Borough to introduce draft Matanuska River erosion plan

The woes of homeowners along the Matanuska River will be addressed at the next Mat Su Borough Assembly meeting on Tuesday September 7^th.  The draft Matanuska River Management Plan is set to be introduced, and then scheduled for a public hearing on September 21^st.

Some residents have asked the Borough to bring in hundreds of truckloads of rocks to be deposited along the bank to stop it from chewing away the riverbank.  However, the Borough has no water erosion or flood control power. That authority rests with the state.

Erosion control for any river is a cooperative agreement with the borough and the state legislature as well as various agencies.  The draft management plan addresses the options for managing erosion.

According to the Borough, more than half the land currently at risk of erosion is Borough owned land.

Also on the agenda for next Tuesday is the reclassification of land on the Talkeetna Spur Road that would reserve milepost 5.5 for emergency services use land.  The land would be transferred as material sales land then available for the Talkeetna Fire services to use.

An ordinance asking for the funding of the special mayoral election will be introduced at that meeting.  The special election needs to be held to elect a new mayor to replace Talis Colberg who resigned his post last month. His last day is October 16^th.  The ordinance calls for a budget of $10,000 for the special election.