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The changes take place next week on Monday (feb. 28).  The first run of the day starts from the Talkeetna Roadhouse out to Cubby’s Marketplace at 7:15 in the morning.  The round-trips take just about an hour and a half. The afternoon schedule will stay exactly the same as it has this winter. The van travels the Spur Road picking up people along the way, making a stop at the Sunshine Clinic and then traveling to Cubby’s with other stops in between if necessary.

Grants received are allowing the system to keep operating.  A new Sprinter-type van is in the works, but it is being manufactured specifically for Sunshine Transit and ordered through Trailercraft in Anchorage.  Therefore, it may not be available until this summer.  Funding was received from the state of Alaska to purchase the van and another grant was received that will pay off the balance of the total vehicle purchase.

Riders who have been hoping for the full time schedule to resume are in luck. New schedules should soon be available at the Talkeetna Roadhouse, the Flying Squirrel, the Sunshine Clinic and Cubby’s.  Other business that would like to post schedules are welcome to call the Sunshine drivers for information.  354-3885

The council met Monday night for the regular monthly meeting.  Council chair, Sharon Montagnino reported on a work session the Board had in December and said they would do everything in their power to hold brief meetings, but being effective and accomplishing a lot at the same time.

The council plowed through a fairly hefty agenda Monday night and adjourned by 9 pm.  A public water source for Talkeetna area residents, revenue sharing, recycling efforts, snowmachine complaints and other topics were covered in the meeting.

The Board unanimously approved the revenue sharing projects as presented by committee chairman Howard Carbone.  The committee received numerous praises from people who had attended meetings or participated in the process.   Six projects for the 2009 round of revenue sharing funds were approved.  If the Borough approves the Council’s recommendations, Sunshine Transit will get $5000 for operational funds, the Talkeetna Cemetery will get $3600 to fix the cemetery gates, KTNA community radio will receive $1000 for studio equipment to assist in news development, Northern Susitna Institute receives $4600 for program development and Roger Robinson is set to receive $500 to install a state of the art composting toilet near the Talkeetna River to help clean up the riverfont.   The Su Valley Moose club project at the high school received $5500 to fund the initial phase of their work. Eight applications were originally received with two dropping out of the process.  Listeners can stay tuned to hear more in depth reports on some of these projects.

All projects need to be completed by January of 2012.  The committee is beginning the selection process for 2010 next month.

The only committee report came from revenue sharing committee chair Howard Carbone.  He reported that 8 applications have been received for the revenue sharing grant of $22,200.

Sunshine Transit asked for $4700 for operating funds, the Talkeetna Cemetery Association asked for $3600 to repair the cemetery gates, KTNA applied for $1000 for microphone recording equipment, the Northern Susitna Institute asked for $9400 for program start-up costs and Roger Robinson asked for $1000 which would go to help install a composting toilet at the mouth of the well-used Clear Creek area.

Larger requests are: $10,000 for a farmer’s market to be started, $10,100 for starting a youth and elder work education project through Homespun Productions, and Steve Harrison asked for over $22,000 to start a moose club at the Su Valley High School. The program would help students pick up roadkill moose, butcher and provide meat to community members in need.

The total funds requested amounted to  more than $62,500.  The amount available in this round of grant money is $22,200.  The project has to benefit residents in the Talkeetna Council area.

The committee meets soon to discuss which projects should take priority.  The top contenders will get forwarded to the Council’s Board of Directors and then on to the Borough for final approval and acceptance of funds.

Elizabeth Hartley, comptroller for the Borough confirms that the project, or projects, need to be completed by the end of 2011. Funds not used get returned to the state.

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Additional resources:

Alaska Family Services Center, Palmer: 24-hour Crisis Line: 907-746-4080 or 1-866-746-4080

STAR, Standing Together Against Rape: Phone: 907-276-7279 or 800-478-8999

JSCF board member Joe Page said the Healthy Community grant program is an annual event. The board starts soliciting proposals from qualifying non-profits in May and then awards the funds in July. This year, the foundation received nine proposals and selected seven to be award recipients. Page said it was difficult to make the selection as all proposals were well thought out.

The Alaska Community Foundation manages the Jessica Stevens Community Foundation’s endowment and the investments.

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Currently, the transit system consists of two old vans donated to the cause of providing affordable transportation from downtown to the clinic and Cubbies. But frequent repairs continue to strain the operating budget.

Sharon Montagnino with the Sunshine Transit coalition said that although more people use the transit to get around and even so ticket sales are up, the revenue is not anywhere near paying for the full operational cost of roughly $4,000 to $5,000 per month. Latest numbers show that the Sunshine transit has 20 to 30 riders daily.

Operational costs are supplemented with grants, the latest being a grant from United Way.

Montagnino was surprised and happy to see the state money appropriated and said that the organization’s board and the drivers now need to sit down and discuss what type of vehicle would make the most sense to purchase.

A separate line item in the state budget relating to the Sunshine Transit was a $15,000 appropriation to start a meals-on-wheels program with the Upper Susitna Senior Center. The intent of this request was to get the program off the ground by delivering meals-on-wheels once or twice a week to seniors. In order to make this happen, the coalition plans to sit down with the Upper Susitna Seniors leadership and to gather information from lower valley meals-on-wheels providers.

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The Coalition met at its regular monthly meeting Tuesday night to discuss bus passes and future funding.  The coalition members agree that it is almost impossible to continue the service running it on grants and donations alone.  Tickets and bus passes are being printed and will be available for sale at the Talkeetna Roadhouse, the Sunshine Community Health Center, the Upper Susitna Senior Center and other locations that aren’t verified at this time.  The tickets and passes will be available by February 24^th.

Clinic patients will be encouraged to purchase their tickets at the clinic in order to take advantage of the clinic sliding scale.  Riders can buy a 10-punch ticket, which will allow one ride for free after the 10^th ride, or tickets can be purchased individually.   The fee for a one-way ride is $1.

The new transportation system operated by Tews in the lower valley and the regional transportation system proposed through the legislature were discussed. Mike Wells of the Mat su Borough and LeMarr Anderson, Executive Director of MASCOT, continue to attend meetings and be engaged in conversation with the Coalition.

The Talkeetna’s transit system is celebrating one year of service on March 7^th.

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SUNSHINE TRANSIT— When winter moved in last Wednesday in form of a steady and substantial snowfall, the free Sunshine Transit running from downtown Talkeetna via the Sunshine Community Health Center to the Parks Highway and back provided a  safe way to get around. John Lingon caught a ride from Whigmi Road to get to work in town. Photo by Diana Haecker

Senator Lisa Murkowski announced Friday that Alaska will receive 3 point 6 million dollars in stimulus funds to expand services at 26 community health centers across the state.

The US Department of Health and Human Services says that $338 million  will be available nationwide for community health center expansion.

HHS projected the funding for Alaska would result in 87 new or retained jobs and affect over 20,000 new insured, and new uninsured, patients.

Murkowski says the funds are significant since Alaskans face huge challenges getting access to local health care.

It is predicted that Sunshine Community Health Center will receive over $151,000 of those stimulus funds. 

Sharon Meals, Assistant to the Executive Director of the Sunshine clinic says that the stimulus funds are expected any day at the clinic.  The 3 main areas that the clinic will use the funds for are retaining jobs or adding employment. Meals says they hope to add one or two positions as well as retain a couple of positions that might have otherwise been cut.  Another area is being able to provide and pay for more specialty clinics such as eye and podiatry clinics or more specialty men’s and women’s clinics coming to the upper valley.  The third area is access to the clinic.  They hope some of the funds can go to increasing the Talkeetna transit system already in place.

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