Floatplane access in the Talkeetna area has been a topic of discussion at local meetings for over a year. Pilots and at least one business owner are seeking a publicly accessible facility for commercial, private, and transient floatplane use. The latest round of discussions took place at last week’s Talkeetna Community Council and Mat-Su Borough Aviation Advisory Board meetings. KTNA’s Phillip Manning has more:
Aviation is an integral part of Talkeetna’s history. Don Sheldon and Cliff Hudson are household names in the area, and planes are often seen in Upper Valley skies on skis, wheels, and floats. Some local pilots say that floatplanes now lack a proper base that’s open to the public, however.
The discussion came to the forefront of the community’s attention last year when a dock leased by the Mat-Su Borough to Above Alaska Aviation on Christiansen Lake was closed to public access. The end result was that the borough had leased the dock in error, and that no new commercial leases on the lake are allowed according to the area’s special land use district status. Drew Haag, owner of Above Alaska Aviation, has tried other methods of obtaining public access, including using a section line easement to access Fish Lake. That effort was met with opposition from adjacent property owners. Now, the issue of floatplane access is one of the topics before the borough’s Aviation Advisory Board.
Last Monday, the largest topic of conversation at the Talkeetna Community Council meeting was a proposed resolution by the AAB to include previously rejected Upper Valley locations for consideration as the regional floatplane base called for in the Regional Aviation System Plan.
That resolution met with at least partial opposition from every speaker at the Talkeetna meeting, including Drew Haag.
“Specifically having the floatplane base in the borough being in this area is not—I don’t agree with that, and I would recommend any letter that you guys write to them to oppose that. I’m not in agreement with a huge, massive base here.”
What Haag says he does want is a smaller satellite or stand-alone facility to service the Upper Valley. Ultimately, the Talkeetna Community Council board of directors voted to oppose the resolution.
Later that week, the Aviation Advisory Board took up the question of expanding the regional plan. Board member Beth Fread sponsored the resolution. She says that there are conflicts in the management plans for the area as well as in testimony regarding floatplane access in the Upper Valley, and the borough should try to settle the dispute.
“Government is supposed to come in and mediate these conflict, rather than encourage them to continue and make one portion of the population more important than another portion of the population, even if it is a smaller portion.”
A large contingent of Talkeetna residents attended the AAB meeting to speak against the resolution to re-include Fish and Christiansen Lakes and the Talkeetna State Airport in the regional study for a floatplane base. Beth Fread later moved to table the resolution indefinitely, and the board approved, effectively killing the measure.
At the end of the meeting, multiple board members made it clear that their vote to table does not mean they oppose a public floatplane base in Talkeetna. Board member Chris Kepler says creating a floatplane landing site at the existing airport is the solution.
“All you people that are concerned about the lakes, that’s great. I’m concerned about the lakes. But, the solution is at the airport, and there are means to make that happen.”
Talkeetna Community Council Chair Whitney Wolff says that the airport is a much more amenable area to study as a floatplane base, but that it should not be handled under the plan to create a facility for the entire region.
“Apparently what it sounds like you’re trying to take out is to get some studies done, whether that’s what Mr. Kepler is suggesting, that the airport is a great idea–which I agree with him—or just getting and inventory or an economic study…Talkeetna is not the place for a Lake Hood-sized facility, and everyone agrees with that.”
Another Aviation Advisory Board resolution, written by Talkeetna resident and pilot Anthony Martin, would have recommended a floatplane base at the Talkeetna airport with interim use of Fish Lake. That resolution was tabled at a previous meeting and was not brought back up for discussion at last week’s meeting.
The next meeting of the borough’s Aviation Advisory Board will be held in December.
