Anchorage Assembly: Worksession re Anchorage Park Foundation Update and Parks and Rec Capital Improvement Plan (CIP)

Okay everyone, I'm going to call our next work session to order. Today is again Friday, October 2nd. We are noticed from 1 to 2 PM today. The topic today is a work session with the Anchorage Park Foundation, as well as some preliminary discussion about the capital improvement program for Parks and Rec. And I'll just note very briefly before we get into that, earlier today the mayor's budget was recently introduced.

And so just to clarify, the document we are looking at is not from that particular budget. It is an excerpt from our 120-day memo. But, and so we will be digging into what is actually in the proposed budget, but I think the goal for today's conversation in that space is to really look back at, you know, the really the first draft, which is what we're starting from, from last year, and having a more general conversation about some of the big ongoing projects and initiatives and how those fit into, you know, what we might be seeing or what, what us and others will be advocating for. So, so with that, we'll start with introductions, starting with Mr. Handlin. Donald Handlin.

Erin Baldwin Day. Anna Brawley. Yarrow, Silvers, and on the phone we have Vice Chair Voland.

I'm here. And Member Scout.

Present. OK, great, and I'll notice any other members that walk in the room. We're also joined by clerk staff, member of the public, and our presenters for today. So with that, I will turn it over to Miss Nordlund. Thank you.

Hello, I'm Beth Nordlund. I'm Executive Director of the Anchorage Park Foundation, and I would like to introduce you to Michelle LeBeau, our Deputy Director and incoming Executive Director. Dun-da-da! So, news flash, I'm retiring. My last day of work is March 31st.

It was a really good reason to decide, hey, let's go talk to the assembly. We need to make sure that everyone is up to speed on what the Anchorage Park Foundation does and how this nonprofit partner is here to help with many of the things that you work on. So, um, yeah, good time to take a look at what we do, and it's been It's been since 2019 since the Anchorage Park Foundation gave a presentation to the assembly. So we, we want to work on that because we work together and there's a lot of things we can do together.

We put together this handout, the one that says Building Community on the top.

It's, it's something we did just for you. To talk about our accomplishments in 2026 and all the years of our community impact accomplishments. We put our goals down for 2027, and we have a list of asks that we want to ask the Assembly for. But the first part of it is basically what we really do. So we're your community-based nonprofit that mobilizes public support and financial resources for parks, trails, and recreation Opportunities.

You know us through many of the programs that we work on: Youth Employment in Parks, the Trails Initiative, Inclusive Play. But we put together these first bullets that I want to go over with you because everything we do is, um, kind of overlaps. Many of the programs serve each other, and so To think of our programs just in silos doesn't work after 22 years of working together on things. So I just wanted to start out with the ethos of the things that we do in these bullets so that you can have a real idea of what we could be doing and are doing with your neighborhoods that you serve. First, we engage people in meaningful ways.

Through advocacy, project design, volunteering. There's a whole, you know, many, many different kinds of advocacy we do, and we can do that with you. So that is meaningful to people individually and directly. We also inspire non-traditional partnerships and convene coalitions. Small coalitions of, of strategizers and partners, or large statewide coalitions of people that care about trails.

So we're working all the time on convening and working on partnerships. We attract grants and introduce new donors to projects. We stretch dollars efficiently We combine our resources effectively, and the dollars can be local, state, federal, private foundations, individuals, you name it. Those kinds of dollars can be found at the Anchorage Park Foundation and combined to work on programs and projects in your district.

We provide match for federal and state grants. That's one of the things we don't talk about a lot, but the government is quite happy that we're here for that. In many different instances. We promote the park bonds. We do that every year, and we try to do it all year.

We try to connect voters with the idea that if you're voting for park bonds, we are improving a park in your district at all times. Um, so that's kind of an evergreen campaign that we work on, promoting the park bonds. And then we serve as a fiscal sponsor to projects that might be on Muni land. I listed some in this bullet. Town Square Park Challenge Grant is out right now.

We're raising money for that. We help— we were the fiscal sponsor for Downtown Pedestrian Wayfinding and for our friends at the Hilltop Bike park, which is the summer use of the, of the ski resort, right? So helping them become a year-round destination by installing mountain biking. And then the cemetery bell tower. That's just several examples of projects that we run.

We may not be the lead on them, but we are providing fiscal sponsorship, and we have that ability to run large federal, state, or local grants through our entity. So basically, we are attempting to add value to any project or program that we're working on. And we are a very nimble partner, and we're your community building partner. So those are all— those are the ways that we came up with in bulleted form. We do that for everything you can think of.

We're out there doing it every day. So those are the general ways we've done it.

If you look at the back, We've got our 21 years of community impact. We don't have to go through all these bullets, but I want to impress you with the fact that we've raised $53 million in funding and volunteer time for Anchorage Parks and Trails in the last 22 years, and we've mobilized $77.85 million in local park bonds, unlocking more than $40 million in federal match.

We're clearly— we have a powerful tool here for your use, and we're a powerful community builder as well as a powerful, powerful fundraiser. So lots of successes listed here. Some of these will have been in your very own district. And very fun. Um, Anna and I talked a little bit before I came, and we talked about the kinds of projects and programs we do and how we raise dollars and community support for each of those.

Those are scattered throughout the different kinds of accomplishments, but I'm going to list them so that you know what we're talking about, and we can talk about them by program and project. We support youth employment in parks. We support neighborhood park projects and challenge grants. We organize the Trails Initiative, and that includes signs and, and community connections.

The mountain bike trails— we're— Anchorage is a trails town with at the International Mountain Biking Association. And then we have outdoor school on our trails, Schools on Trails, and we support the Moose Loop and help dream it up.

We support indigenous place names and those projects. We support inclusive playgrounds, including All Kids in Play. We have an urban and community tree planting program and a person that, that helps us organize volunteers to get that done, and school kids in neighborhoods throughout this community. And we do the fiscal sponsorship. Again, we, at any point in time, you might find us providing federal match or stretching our dollars efficiently or attracting grants for any of those things.

And very often they're all related to one another. A challenge grant will get funded, and then it becomes a Youth Employment in Parks project, and then it actually grows to be something that becomes, that gets on the bond, and later you find out it's an AMATS project that we attracted federal funding for. So these things tend to snowball, and these are your neighbors that really care about these projects. In fact, you all know Karen Branga, and she told us that she decided to run for the assembly after her family really promoted a challenge grant that ended up becoming an AMATS project that got federal funding after it went on the bond. So, um, she obviously found that she could get things done with us as a partner, and it's just an example of how it can change community.

Um, and just one second, I'll briefly pause. Yes, we were joined by Member Park about 10 minutes ago, and then did you have a question? Go ahead.

Thank you, Chair. I would be remiss If I did not bring up that I have been told that there is, and in fact there is, no provision for Cuddy Family Park in the budget, in the proposed budget. The community group that has been active in fundraising, Anchorage Skates, writes that they were, quote, very surprised that Cuddy Family Midtown Park is not included anywhere for the years 2027 to '32, and that the exclusion from the bond list, uh, to them is a major oversight. Um, they state they have already raised $1 million committed, um, and have $950,000 in bond money and over $50,000 from Private donors, Anchorage Skates, the Anchorage Skate Club, and the Alaska Speed Skating Club. And what they anticipate is a facility somewhat like Kincaid Park, and that would be available in Midtown for sports.

And we know that ice time is really difficult for the kids to get. So maybe you could address why that hasn't been included, and what they should look for if they, if they wish to, to work on this project. Thanks. So before you guys respond, I'll just address briefly. So I think the probably the best place to take that question is to the mayor's office, and we'll be having our budget work sessions, although I would encourage an offline conversation because we won't have those work sessions for a couple weeks.

And so certainly I think we'd welcome Park Foundation's thoughts on this project generally, but I just want to also not put them in a position on commenting because the budget has just been published, and I think there's other places we can have that conversation in more detail, if that's okay. So it would be all right if I just added a bit of— I think I can speak to why. Sure, Ms. Wallander. Sure, thank you. So there's an order of operations question here.

So it was agreed a couple of years ago now that it would be wise before moving forward with any sort of capital project at Cuddy that we would do a Cuddy Park Master Plan first. And so Parks and Rec, as I understand it, is actually in the process of developing an RFP to go to purchasing to do that master plan. And then once that master plan is complete, then we'll be able— we'll have a much more holistic view of how development could unfold and in what stages development could unfold at Cuddy Park, which would include the chalet that Anchorage Gates is proposing housing and some things that Midtown Community Council is advocating for, etc., etc. So anyway, that's, that's my understanding of the situation, that we need to get that master plan in place before we move forward with any, any, anything else in Cuddy. Okay, and I would just note for the record that they, they do state that they met with the mayor and the mayor expressed some support for that project.

Yeah, and then I know we don't have met with the mayor. Thank you. Yeah, and I know we don't have anyone from the, from the mayor's office today, so I think, I think from that perspective we should defer this conversation. But in the meantime, certainly would welcome APF's comments. Well, we are your bond promotion team, so when it gets all the way through your body, we will be promoting these park bonds and doing it all year.

So.

I'm quite familiar with the project. We have been a fiscal sponsor for— they've done some studies and we've helped them a little bit with allowing them to use us as a funding mechanism for their project. We actually applied for a federal grant once on their behalf. So we're quite familiar with it. And to that note, I guess I would, I would like to tell you that part of the, the ways we build community, um, is, is every time there's a project either on the bond or something that we're, um, that we're actually building, we take a look at every project and we analyze Who are all the politicians that are involved?

The mayor, the assembly, the park commission, the state legislators, and our US representatives. We're trying to figure out and invite people to participate in either a groundbreaking, a ribbon-cutting, or just somehow getting the word out about the project. We also work with all the neighbors, the community councils, the Federation of Community Councils, We think about, hey, what school's in that neighborhood? What business might care deeply about that project? And then we have our partners.

We start working with our user groups, different nonprofits. It turns out that many of these people have received grants from us in the past. So we have deep and long-held relationships with a lot of different partners in town. That can help us either promote an item on the bond or celebrate something that we've already accomplished. And many of you have received emails from me specifically saying, hey, come do a ribbon cutting at this time.

I know it's a tiny project, but let's make a big deal of it because we're building community. And, um, where, you know, when you When you celebrate a project, you're inspiring other people to think, "Oh, I never heard about that. I'm going to go visit it," or, "Hey, I might want to do that in my neighborhood." So, yeah, lots of different ways that we're engaging champions, neighbors, and we have a very big tool bag of things that we can do for our advocacy together.

Um, Chair, can I jump in quick if you don't have any—. Yes. Oh yeah, sorry, go ahead, Mr. Bond.

Thank you. Um, I wanted just to add a layer to Member Parks' question, and I know that this is more budget conversation to come, but, um, the mayor's proposed budget is exactly that. It's a proposal.

Ultimately, it is up to the assembly which projects go forward in the capital improvement, um, plan. And so that specific example of the Cutty Park Chalet, um, one of the reasons that got onto the bond, uh, a couple of the times was because assembly members amended it onto the bond. And I remember teaming up with Members Zolotow and Member Rivera to support that project. So just because something is not reflected in what's been put forward by the administration doesn't mean that Assembly members don't have the opportunity to elevate that project and continue support for it. Thanks.

Thank you. Thank you.

Agree. Okay, just checking if there's anyone else in the queue. I think, uh, go ahead and proceed. Thank you. Um, I thought I would share with you our 2027 goals, um, and then our asks, and then we'll jump into other kinds of questions you might have about projects and programs, and then we're going to talk a little bit about, um, fundraising for other projects in the future.

Um, the first goal of 2027 is to transition to our new leadership.

Hooray! We are also designing right now the Indigenous place name plaza, which will be a gateway to the Alaska Long Trail. That's at the mouth of Ship Creek. After the downtown trail connection is built, we'll be putting in the gateway to the Alaska Long Trail in our downtown, and we are excited. We're going to design it, And we'll be trying to be ready to build in 2027, but we think we'll have to finish construction in 2028 because we're waiting for the downtown trail connection to be built.

We're going to plant 1,000 trees with 100 and more volunteers. We're going to pass our 16th consecutive park bond with your support. We are going to work with a brand new governor to recognize outdoor recreation as an area for economic growth. We are going to support connectivity to the Chugach State Park. We will support the Eagle River Trail connectivity.

And we have a project that is ongoing for the Ship Creek stream bank restoration. So those are the biggies for us in 2027. And now I'm going to work on those asks, so take a look at this bullet list. Number 1, we would like to host an annual work session with the assembly. That's your first ask.

It's been too long, and I shouldn't have let it go this long, but we need to stay in touch. And in addition to that, Anna, we— I didn't have this on my bullet list, but we would like you to remember that Youth Employment in Parks wants to make a presentation at the end of their season every year, and we like to do that on your Tuesday night meetings, whichever works out. Usually it's the very end of July.

We want the assembly to be a partner in promoting parks and trails as our best asset for economic development here in Anchorage. We would like your support maintaining our current park assets through the park bonds annually. And sometimes we ask you for support for our private fundraising efforts and other kind of fundraising that we need to do, or even support at the federal level. We ask for letters of support. And you will see those.

We want you to consider supporting how you're going to activate the parks after they're built through programming and partnerships, and that means considering, hey, if I want to do programming in Town Square Park, it's going to cost someone money. Who will it be? Will it be the Parks and Recreation Department? Will it be Anchorage Downtown Partnership? Will it be some other nonprofit trying to eke out a way to, to do programming in, in a public park, but this is a place we're trying to activate, and if that is your goal, I think you should know that it will cost somebody somewhere some money to do some programming.

And that goes for every park, right? If you want programming, someone will pay for it.

And then always celebrate all the wins, the big ones and the small ones. Please take this as a takeaway message. A little mural in your park? Let's celebrate it. A huge new trail connection?

Let's celebrate it. And we'll do it with every community partner we can possibly think of. If you thought about that park, we're going to invite you to it.

This is how we build community. We involve people in the small and large successes so that they really feel like they're engaged.

And then lastly, I want, I want to challenge you each to think about how your neighborhoods and the people that you represent could benefit from working with the Anchorage Park Foundation. And I think it will surprise no one to hear, since I've been in this job and I'm the founding executive director, I've been here 22 years, it's not a surprise to hear that a lot of ideas come from Beth Nordlund. Let's do this one thing, you know, and, and I just would like to challenge you to think about how you would like to work with your nimble, supportive community parks organization, because there are so many ways to build community through your parks and trails. And we've got our eye on all kinds of things that can be done with and for you. All right.

Questions and projects. Question for Ms. Bodende. Yeah, thank you. So, so lovely to get this overview of all— I mean, just really a snapshot of the phenomenal work you've done over the years. And for those who are unaware, Beth is the one, the singular, the spearhead, if you will, of the Park Foundation.

She is the only executive director to date because she started the whole thing. So one of the things I've been kicking around, I have a lot of parks and trails. I think we all have a lot of parks and trails enthusiasts in our districts. I know I do in Midtown. And I've been thinking a lot about park activation.

And, you know, what is it— what does it look like to, to potentially empower, you know, maybe district-based volunteer groups or volunteer committees to to start running with parks and trails activation ideas on a district-by-district basis, or, or maybe starting even smaller than that, you know, it's just a, you know, a neighborhood or a community council or something like that. And I'm wondering if you see a nexus between that sort of initiative and what the Park Foundation is up to and how, you know, that kind of volunteer collection and empowerment could work together with what you're already up to. Yeah, it's completely doable.

In the past, there were two full-time volunteer coordinators at the city that worked on things like Clean and Green, Safe and Secure in Your Neighborhood Park, and now the city does have volunteer coordination, that it still does, but the Anchorage Park Foundation about 3 years ago secured a federal grant for urban and community forestry, and we have someone on, on our staff that is helping us plant trees in different neighborhoods, and the volunteer coordination at that level is really going well. We're really enjoying it, and yeah, there's really unique community building experiences. We use a program called Point, which is also what the Parks and Recreation Department uses, and maybe other municipal departments. It's really going smoothly, and anything is possible.

Yeah, I think that, you know, there's a— there are— I think there's a growing interest in making sure that our parks are lively and they're vibrant, and that there are things going on, events happening. Maybe we're finally climbing out of the post-COVID fog where we spent so much time not with each other that I feel like there's a growing interest in creating opportunities for people to spend time together and to do it outside. So yeah, I would love to maybe brainstorm a little bit about how that could look and how we could deputize volunteers to do good work in that regard.

Yeah, that's a great idea. I would just add that between Parks and Rec Department and Anchorage Soil and Water Conservation District and the Anchorage Park Foundation, we have a lot of volunteer opportunities. And what we're seeing is exactly what you're saying, is that there are more and more people who want to volunteer, and they want to volunteer in their parks, in their own spaces. So I think fleshing out these ideas about how we could offer more opportunities to do these same things that we're already working on. There's definitely a demand for it.

Yeah, and there's, um, I was actually chatting with a group of younger folks in my district who were like, what if we hosted a spikeball tournament at David Green? I was like, sounds great, like, how can I help you? You know, and so those kinds of like event-based, you know, whether it's something physical or music, which I know you guys already do and it's fantastic, those kinds of things, but maybe on just like a park-by-park scale would be really fun to think about. So, anyway, I'll be in touch. Yeah, I will share with you that at a tree planting, so by starting using the point system, There are people that are brand new to town that have— they don't even know who the Anchorage Park Foundation is.

They're Googling, "Where can I volunteer?" and an idea shows up in their feed that they could plant trees with us. So it is not just all the people that we've always known or people that are already getting our newsletters or donating to us on a regular basis. These are people that just just landed. And we even had, Erin, we had this amazing event last month where we had singles night and people planted trees. I mean, the ideas are— there's no bounds.

They know no bounds, and they're very fun. And, you know, It's fun, but it's also building community and building, being welcoming and creating the relationships that make this a cohesive society. It's working.

And another word that I hope you, I've always been trying to make this word happen so you can take it back and think about it. I like to neighborhoodize everything.

Do you want to move on to the map? Yeah, let's do that. I think I'm just checking if there's any other questions. I don't see any right now, so yeah, let's do that. So you'll see the map is about Anchorage as a Trails Town, and all of the projects that, that we propose for trail connections are listed in detail on the back.

And I'll just say that we learned some years ago, we kind of figured out that Anchorage Parks and Recreation Department wakes up every day figuring out how to maintain the assets that that we have. But if we're going to think about how to connect our trails, or think citywide with neighborhood connectivity, it's been a little process harvesting all of the ideas and thinking about trail connections and how to connect neighborhoods. So these are— this list of projects are things that we support, and we are not necessarily the lead on these. We've just harvested the best ideas that we can think of, and many of them are already funded through AMATS, but we, we are bird-dogging each of these projects and figuring out what is next with advocacy and where, where do we go from here. So some of these we're gonna try to get money through the Anchorage Park Foundation, but some of them are bigger than that.

And we are also working on a map about connecting Anchorage to the Mat-Su, and that will have Birchwood, Chugiak, Eagle River projects on it as well.

So Anna had asked me what, what are the kind of projects that you're going to advocate for. I will say this, we're going to advocate for the park bonds, so whatever ends up on the park bonds, we'll be advocating for those. Um, we will be advocating for different projects and playgrounds and things that would be inside your CIP list. We will likely be looking for good ideas of things to fund in different neighborhood parks that look a lot like major maintenance.

And we also are going to be advocating for Alaska Long Trail connectivity and these other Alaska Anchorage Trail connections. Some of these are in your neighborhoods. Some of these we've been talking about for a long time.

Thank you. I think I'll just offer a general question, I think, to continue discussion, or, well, maybe two general questions. One is, you know, you mentioned Indigenous place names, downtown wayfinding, some of these ones that are not just one location, not just one park improvement, although those are certainly important, but wondering kind of what is the general— because I know there's been an arc of multiple years of funding as well. So for those, some of those bigger ones, just wondering generally where you see we're at. You know, for example, have we done every Indigenous place name marker that we can think of?

Are they all fully funded? Or, or kind of where in the life cycle of those initiatives are we? So the ones that come to mind are Indigenous place names, downtown wayfinding, and then I think you have touched already on some of the trail connections. Yeah, let's talk about it by program. We can start with Indigenous place names.

A few years ago, was it 3 years ago now? 2? 2 And a half years ago, we got a Mellon grant for $1.7 million to help us complete our goal of installing 32 Indigenous place name signs. I believe we have 30 done as of this minute, and we have 2 more to go, one next year and one the year after that. So, but the Indigenous Place Name Movement became more than an effort to install signs, right?

So that is a group of Indigenous leaders that are helping us think broadly about what is next for this movement. The Anchorage Park Foundation knows how to get signs installed, So that part of it was, you know, something we really got to work on, but what is next for the movement is still under construction. But we did get a generous Mellon grant that has been very helpful.

In terms of the Trails Initiative is something that is— we have basically a full-time staff person, Diana Rhodes, who is serving on committees, figuring out how, what's next for projects, how can we get federal funding, how can we get something on the STIP or the TIP or the MTP 2050. I mean, there's a lot of complicated— there's a lot of landowners, there's a lot of, of process. So we have somebody working on that basically full-time, and we find ways to fund construction, we find ways to fund studies. But this is where we do a lot of advocacy and community work. We do surveys, we do We do all the things you can think of with anyone that cares about trails, and it's been an area where we try to raise money.

Our neighborhood parks and challenge grants, we receive money from the Rasmussen Foundation. Well, we apply for dollars from the Rasmussen Foundation. Every 2 years, and we mainly receive them, and it's a challenge grant, so your neighborhood challenge grant applicants can give us volunteer time or raise dollars. Dollar for dollar, we will give them up to $40,000 for their project, and often we serve as the home for those dollars as well. So we'll pay their bills directly, or we'll work with a nonprofit partner like the Nordic Ski Association that's ready to go and is just looking for a grant.

So we do engage, we help organize, you know, Eagle Scouts and Girl Scout Gold awardees. Or we, we work with entities that have their own nonprofit and can do construction on their own. But that happens every 2 years, and we often have Assembly members involved in some way in these neighborhood projects. So those are very popular, and actually Assembly members have helped different neighborhood groups raise money for these projects. So all kinds of ways for assembly involvement can be done there.

Youth Employment in Parks is one of the projects that we are very passionate about at the Anchorage Park Foundation. The board's been very involved, and, you know, we help get Youth Employment in Parks started. We raise project dollars for Youth Employment in Parks every year, And we try to raise program dollars, so stream bank restoration, tree planting, if it has to do with your natural lands and habitat, we are trying to figure out a way to fund that project.

And often we can get funding from our federal partners at the Forest Service or in the past we've had U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, but NFWF, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and other entities that are concerned with funding habitat restoration help us fund that. And we have a staffer that works, that, you know, so we say that we are co- co-organizing youth employment in parks. That's part of our public-private partnership, is we have a staff person that helps organize the teens and does field work with the teens.

And let's see, inclusive play. Now, to date, we've built 23 inclusive playgrounds in Anchorage. It's been a Herculean effort. It's been amazing.

We are now, we built our first one, I believe, in 2011. So some of these playgrounds are, you know, a little bit later in the stages of life, and we're looking at how to refresh them. And keep them, um, well maintained. That's something we need to consider. Um, but, um, I think the city did a presentation to you about a year ago on, on the state of Clay.

Um, the Parks Department does a substantial analysis about the playgrounds in this town and whether they are inclusive, involving all kinds of people in play.

And the State of Play is an excellent document that we refer to regularly when we're trying to think about what's next with playground planning. We do know the big playground that they have up and coming is East Chester Woodside. Does anyone know if it's in your district? Is that— I think it's, it's right on the Chester Creek Trail.

Yeah, yeah, you want to put it on the record? I agree. I think it's on the record. Oh, that's good. I think that's District 1.

I think that's just outside of District 4. I think that's accurate. Yeah. So that's the big inclusive playground that they have coming up next. The member from District 1 confirms, yes.

Yes. It's gonna be a really exciting playground. We are going to try to help raise dollars for that. And if I recall, well, I can't, yeah, it's on the mayor's list. Of big projects, and we might even try to help get shipping donated.

We will find all kinds of ways to be involved in that exciting new project. And there was a question from Ms. Baldwin-Day a little, a little bit ago.

It was actually just a logistics question. Um, when does the next Challenge Grant cycle open? We have one more year of this one, so I think it'll be 2028. Okay, wonderful. Thank you.

Yes, please be thinking of ideas.

Um, and then, yeah, I think I've gone through most of the categories except fiscal sponsorship. I'll just say this We are the fiscal sponsor for Town Square because Rasmussen was interested in engaging with this mayor on raising dollars for Town Square. And so we said, yes, we can be a vessel for that. And certainly Rasmussen Foundation, they gave a $500,000 challenge grant. And so the mayor's busy trying to raise $500,000.

We're more than halfway there.

But those, those kinds of opportunities are available to the mayor and maybe to the assembly. And that large, large grant is— it's great that we're available to help you accomplish it.

And it's possible for other kinds of projects in your district.

Okay, um, another kind of general question that I thought we should touch on, um, so related to— and again, we're not going to dig in detail on the CIP. We know that this is a version that we got a month ago, but I think in general, uh, you know, and we've noted, and I think it was discussed in our work session a couple weeks ago that you'll see in the state line, for example. Historically, you know, we document in our CIP what we're asking for. Sometimes it's all bond, sometimes it's part bond, part state, right? There's different funding sources.

And essentially where I'm going is we are also working on our state legislative program. And so that does— that's a short document. It doesn't include every single thing. However, the CIP really is another piece of that because it documents what we intend to ask the state for. Through the CAPSES, the budget amendment process and the capital budget.

So, and I know you all are also very active down in Juneau and thank you so much for your championship down there. But just in general, if you could speak to your kind of process or what you're looking at, 'cause I think one opportunity we have through our budget process will be to amend in these things that we intend to ask for at the state level to make sure that they're documented there too. But just kind of general thoughts about looking to Juneau for next year, whether it's big projects you're intending to champion or just in general, the work that you do down there on behalf of our community as well. Thanks. Yeah, we work with all the Anchorage legislators and we make an effort to help Anchorage legislators think about parks citywide, maybe a citywide trail system asset or Yeah, trails are kind of seen as something that goes through all the districts, right?

But then we are also helping legislators with projects in their own neighborhoods that they represent. So we're in direct communication with— we'll talk to the whole Anchorage caucus every time they come to town. And, and talk to them about funding possibilities and partnerships. But we also talk to each individual legislator, and we— the theory being that a legislative grant through the capital budget can be transformational for a neighborhood. And if it's something that a legislator wants to see, this is how we got the Polar Bear Park in Russian Jack Springs Park.

A legislator was interested in creating a playground and it became something that is so important to those neighbors that Polar Bear is basically the mascot for the neighborhood. It's really a community gathering space. So we work with individual legislators on projects that they want to see happen in their neighborhoods. Sometimes they're asking us about what, you know, and we have expertise on what could work and where you— we use the CIP the neighborhood requests that came from your community councils. And we work with other community groups that are already active in your neighborhoods.

So we intend to put legislative requests forward for every district this year. And we'll just see, it just depends on who decides to champion them. In your neighborhoods. You can work with us on that.

And sometimes you have other larger citywide priorities that you need to keep as your North Star. The Port of Alaska comes to mind. But when it comes to advocating for projects in your neighborhood, we would like to help you.

Another, I was thinking about statewide, and that totally reminded me of a project I keep forgetting about, which is the Long Trail. I wonder if you could talk a little bit, and I know that is not just an Anchorage Park Foundation effort, and I know there's been multiple funding that's been vetoed over the years and things like that, but I know there's a robust group of folks across the state who have been advocating for that. So I wonder if you could give to what you know as far as an update on that and just kind of where you see Anchorage's role and your role in that project. Yeah, the Alaska Long Trail will be a 500-mile trail from Seward to Fairbanks, and, um, we are advocating strongly that it will go through downtown Anchorage. We will at least be an on-ramp to this 500-mile trail, and and we have manifested it to be true because we have raised some dollars to do the gateway to the Alaska Long Trail, which will be at the mouth of Ship Creek, quite close behind the railroad offices, very close to the small boat launch.

And also Matsue has raised some dollars for their own gateway I think the way to look at it is all the communities that are along the Long Trail will be advocating for their own access to the Long Trail. They will be— the Long Trail should be championed by their chambers of commerce. It's a a community building exercise, and it is an exercise in— it's also something that we can all work together on in this region of the state. So it's very positive. Some of the things that have been funded by the legislature were vetoed, but we did get one of our things funded recently, which is the Gateway.

And we're using some other Mellon dollars that we received for the Indigenous Place Name Project to help flesh out that gateway project. We are excited about it and we are in it for the long run. It has helped us organize other partners that you'll see on the map. All these partners on the front of the map— Nordic Ski Association, Alaska Trails, Visit Anchorage, are working with us regularly to engage on the Alaska Long Trail. Legislators tend to be very in favor of it, so it's one of those things that it's good to put in your legislative requests.

Yeah, and I'll remind folks, of course, we've got our two parallel processes: the budget, where we decide mostly what would go on local bonds, so local fundraising, but then also what we are asking others. And then of course our legislative program, we'll be discussing that in a different committee, but that is a great place. And I will say it over and over, we always look to members to really engage with the folks in your district. Of course, you know, at the state level, certainly federal as well, if you have those relationships. And so that's a great way, it doesn't have to all flow through the entire Assembly.

As well, those local priorities. There was a piece of legislation last year and the year before that we were really concerned about. And so it didn't make it through and we testified against it many times because we thought it might block the Fish Creek Trail project from going forward. And we have more than 1,000 people that signed on to a petition to get that Fish Creek Trail built. So there's different ways to pull people together to get excited about things, and sometimes it's opposing something.

Yeah, Ms. Bolduc. I just, I'm curious, you know, if you were queen for a day and you could just wave a magic wand and make something happen in terms of trails or parks in Anchorage, what would you do?

I'm very excited about the downtown trail connection. You can probably tell. It's, it's going to be more beautiful than you can imagine, and so I feel very excited that it's underway and we are building a gateway along that. There's two other things. The, the least safe trail connection on the Moose Loop is the Lake Otis crossing.

It's a funded project on AMATS.

I don't actually understand what it means to have a really, really messed up STIP and whether— I know you all heard that in a Committee yesterday, the Transportation Committee met, and the, the statewide plan, which all the projects that go get through AMATS have to be in, is out of compliance and, and unworkable. And it— and what we've seen in the past is that has delayed construction dollars. And so one hopes that this project is not in peril for that way. But yeah, we need, we need a safe Lake Otis crossing, whether it's an overpass, which we have been advocating for for many years, or whether it ends up being some other safety project that's at ground level. I'll let the traffic engineers be the experts on that, but it's unsafe.

And then of course, the Fish Creek Trail to the ocean actually connects my own neighborhood to the Coastal Trail. So I would be remiss if I didn't tell you that I walk my two dogs on a split leash through snowy streets through Turnagain to get to the coastal trail from, from Spurnigan. I'm just walking in streets, so we— my neighborhood is not connected to the trail system very well, so I would like to see the Fish Creek Trail to the ocean.

Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions, stuff for members?

Okay, do you want to make any closing comments as we wrap up? I would like to say you are in excellent hands with your incoming executive director, and I want you to be thinking about all the ways you wish to work with the Anchorage Park Foundation. You don't have to do things the old way. You can think of new things, and we will be a willing and nimble partner for your next idea.

Well, thank you very much, and early congratulations to you, Michelle, for your new role, and early, early retirement, but not yet, from Beth. And yeah, thank you again. I think I cannot commit the entire Assembly forever, but I think it is a great idea to have an annual work session, and whether it's around this time of year, another time, I think it's helpful to get these updates. I learned a lot today, and I've heard about a lot of these projects, but I haven't been tracking closely. And then, yeah, I think as we move into our budget conversation, obviously Park Foundation is a resource if you have— if you want background on these projects.

And then of course talk to your constituents, your districts, because a lot of folks have been around longer than we have and have tracked these for a long time. So, um, and then generally, yeah, I think, um, we certainly want to continue the partnership and thank Anchorage Park Foundation for all of its work really helping advocate for a better community and building community. So, so with that, I think there's not an immediate action item from this other than we stay tuned and we'll talk more about the budget in a couple weeks. And thanks everybody for being here. We'll be adjourned and we have one more work session at 2:10.

Thanks everyone.