Alaska’s Mental Health Trust Land’s Office is in the process of determining the issue of a ground lease of Trust land to Usibelli Coal. The approximately 95-acre parcel is located adjacent to Usibelli’s Wishbone Hill prospect near Palmer.
The stated purpose of the lease is to allow Usibelli to construct a haul road to it’s existing Wishbone Hill mine.
The terms of the lease require Usibelli to pay over$13,000 a year for the duration of 25 years for the property.
A Mental Health Trust spokesman could not be reached for comment over the MLK holiday.
Comments regarding the decision are due at the Alaska Mental Health Trust Lands Offices in Anchorage by the close of business on Tuesday, January 19.
APTI Reporter-Producer Ellen Lockyer started her radio career in the late 1980s, after a stint at bush Alaska weekly newspapers, the Copper Valley Views and the Cordova Times. When the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound, Valdez Public Radio station KCHU needed a reporter, and Ellen picked up the microphone.
Since then, she has literally traveled the length of the state, from Attu to Eagle and from Barrow to Juneau, covering Alaska stories on the ground for the AK show, Alaska News Nightly, the Alaska Morning News and for Anchorage public radio station, KSKA
elockyer (at) alaskapublic (dot) org | 907.550.8446 | About Ellen
