The Mat-Su Borough Assembly is ignoring constituents and wasting state money. At an MSB Assembly meeting on Dec. 7, 96% of the public who testified spoke out against a resolution to support the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority’s push to create a private industrial mining road to a potential, to-be-developed mine in the Yenta Mining District, 100 miles west of the Susitna. Due to that opposition, the vote was delayed until Dec. 21, when 81% spoke out in opposition. This does not include the input that MSB has gotten via letters, the borough’s own Fish and Wildlife Commission, emails or phone calls. It is hard to imagine why this resolution passed.
The Borough has a West Su Access information page on its website that consists of a very brief scope. This is followed by a long list of “Potential Benefits to the Mat-Su and the State” including, under the list of Port MacKenzie benefits/exports, “cannabis and hydroponic nutriments export” and, under imports, “Structural Components of Mine Plant.” The entire information page reads like a mythical laundry list made up to justify an AIDEA boondoggle. There are no downsides mentioned.
The public outreach about the West Su Road has been minimal, and people are only beginning to learn about it. Yet MSB just gave a green light to complete $8.5 million in studies, allocated by Gov. Mike Dunleavy from our state’s operating budget, to be funneled to yet another bad AIDEA project. As best I can see, the Assembly vote simply bowed to AIDEA for a state project that borough residents — at least the ones who know about it — don’t seem to want, and that greatly affects borough and Southcentral residents. Both MSB and the state of Alaska need to exponentially increase their outreach about this project and not only listen to their constituents but represent them.
— Lynn Fuller
Palmer
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