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To be for the borough or not is not the question
August 13, 2007

The writer is a former Delta Junction resident now living in Honolulu. These comments were written in January 2007, when the writer, now living in Hawaii, lived in Delta Junction

That government is best which governs least
--Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine's quotation is often cited as the ideal for how government should work. Now that the petition to form a Deltana Borough is likely to come to a vote later this year, it's a good time to think about what government should do in the upper Tanana Valley. Those of us who live in this unincorporated area of Alaska don't pay property and other local taxes. Many people who oppose the formation of the borough see this as inevitable but prefer delaying it as long as possible.

The PILT agreement signed by the City of Delta Junction and the Pogo Mine operators in 2004 will delay a tax on real property for a few years. As gold production declines, however, other revenue streams will be needed, to pay for borough services, including the education of our future citizens.

All of Alaska is fortunate that the state is rich in natural resources. Unlike the Lower 48, a significant part of Alaska's non-renewable natural resources remains under state control. So far, oil and mining companies pay for much of the services the state government provides its citizens. Alaska, unlike most other states, has no state personal income tax.

Alaska is also known for being the Last Frontier of the United States. Much of it still remains undeveloped. Those who ventured to make a home in this area fifty years ago remember Richardson Highway as a gravel road. Delta Junction then wasn't much more than few Quonset huts and some gasoline stands scattered along the main road between Fairbanks and Anchorage.

These Delta Junction pioneers built their own homes and dug their own wells for fresh water at a time when winters were colder and longer, when there were no Home Depot and Lowes.

Why did folks settle here? The short answer is that they wanted to change their lives for the better. Some have moved on, closer to the bright lights of urban Alaska and elsewhere. Others have moved further into the Bush to get away from the growing Delta community.

The pace of development in increasing here and elsewhere in Alaska. Even as we change, the world outside our front door, Alaska itself, and the world beyond Alaska is changing.

Many who choose to remain in Delta were young when they settled here. As they grow older, what were once urban amenities have turned into costly necessities, cell phones, electric power from GVEA, central heating, better medical care. Can they afford to pay real property taxes on top of that? A healthy community addresses concerns that affect the moral, social and economic fiber of everyone who lives in the area, young and old, rich and poor.

Other changes are taking place. It's not hard to be good neighbors, when your neighbors live several miles away. But can you be a good neighbor, when an old neighbor subdivides his property, and a new homeowner moves in and sets up his leach field a few yards from your well?

Civility, not government, is the basis for a community, whether it's a small town like Delta Junction or our nation as a whole. But as people compete for limited resources, whether it's land to live on, water to drink, and air to breathe, we ultimately rely on government to balance the actions of people that live together but have different talents, assets, viewpoints and passions.

Government or the lack of it can take many forms and have differing results, as can be seen every day in the news. Willingly or grudgingly, we rely on government to establish and enforce laws, rules, and policies that help us live with each other, when neighborliness is not enough.

Today, most of the laws that affect us in Delta are state laws. We also rely on the state's benign neglect of this area: benign because we do get state services like education for our children at little or no cost to ourselves; neglect because we don't get services that are expected in more developed areas.

Some might argue we don't need them. Why fix the wheel if it ain't broke?

But how long will this last? The pace of change is speeding up. If we want to avoid being road kill along the path to Alaska's future, we have to begin putting our hands on the steering wheel to safely reach get there..

Change is coming, sooner than we'd like. The buildup of military activities on Fort Greely continues. More intensive use of Donnelly Training Area by Stryker units will soon happen. A gas pipeline and a railroad are coming to Delta Junction, maybe later than some people would like, but they will.

Folks who grew up here notice the climate has warmed up a bit since they grew up. The warming of Alaska will make this upper Tanana Valley prime real estate, bringing more people to the area in search of better lives that these economic and climate changes bring.

If we care about our future, our children's future, and their children's future, we should make sure that decisions about this area are made here, rather than in Juneau, Anchorage and Fairbanks.

Like anything new, and especially something as complex as starting up a brand new government, it will take time and practice to get it right. The earlier we start, the better prepared we will be, when the forces of change come from beyond the majestic mountains that line our horizons.

These changes will not happen overnight. Thousands of decisions are already being made, some perceptible, mostly not, by people we know and don't know-- in Alaska, in the rest of the United States and in foreign lands. I believe major changes will take place here in the next ten years, not decades from now.

Some residents may relish a resounding defeat of the borough formation petition. A defeat of this petition is a resounding message to others elsewhere. The issue is not about whether or not we care about the future. The issue is about whether we or not we want to take care of our future, and whether others can do it better for us. A defeat of the petition will have consequence may be not as pleasant as we'd like.

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.

--Thomas Paine