Hand Tram Annex?

Trail Icon to Feature in Service Area Shuffle

“It’s a legality which we’re trying to correct.”
– Muni. Liaison to Girdwood K. Kelley

By P.M. Fadden
Associate Editor

Annexation of Winner Creek Trail’s Hand Tram is one among three options under consideration with regard to the popular transit feature’s future.

Examination of current Municipality of Anchorage [MOA] land boundaries shows the Hand Tram, regularly maintained by Girdwood Trails Committee [GTC], to be outside Girdwood Service Area and ineligible for work efforts or funding.

The realization, emerging less than one month earlier, has come to light as result of refreshed municipality legal focus upon Service Area boundaries in the wake of the recent Girdwood policing debate.

“The Hand Tram sits on HLB [Heritage Land Bank] land and has easement running to it, which is managed by the U.S. Forest Service,” said Municipal Liaison to Girdwood Kyle Kelley. “Since its inception, [the Hand Tram] has been built by the community and maintained through GTC, which works directly with Girdwood Parks and Recreation.”

GTC Vice-chairman Brian Burnett is deeply involved in community and state trails issues. Burnett, who is listed to the Director’s Board of Girdwood Nordic Ski Club and Alaska Trails, stated: “I see trail based recreation as contributing greatly to the quality of life in our community and a vital economic driver for our state.”

“To my view there’s really no scenario where GTC efforts would be removed from the question of Hand Tram maintenance,” he said.

Status of Service Area boundaries, Hand Tram positioning and subsequent permissible steps for tram maintenance came under scrutiny during the recent HLB agreement renewal process.

“We were renewing our agreement with HLB and it got sent to MOA legal department,” explained Kelley. “Legal depart is really fresh right now on the boundaries of the Service Area because of the police issue, and upon reading where the Hand Tram was they pointed out to us that it was outside Girdwood Parks and Recreation Service Area.”

“Any money put toward the Hand Tram would be essentially paid outside the Service Area, so technically we can’t spend money out there,” Kelley said of MOA legal’s advisement.

The current boundary, delineated at approximately half the distance to the Nordic Loop Trail, passes beyond new Arlberg Road development, classifying the Hand Tram’s location as outside the Service Area.

The observation raises a key point of emphasis with regard to upkeep of valley recreation facilities.

“The popularity of the tram and trail is beyond what many envisioned over 15 years ago when the facility was built,” said Burnett.

“The Girdwood Hand Tram connects a series of trails that form a nearly 20-mile loop along the valley floor,” he said. “Trail based recreation is important to the community and a well-managed trail system is a priority of the Girdwood Trails Committee. It is a key component of the community’s recreational infrastructure.”

Three possible outcomes to resolve the surprise issue and safeguard the vital valley feature are currently under consideration.

“We may be able to annex that parcel where the Hand Tram sits into the Service Area,” said Kelley. “Since nobody lives there, its small and associated with a trail that begins within the Service Area, legally, they may be able to allow annex in through Assembly action.”

Kelley went on state, “if we can’t do that, we have to put it to the voters in April to say; yes, we’ll annex in the Hand Tram so it can be maintained by Girdwood Park and Recreation or Trails Committee.”

“If that fails, the third option is: GTC engages a fundraising campaign, going all the time, to keep the Hand Tram going,” said Kelley. “Since GTC can work separately through Girdwood Inc. raised money can be put into a Girdwood Inc. account and from there pay bills to maintain the Hand Tram.”

“Maintenance routines will need to keep pace with traffic and plans will need to be made to accommodate more traffic,” said Burnett. “Maintenance is not just limited to the tram. More traffic requires a more durable trail tread and more frequent trail maintenance.”

Grant monies fulfilling past Hand Tram funding requirements are nearing term completion. Cessation of said monies would leave a fiscal gap necessitating search for alternate financial avenues.

“As long as I’ve been here we’ve had a recreation grant through the U.S. Forest Service,” Kelley said, “which has helped us to maintain and upgrade the Hand Tram.”

“That grant is essentially running out right now.”

“For 2017, we were going to have an appropriation of three thousand [dollars] to do our annual maintenance on the Hand Tram and, if we had any big emergency, we would switch funding around from a Girdwood Parks and Recreation budget to take care of it.”

“But in order to do that, we’re going to have to figure some things out,” Kelley said.

The Hand Tram topic will be a feature of the quarterly meeting with Municipality Manager Mike Abbott and resolution hopes are buoyed by the absence of residences near or around the Hand Tram position, a fact which implies that no persons receive new taxation resulting from changes to Service Area boundaries.

“The Municipality Manager is actually the one trying to figure out solutions on how to resolve it,” Kelley said. “He came up with the [annexation] idea and is now saying to legal: we’ve done this with other areas, how can we do this annexation with this area?”

“The good benefit is that we have an organized GTC,” Kelley said. “It’s a group of volunteers and residents and they’re able to raise money and they could make the Hand Tram one of their things to keep maintaining.”

GTC Vice-Chairman Burnett provided commentary strongly supportive of Kelley’s remarks.

“The GTC will continue to maintain the Hand Tram and continue to work with all involved to manage our trails and facilities for the benefit of Girdwood and all Alaskan trail users as well as for the benefit of the many visitors that are out for a hike on our awesome trails,” he said.