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Public Meetings Set for South Side Kasilof Improvements

A pair of public meetings is scheduled for this week to get input on the Kasilof River Special Use Area South Side Improvement Project.

Christy Colles is a natural resource manager with the Department of Natural Resources.

 

“On the table is the south side. We are looking at possibly doing some improvements in that location. We’ve already done improvements on the north side, so we’ll be doing an update on progress and where that’s at. And then there will be a briefing of what is going on with the take-out at old Kasilof on the river.”

 

Work on the north side of the river began last fall, with clearing and excavating for a beach access road. Crews also installed about 3,000 feet of fencing to help protect the nearby sand dunes. The project also expanded parking and vehicle turnarounds at the site. Five concepts are on the table and will be explained at the meetings this week in Soldotna and Anchorage. The most basic concept would add parking for a couple dozen RV’s and a couple dozen more single vehicles along with bathrooms and dumpsters. The other concepts basically expand on that, adding or subtracting more parking spaces and campsites in the area.

 

“So we’re developing more designating parking areas and protecting habitat such as wetlands and the dunes," Colles says.

 

The written comment period will close at the end of August and a final plan will be announced sometime this fall. Construction would begin next year. The first public meeting will be Wednesday at the Soldotna Library at 6:30 p.m. Another is set for the following day at the Atwood building in Anchorage, also at 6:30 p.m.