as the Mid Hillside CC representative on a committee to be formed by the MOA Planning Department to develop a new version of this ordinance.

MidHillside Community Council Elections

The following persons volunteered to stand for election to the Board:

Mark Miner

Kim Ross

Lance Powell

John Weddleton (incumbent)

Tom O’Grady (incumbent)

John Jenkins

All were elected unanimously. They will be joining the returning members:

Brian Johnson

Linda Perkins

Shirley McGrath

After the election, John Weddleton was selected to remain as Chair, Tom O’Grady as Secretary, Linda Perkins as Treasurer, and Kim Ross as Registrar and Asst. Secretary.

Meeting Adjourned at 9:15 p.m.