Message from the Chair and WACO agenda—February 17, 2010

Greetings to all in this spring look-alike season&helip;

I hope you all got to experience some or lots of the 2010 Willow Winter Carnival!! What a lot of fun! We had a fantastic number of people come the first weekend and the Saturday of the second weekend, but the second Sunday was fewer. Something about the Saints seemed to preoccupy more than the usual football fan club away. Nonetheless, lots of fun. Thanks to each and every one of you that did a little or a lot to make it such fun! Unfortunately, we earned about half of the proceeds compared to earnings of the last several years; two reasons I know of: all of us are tighter on our spending abilities and spent less than usual; and we had less corporate sponsorship this year – same basic economic issue. As I have shared before, courtesy of our treasurer, in general we need to earn the equivalent of $75 per day to maintain our obligation in our contract with the borough. I will be working with borough staff to see if our obligation can be eased but still provide the local access and building management. I am delighted to say that energy is already building towards our 50th year and the carnival of the half century. Mary Shreves is currently taking the lead, hoping that a co-chair will join her to make the 50th even more memorable than the preceding 49!

Every one usually wants to know about the big raffle prize winners – this year 5 of the 7 were won by Willow and Caswell residents!! And the other 2 were won by real friends of Willow, Debbie Trosper of Iditarod restart fame and Phil Batchelder, a massage therapist at Back and Neck Center in Wasilla where a number of Willow folk gets their chiropractic care!!

April is right around the corner. Steve Charles and Dana Hills are this year’s WACO nominating committee. We are seeking folks committed to sharing not only their own opinions about matters affecting Willow, but able to attract the ideas and opinions of others to represent those at the WACO meetings, and in decision making about the issues that our community will face in the next couple of years. Sure there are some politics and some rumor-mongering that has nothing to do with anything. But I believe you will find that participating in the process, affecting the issues that face us and the teamwork of the remaining Board members are so satisfying as to make it worth your time! So please let Steve (495-6368) or Dana (495-8771) knows of your interest. The positions open are Chair, Secretary, SW and NE area reps/alternates. I do plan to run again for Chair but would welcome competition if one of you would like to run for the chair position. Norm Wakeman has also decided that he needs to focus on other activities and has resigned the Vice Chair position effective in April. That position is an appointed position for the second year of the term so please let me know if you are interested.

Iditarod restart is coming up very soon, Sunday March 7. We will be running the kitchen to earn money (and have fun). If you would like to volunteer for either the kitchen or to help keep the building cleaned up, let me know SOON so we can get you a name tag!! We will need to carpool in as we have limited parking spaces and plan on coming in early (probably by 8:30 or 9A) and staying to the end. With only 71 teams signed up, Iditarod officials believe that we will be in the final clean up by about 4:30 in the afternoon. It is so much fun! And there should be enough of us volunteers that we can all take turns going down to the ice and watching or whatever… We do plan on the snow lasting that long… Long term forecasts suggest a cooling trend at the end of next week. We could use more snow of course for all our winter activities. Friends of mine from around the state say we have among the highest snow levels, as usual.

Want to express your opinion? Feb 18 DOT consultants will be discussing the master plan for the Willow Airport at the school. 6:30P is the start time. Feb 25 a meeting will be held at the Community Center, 5:30-8:30P for the borough staff to collect thoughts on Resource Management for selected parcels throughout the borough. There are 3 areas here in Willow affected. We will discuss the Resource Management plan at the March 1 WACO meeting so that our community has an opinion on record. There is no new news on the 50 year Energy Plan which has many aspects that could affect Willow. The bill addressing it continues to wander through the Legislative process in Juneau. The preferred Rail spur route is still a mystery as the STB (federal) has not yet issued its opinion. And those dedicated Comp planning committee members are into it now, doing the serious arguing/persuading necessary to have a plan that can be, hopefully, adopted by all as a great community compromise.

What do you think about an annual deep clean, volunteer style at the Community Center? I would propose that we get it together the week following the Iditarod Restart, WACO providing the organization and cleaning materials. I have discussed it with the folks who do most of the scheduled cleaning and they agree that keeping it cleaner will be much easier if we do a really deep clean once each year. The week after Iditarod is also just after the Carnival, the two events that bring in the most dirt and disorder each year. It also is just in front of the big wedding season and will make our facility more marketable for such events. Let me know what you think: chair@waco-ak.org. I will also be contacting leaders of groups that use the building regularly.

And the last sharing, Fran Lynch of the Methodist Church is organizing many of the leaders of the different churches and organizations in Willow in an effort to identify what supports already exist here in Willow for folks with less and what ways we can all work together to help those with less do better. I am so proud to represent you and WACO in this effort. I imagine that you will hear lots about this project around town, more as we get it together better!

I think that about does it for this month. I will watch for emails and opportunities to chat!!

Linda Oxley,
Chair
Feb 17, 2010