Ric Smith: Time for Chugiak and Eagle River to forge a new path, including one for education

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By RIC SMITH

For nearly five decades, the residents of Eagle River and Chugiak have contributed a significant portion of their tax dollars to the Municipality of Anchorage, only to feel their community has received little in return.

Many of us have long held different views from our neighbors in Anchorage on how a city should be managed. After almost 50 years of growth and maturity, we believe it’s time for Eagle River and Chugiak to stand as their own municipal government. This is the vision of Eaglexit: to detach from Anchorage and incorporate as a home rule borough.

With detachment, the area currently designated as Assembly District 2 (AD2), which includes all of JBER and Eagle River/Chugiak north to the Knik River, would become the Chugach Regional Borough (CRB), a Non-unified Home Rule borough. This transition would allow Eagle River/Chugiak to transform into the city it has long deserved to be: a city of self-governance, small, lean government, and empowered citizens. It would be a place where the will of the people is more closely aligned with their municipal officials.

Within this new borough, we will need to design and implement a new school district. A committee of residents, including myself, have been working diligently on this design, drawing from a wealth of experience and diverse backgrounds. Our committee includes current and retired ASD teachers and staff, private sector business individuals, experienced charter schoolteachers, a former ASD student, and parents/grandparents.

As the chair of the Eaglexit Education Committee, I bring 26 years of teaching experience in the ABC optional program here in Eagle River. I have witnessed firsthand the financial waste a large district can generate and the erosion of quality curricula. I’ve seen staff hired who don’t fit the programs or sound education policy, eroding the culture and expectations of the entire school. I’ve seen teacher morale so low that they leave Alaska altogether in search of better pay, better retirement, and better work environments.

Eaglexit offers a fresh perspective, learning from past mistakes and looking forward to positive changes within our new school district and better outcomes for the future of our community’s children. We’ve reviewed examples from the best schools in the nation. 

The Education Committee has completed the charter for this new school district and looks forward to sharing our ideas with the community in greater detail. We will be holding public town halls throughout the winter months to engage with you and discuss our plans.

Our primary goal is to limit the powers of the School Board, the district superintendent, and district administration. Our charter grants the greatest authority to the members of the community of the Chugach Regional Borough, empowering you, the parents, to control the direction of your school district and decide the best educational models and curricula for the students. Our vision is for a district where authority flows from the schools and community to the superintendent and finally to the School Board.

This new district is based on the idea that parents have the right to ensure their children receive the best possible education and future. Each school within the CRB will be a charter school, where the community decides each school’s educational focus. The district will have an open enrollment policy with no boundaries, ensuring every child, regardless of socio-economic status, physical location, or family situation, can attend the school best suited to their needs. Each school’s focus will be to exceed the state standards and expectations, setting a national standard for excellence.

The Chugach Regional Borough will utilize contracted services wherever possible to streamline operations and run the district more efficiently. The School Board will serve solely for the benefit of the students, not its members. The superintendent’s authority will be derived from the community, and will not have the traditional autonomy of a public-school superintendent.

Each charter school within the Chugach Regional Borough will be founded by community stakeholders, including parents, school staff, and community members. Each school will have an Academic Policy Committee made up of staff, parents and community members to ensure the charter of the school is strictly followed. The committee will hire the principal, who will then hire the staff and enforce the charter with their team.

Our intent with the Chugach Regional Borough’s budget is to pay our teachers a competitive wage to attract excellent educators. We believe higher wages will enable teachers to set up a better retirement for themselves since the State no longer offers an attractive retirement plan for quality teachers. With the support of a faculty senate to address grievances, a collaborative teaching environment, higher wages, and better retirement options, we hope to make our district a place teachers want to be part of and raise their families.

Transparency is vital to our model, promoting parent collaboration and inter-school competition. Each school will report information through a district-wide website, including standardized test scores, class sizes, waitlist numbers, and financial disclosures.

Each school in the Chugach Regional Borough will adhere to federal and state laws and regulations regarding the education of special needs and highly gifted students.

Our charter, like the Constitution of the United States, limits the responsibilities and duties of its participants. The regulations and procedures that individual schools choose or that the School Board deems necessary are beyond our purview.

The charter frames a district that reflects the wants and needs of the majority of Chugach Regional Borough families. We, the Chugach Regional Borough Education Committee members, see many issues we could address to curtail today’s social challenges. By framing the charter as we have, we leave it up to the community to decide the social issues they want to address. 

The Education Committee members look forward to our public town hall meetings, where we can present our ideas in more detail. We enthusiastically look forward to your questions and input as we build a school district where future generations will thrive.

Ric Smith is a former teacher in the Anchorage School District. He is an Eagle River resident and chair of the Eaglexit Education Committee.


51 COMMENTS

  1. I’m for self-governance and I certainly understand your perspective. However, each article I read does not mention a timeline or even if the citizens in the community are in favor. Reading article after article on this without any deadline in sight doesn’t help me understand if ER/Chugiak are making any progress.

  2. Sounds like a right-wing utopia, interesting that they want JBER included, must be all the federal dollars that will flow with it to the new borough.

    • It couldn’t be that they’d prefer including a population that’s within a compact boundary,of corse. That doesn’t fit your pro-governmwnt- micromanagement worldview, does it,AFF?

    • JBER is included because they are in Assembly District 2 along with Eagle River, Chugiak, Peters Creek, Eklutna.

      • And the Federal Government will not let a city annex its land. JBER being in the proposed borough is a waste, you can’t take the property , you can’t charge a sales tax if this new mythical borough gets created.

        • JBER is currently part of the Municipality of Anchorage and military personnel and their dependents are considered AK residents and can vote in municipal elections. JBER used to be part of muni district 2, but after reapportionment in 2021 is now in district 1, represented by Chris Constant.
          It also seems I read somewhere that JBER pays the municipality a fee in lieu of property taxes, which would be lost to the muni coffers if the base would switch to the new borough.

        • JBER is currently part of the Municipality of Anchorage and military personnel and their dependents, who reside there are considered AK residents and can vote in municipal elections. JBER used to be part of muni district 2, but after reapportionment in 2021 is now in district 1, represented by Chris Constant.
          It also seems I read somewhere that JBER pays the municipality a fee in lieu of property taxes, which would be lost to the muni coffers if the base would switch to the new borough.

    • Seems to me, when I graduated Chugiak, we had quite a few kids whose folks worked at the bases attending our schools. Considering at the time that quite a few of early residents to move to the area were related to military service people, their presence was valued especially for its diversity, and unique perspective to residing in area even if only for a short ‘tour’. We had a robust ROTC program, as well.

  3. WE NEED EAGLEXIT!!!
    I have seen our schools in Eagle River and the surrounding area deteriorate. They don’t remotely resemble what we had 20 years ago.

    • Ha, ha, hilarious. First of all, C/ER has some of the best public schools in the state. ERHS is the #1 ASD high school, according to DEED; it is #3 in the state according to US News and World Report. Feeder schools are similarly highly ranked. EagleExit likes to make out that our schools are failing, when in fact they are doing relatively well. They would be doing even better were they adequately funded. Flat state funding is a net loss in budgetary power: class sizes grown, course options shrink, and support services shrivel. We C/ER educators are holding our own, no thanks to most our legislators and the governor.

      • “relatively well” isn’t good enough. We expect excellence from our schools AND our children. I hope local control is restored to ER/Chugiak/JBER. However, expect financial and political punishment from Outside forced.

    • You should look to the flat funding from the state for the reason for that. Flat funding = actual reduction with inflation. Fewer $/student = larger classes, fewer options, shuttered support systems, etc. It is very difficult to hire new staff or even keep them once here.
      By the way, Chugiak/Eagle River schools are actually doing pretty well despite the budgetary attempt to starve them into failure. ERHS is # 1 in the ASD according to AK DEED, #3 in the state according to US News and World Report. We have several nationally recognized programs, do exceptionally well with attendance, graduation, and student conduct, etc.

      • CAM, I have been listening to this whining about lack of funds in correlation to poor educational outcomes for a long time. It is pure fiction!
        The ASD has a budget of almost half a billion dollars educating 43,500 students. In any sane world that should be more than enough to give our kids a grade A education. Yet it does not. The ASD doesn’t have a lack of funds, they have an allocation problem. Vast amounts of money are spent on administrative staff and high paid executives instead of teaching materials and teachers. As numbers of student enrollment declined, numbers of teachers decrease by 3% while non-teaching staff INCREASED by 14% for the same time period (2000-2019 AK policy forum numbers). While in 2000 the teacher/support personnel ratio was 1.06 teachers to each support person it is now 0.89 teachers per every support person. The ASD now is more of a jobs creator than an institution of learning. Our kids and teachers get the short end of the stick.

  4. I hope Eagle River & Chugiak manage to pull themselves out from under the choking yoke of Anchorage and its deleterious administration. The Anchorage Assembly has gotten too big for its britches and those living in Anchorage don’t care enough to vote to make the necessary changes. The less people Anchorage drags down to the dregs, the better.

    • The MOA has no say in it, the people of this new district will vote on it and with it being a more conservative one chances are very good that it will be approved. The MOA doesn’t deserve our hard earned tax dollars, we get very little from them for it and it’s time we broke away from that joke of municipality.

        • As it has been stated many times before, only the residents of Assembly District 2 will vote in the detachment vote. Outside the AD2 will not hanve any say come that vote!

  5. If each charter school in the district chooses its own educational focus, what will the Christian faith-based school look like?

  6. Alaskan’s for freedom, it would make sense that Eagle River would include the military base for Eaglexit .The kids that live on base go to Eagle River schools!

  7. “Each school’s focus will be to exceed the state standards and expectations, setting a national standard for excellence.” This sounds like weak sauce. Schools should prepare students not just for exams but for life. A life where they can thrive both personally and professionally.

    • What role does the parent have in preparing their child for “life”? Must we depend on a school system for that?

    • “This sounds like weak sauce.”
      Why? The point of schooling is to provide children with a solid foundation of skills from math, reading, logical/critical thinking, civics and science. This will enable them as adults to assess for themselves, if what they are presented is fact, fiction, or wishful thinking. Parents teach the art and values of life.

  8. Eagle River/Chugiak has always produced some strong leaders as I know many who graduated from the local schools and went on to become successful entrepreneurs, successful business/professional people and great parents with good families. I am praying that this effort to secede from MOA is realized-needs to happen now!

  9. Maybe Eagle River/Chugiak could form their own group to work with the Native association to take over the Eklutna Dam and power distribution. Anchorage City could go it alone and not be considered. If they don’t want the power, maybe it time to consider just using the resources on a different sector.

    • With the recent “Indian Land” ruling Eklutna has more self determination now (Casino’s are allowed with limited scope) so they won’t bow to anyone. And here’s a shock, you can’t just seize power distribution from a cooperative electrical association that is governed and regulated by state and federal law.

  10. What is the general timeline of EagleExit? What is planned? And where are you in the process?

    I am ready to “throw in the towel” and leave Anchorage for the Valley. The property tax revenue is very poorly managed and spent carelessly, I have no representation on the assembly (even the two members in the district where I live won’t return my calls), and municipal code counters unreasonably the fair and commonsense use of my property. If Chugiak and Eagle River were able to make serious progress towards leaving the municipality in the next year, I’d work hard for this and look seriously at buying a house in that area.

  11. I think Ric and I graduated same year at Chugiak, and I think also, that he would agree we had some of the best high school teachers to help prepare us for our current state of the world. That being said, I do NOT think that charter schools are an answer, even though Mr Smith’s career in teaching gives him reason to conclude this. The area was far more community-minded and caring when we were kids before Anchorage incorporated our towns AGAINST our will, but charter schooling sets up what is seen in other parts of the country as entrenched, or almost ‘gerry-mandered’ apartheid, as Mr Kirk (invoking the name of one of our social studies instructors) might suggest –I think (I may be wrong about what Mr Kirk might say, as he’s not here to deny or affirm my opinion). Charter schools eliminates the tools for voicing against discriminatory practices against a whole swath of people between the ages of 5-17 whose educational needs vary considerably. And, I speak as mom whose children attended out-of-state public schools comparable to Chugiak in the amount of motivated and dedicated teachers, well-educated and involved parents, and adequate funding –nothing too fancy, but adequate variety and high quality.

    • Could you explain what you mean when you say charter schooling sets up what is seen in other parts of the country as entrenched, or almost ‘gerry-mandered’ apartheid, or that Charter schools eliminates the tools for voicing against discriminatory practices against a whole swath of people between the ages of 5-17 whose educational needs vary considerably. I’m genuinely interested in understanding this. Our proposal is that anyone, anywhere in the AD2 area could go to any school they choose to, we will have bus service available for those not walking to school or being driven by parents, so who is being discriminated against with charter schools? I really am interested in hearing your thoughts.

  12. For those asking about a timeline.. the Board is very close to submitting a charter, a petition, and a transition plan to the LBC, the Local Boundary Commission, which is the State agency which oversees any boundary changes within the state. Once the LBC has the documents, they have 45 days to review and decide if Eaglexit can then proceed to use the petition to garner the needed signatures to get the proposal on the ballet. Once Eaglexit is ok’ed to proceed with gathering signatures we have 1 year to gather signatures. We think we can do it a lot quicker! After we turn in the signatures the LBC then has between a year and two years to hold public meetings on the topic of educating the public on detachment. At the end of that time ti goes to a vote by the people of only Assembly District 2, which is JBER, Eagle River out to the Knik River. This is not a random drawing of boundaries by Eaglexit, it was done by whomever draws out our voting districts. And yes, only voters within area AD2 will get to vote. The MOA has no say in this matter at that time!
    As for the state of the Eagle River schools, yes, we have some of the best schools in the district out here, but when you look at the standing of the ASD, according to U.S. News, 43% % of elementary students tested at or above the proficient level for reading, and 39% tested at or above the level for math. Also, 43% of Middle School students tested at or above the proficient level in reading, and 38% tested at or above the level for math. At the high school level only 39% tested at or above the level for reading, while 26% tested at or above in math. In the area of College readiness, again according to U.S. News.. ASD sits at a whooping 22.1.. that is out of 100 on their scale!! So when I hear people telling me how great our schools are, I have to remind them that yes, our schools out here are doing well with in a district that is consistently near the bottom of the national ranking, and I’m left to wonder why are we so proud of that level of educational readiness! We are usually in the top ranking across the nation in spending however, so there’s that…!
    As for educating students for their future, that’s exactly what we’re proposing. Along with the idea of charter schools with high expectations for the basic tenents of education, reading, math, history, spelling etc., we would hope to see VoTech program reintroduced to the system to help prepare those who choose not to go to higher education to find incredible paying jobs in the Trades.
    As far as funding for this new district. We are agreed that teachers are not happy with the way things are run in the schools, or across the district, there will always be those saying that throwing more money to an already hugely oversized headship administration will solve the problems in the classroom. I taught long enough to know that very little of all that money ever sees it’s way into the classroom! Count up all of the headshed positions that are over $100,000 a year, and don’t forget to include the Superintendent’s salary at $280,000 with an $8,000 transportation budget, and you’ll start to see why we want to restructure this new district to see that money is spent where it counts the most.. in the classroom, in the school support staff and teacher’s salaries!
    Regarding what a christian based school would look like, that would be up to the parents and teachers who put the charter together, not this committee. Each charter school would be set up by parents and teachers who want to build a program that they are interested in seeing succeed. Join the cause, get involved and help build this thing!
    I hope this answers some of the questions/comments here and more of you will start coming to the monthly public meetings. Become involved in forming what we believe will be a chance to really make an impact in the education, as well as the formation of a borough where our values, and beliefs are more aligned with our limited government.

  13. Could you explain what you mean when you say charter schooling sets up what is seen in other parts of the country as entrenched, or almost ‘gerry-mandered’ apartheid, or that Charter schools eliminates the tools for voicing against discriminatory practices against a whole swath of people between the ages of 5-17 whose educational needs vary considerably. I’m genuinely interested in understanding this. Our proposal is that anyone, anywhere in the AD2 area could go to any school they choose to, we will have bus service available for those not walking to school or being driven by parents, so who is being discriminated against with charter schools? I really am interested in hearing your thoughts.

  14. Wont ever happen, I keep asking HOW are you going to pay for it ? and no one has a response. JBER wont just be moved into the new borough, thats federal land and they wont do it. You gonna have a sales tax on the few businesses in ER / Chugiak ? or just put it on the homeowners (many whom are in tax reduced status of over 65+ or 50% disabled). Every time I ask about zoning, codes, ordinance I never get a response. Their also seems to be a huge void on what people think a home rule borough’s responsibilities are vs the states or feds responsibilities.

    How about Police and Fire ? You gonna trust CVFD and their ineptness ? god help your home insurance rates if you can get one. Lots of questions and no one has an answer when I or my father in law asked. All we have gotten is “you’ll see we have it figured out” …Well thats not a grown up answer.

    I’ve said it 100 times Anchorage is not going to give you schools that the entire MOA is paying for, also are you ready to pay for the earthquake insurance requirements for the repaired schools IF MOA lets you buy them ? And AWWU / Eklutna , MOA is not giving up that cash cow.

    Is ER supported by the MOA, not at all they are overlooked and marginalized just like Girdwood is but they aren’t going to let you go anymore than they will let Girdwood out of the MOA. Thats just the way it is, follow the MONEY. Who are the silent people pushing the Eagle Exit and look to make a ton of money (McKenna Brothers Plowing I bet). Maybe Ive lived here too long but it doesn’t matter if it’s the MSB, the MOA or Eagle Exit. Someone is going to get pain well or this whole idea wouldn’t have happened. Just follow the $ trail

  15. Mr D, Thanks for the response, I hope I can help clear up some things you mentioned. First, how are we going to be able to afford to detach? I will admit when I first heard about the idea of detaching I didn’t understand how we could do it, but it is very possible. Every area of town is taxed on a mill rate according to how the city sees your property values. We here in the Eagle River are taxed at the 2nd highest rate in the city, second only to the hillside. That is millions and millions a year feeding into the MOA to help run the city and it’s services. In return we get a very small portion back to fund this part of the MOA.. a small amount for our 2 AFD stations, along with enough to give us, I believe it’s 3-4 police officers per shift in a 24 hour day rotation, a clerk and a detective for our APD presence. Along with those we also get enough money to run our schools. If you total the amount of money spent out here verses what we send into MOA to run the rest of the city it’s a phenomenal amount! If we were to keep that revenue out here instead of sending to the MOA, that money now affords us to run our own city, with a surplus if we kept the current tax numbers. Do we need the huge surplus? We don’t think so, so we believe we can lower taxes out here and still have plenty to run our borough.
    Not sure why you feel so down on the CVFD, they are an incredible asset to this area, and one we’d look forward to keeping for sure. As for our own fire and police depts. as I already stated, we’d have more than enough to fund those entities.
    As for the MOA giving us the schools of the AD2, the same principle applies here as with any divorce.. in a divorce between couples, all assets and liabilities are split. It doesn’t matter if one spouse payed more than the other in purchasing it, everything gets split in some percentage. In the case of detachment that still is the same. The MOA has to divest itself of holdings of which the Eagle River/Chugiak/Birchwood/Eklutna taxes have helped pay for. The long and short of it is that they will give us the schools in exchange to keep other parts of the MOA we’ve helped pay for. That could also include all the fire equipment out here. It is a divorce, it will be run through just the same. Do we want the dump, I can’t see why, so the MOA keeps it, and the revenue, as for the AWWU water line and Eklutna Lake system, leave it to AWWU, we wouldn’t want to change anything there. Enstar gas still is Enstar gas, no change. We get billed for those services now, we would get billed for them after detachment. No change.
    As for JBER moving into the new borough.. where do you see the issue? JBER is already part of the Anchorage Municipality as far as within the Municipality, within the Anchorage Borough. Changing the name of the borough JBER sits within is a simple change of name only. Do the FEDS care which borough the land that JBER sits on is in? I don’t see your concern.
    You mention Mckenna in your comment.. McKenna is not in anyway part of the Eaglexit Board, and as such as no say in what happens. Will McKenna make money after detachment plowing our roads? I hope so, I hope they continue to contract with the borough and continue to do a fine job of city snow removal, which is far better than removal in Anchorage!
    Lastly, you mention the ‘silent people’ who are pushing the Eaglexit, follow the money.. I can assure you that everyone involved is a volunteer, no one gets paid a dime to contribute to this idea.. except the lawyers who have been overseeing the process. This is a grassroots affair, and that is one reason it has taken so long to get to his point.. donations to pay for the process, including the lawyers, rental on space to hold public meetings, brochures to educate the public. No Mr D., no one is making any money here, we are all volunteering our time, and some of the Board has been volunteering for many years now.
    I hope this helps answer your questions, and I look forward to having you attend some of our monthly meetings so we get the chance to answer any further questions that may come up.

    • One reason why we (meaning you EagleExit folks) may want the dump is its proximity to our community. It’s a huge toxic liability, but also possibly a golden egg for whoever can get the engineering and funding together to turn all that off-gassing into energy. Regardless, as it stands, the smell of the dump wafts over the highway and makes our valley less nice…. Feel a bit bad for those Eagle Point folks, with their nice houses, nice lots, and intermittent sour smell.

      • That is a good point, Cam, about the energy being used, but I think the idea of not wanting the dump comes from being fearful of what the future could bring with toxic problems that we don’t want to deal with.

  16. Ric, what will protect schoolchildren from the perverted filth we see in Fairbanks and Anchorage school districts?
    .
    What protects taxpayers from the massive in-your-face corruption such as awarding million-dollar contracts only to union-owned shops, which we see in the Anchorage School Board?
    .
    What prevents teachers’ union(s) from infesting the new school district with their perverted, soul destroying, intellect-killing ideology, child-mutilating, child-grooming ideology?
    .
    How much of Anchorage’s share of the Alaska Municipal League Investment Pool will be transferred to Noveau Eagle River?

    • Morrigan, those are real issues we need to make sure we find answers to. As to keeping those curriculums that most of us view as not acceptable in schools, we will need to have the community involved in the formation of these schools. The idea behind charter schools is that they are formed with parents and teachers who are passionate about giving students a curriculum where they can best succeed. There may be a lot of ideas floated as we get to that time in the process, but we only have 12 elementary schools, 2 middle schools, and two high schools,, so the community will have to decide upon which ones actually make it into buildings. What we see with this idea is that with the district made up entirely of charter schools then it becomes a free enterprise system, very entrepreneurial. The money from the state and Feds follow the students, so if a school is preforming well, with a great curriculum and fantastic teachers and staff, they will attract students, and will have the money to keep going. If a school’s curriculum isn’t performing, then that school will lose students, along with the money, thus forcing that school to either change to a better curriculum, staff, or shut down and let another model into that building. I hope you can see how as a community we can now focus on good curriculums, and not on the latest agenda of any particular group.
      As far as keeping money flowing out to the public evenly, the school board who oversees the district will be made up of people elected from what is today the community councils out here. The members of those councils, later to be known as commissions so they have more power, will have the power to recall their member very easily if the public sees things they don’t approve of. Also, since we see the district contracting out much of it’s services, there should be more than enough to go around, and we should start with shops within the AD2!
      As far as Teacher’s Unions, it is our hope that with the budget we are working with in the proposal we will be able to pay staff and teachers a much better salary than what they have today. This salary will allow them to set up their own supplemental retirement, as well as attract teachers from outside who would love to teach in a district like ours. Along with the higher wages, we are setting up a Faculty Senate which will act as a de facto HR department for staff. They can then use this Senate much the same way staff use their unions now.. to resolve issues, to act as a 3rd party in disputes, and since wages will be much better, we are hoping the unions will not be something the staffs and teachers want to bring in.
      I am not sure how all of it will fallout with the Ak Municilpal Investment Pool, but as in a divorce, all assets and liabilities have to be worked out between the parties.
      I hope this helps answer some of your questions and I hope you’ll consider coming to our monthly meetings to learn more.

      • Ric, a cautionary note about community councils/commissions…
        .
        We’ve seen the decline of certain Anchorage community councils into de facto homeowner associations, accountable to no one, operated by successions of folks legendary for ideologies and activities profoundly, noisily, antithetical to anything remotely resembling reasoned conseratism.
        .
        May we recommend -not- vesting more authority in such groups or elevating them to commission status without guardrails to limit:
        arbitrarily meddling in neighbors’ lives, trespassing on their land to spy on them,
        lobbying for legislative or tax changes without community knowledge or consent,
        actively discouraging meeting attendees’ participation,
        weaponizing code-enforcement to obstruct residents’ property development,
        advocating for private-property seizure to further the group’s “trails” agenda.
        .
        Having seen how Anchorage commissions operate, accountable to no one for what commissioners spend or do, we’re loathe to accept the notion that de facto homeowners associations may be elevated to yet another layer of impenetrable, authoritarian bureaucracy.
        .
        We’re not opposed to community councils, years ago the initial concept seemed helpful, resident-friendly.
        .
        To that end, may we recommend a standardized community-council rule set, a clear guide, to inform residents what community-council officials are allowed, and not allowed, to do.

        • All good points, Morrigan! The charter to set up the new borough is a limiting document for power, so hopefully you will be pleased in the formation of the commissions. Watch for our next public meeting on eaglexit.com, or on our Facebook page and come talk to us. Next meeting looks like the 19th of Sept. Location to be announced.

  17. Ric:
    What is eaglexit’s plan for buying the infrastructure currently owned by the MOA?
    Just one example of many would be the school buildings and property. These assets are owned by the Municipality of Anchorage, I find it highly unlikely that the MOA would be willing to just give those away to a new borough even if they were legally allowed to do so.
    A few other examples would be:
    – Parks.
    – Police and fire stations including all the equipment found within.
    – Road maintenance equipment.

      • Ric:
        Your answers further back are a fairy tale and comparing it to a divorce is a terrible analogy.
        A better analogy would be a grown child moving out of his parents house, the child leaving is entitled to nothing the parents own. The MOA is not required to give any of those assets to a new borough and if they did I’m certain the substantial debt attached to those assets would come with them.
        You are not properly informing your supporters about the massive outlay of funds that will be required upon eaglexit. An outlay that would put the new borough in immediate debt at what would likely be high interest rates considering the new borough would have no credit rating.
        I urge the people of Eagle River/Chugach to research the actual costs that will be encumbered by the new borough.

        • Well, you are certainly entitled to your views. I disagree with you, and would hope you’ll come to a meeting and voice your concern and hopefully we can show you in more detail, or maybe you can show us how we’re wrong.

    • Lurch you seem to forget that CER residents ARE currently part of the municipality and pay a considerable amount of property taxes to the city coffers.
      In essence residents in CER have paid the same share to ALL municipal buildings in the muni, just like hillside, downtown or midtown (pick your area) residents. So part of the police headquarter, city hall, East Highschool, etc. proportionally belongs to the CER residents whose tax money paid for them. Since we can not just walk into city hall and take a couple of hallways, we swap the city hall hallway for some at Chugiak Highschool.
      There are a considerable larger number of municipal buildings, equipment etc paid partially by CER residents in the Anchorage bowl, then there are in the CER area, the muni may actually end up owing us some money!
      I find your demeaning description of CER residents as an “adult child” unacceptable and disrespectful. I am also uncertain why you employ such an aggressive tone. Unlike adult children, resident of CER have contributed considerably over the decades to the financial strength of Anchorage. CER joint the municipality back in the 1975 via annexation, and it is our right as a community to have self-determination.

      • CER is certainly entitled to leave the MOA and form a new borough and as a conservative who left Anchorage I can certainly see why they would want to. But, doing so without knowing the actual costs involved and operating under misrepresentations is foolhardy.
        But, make no mistake, CER will be leaving by their own choice and the MOA is under zero legal obligation to turn over any assets to the new borough. Considering the Anchorage assemblies propensity for grabbing up any and all money’s they can to fund their idiotic liberal agenda, the smart bet is that they will use eaglexit as an opportunity to siphon a last load of money out of the district.

        • As taxpayers, AD2 has already paid for the assets within our district over the nearly 50 years within the MoA, so it is not a matter of needing to rebuy things that homeowners have long since paid for.

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