HB 165-KENAI RIVER SPECIAL MANAGEMENT AREA    CHAIRMAN JOHN TORGERSON called the Senate Resources Committee meeting to order at 10:30 a.m. and announced HB 165 to be up for consideration. REPRESENTATIVE KEN LANCASTER, sponsor, said the Kenai River special management area group that manages the Kenai River corridor started holding public meetings in 1997 regarding adding more state-owned property into the management area. As a result, the group came up with an additional 7,900 acres, which was the amount in the original bill. In the course of the last year, there has been some concern about relicensing the Cooper Lake hydroelectric project by FERC. Therefore, he proposed an amendment in the last committee to take out land on the Snug Harbor Road on the south side of Kenai Lake and up to the Damon Firehouse site on Kenai and Cooper Lake, which the committee adopted. He noted Chairman Torgerson has some concerns with other properties. He explained that the bill now adds about 536 acres of EVOS land on the lower river between Kenai and Soldotna. He referred members to a map and asked them to support the bill. CHAIRMAN TORGERSON proposed two amendments. One would remove all lands except for EVOS lands. The other amendment would limit the membership on the advisory board to only citizens and municipal employees. It would restrict state agency and federal government personnel from serving on the board. He asked Representative Lancaster to comment on that. REPRESENTATIVE LANCASTER said he agrees with the board provision as he sat on the board for 10 years as the mayor of Soldotna and watched how it worked. Some of the agency folks were somewhat self-serving or had the potential to be and sometimes were in conflict when they voted on Kenai River issues. SENATOR ELTON asked if the amount of acreage has decreased from 7,900 acres to about 500 acres. REPRESENTATIVE LANCASTER said that is correct. SENATOR ELTON noted the amendment says a majority of the members of the advisory group shall be residents of the Kenai Peninsula. He asked why all members wouldn't be residents of the Kenai Peninsula. CHAIRMAN TORGERSON replied that some people from Anchorage serve on the board also because, "The Kenai River is physically located in our area, but it's shared with a lot of people of the state." REPRESENTATIVE LANCASTER said the current chair of the Board is an Anchorage resident who owns a large amount of property on the Kenai River. CHAIRMAN TORGERSON asked if board members have to be owners of property on the river. REPRESENTATIVE LANCASTER replied that they do not. CHAIRMAN TORGERSON noted that a quorum was present: Senator Stevens, Senator Wilken, Senator Elton and himself. SENATOR WILKEN moved to adopt amendment 1, which reduces the addition of property to only EVOS-purchased property. There were no objections and it was so ordered. CHAIRMAN TORGERSON explained that the second amendment restricts board membership to citizens and municipal employees. SENATOR WILKEN moved to adopt amendment 2. There were no objections and it was so ordered. SENATOR WILKEN moved to pass SCS HB 165(RES) from committee with individual recommendations and its attached fiscal note. CHAIRMAN TORGERSON announced that without objection, the bill moved from committee. He then adjourned the meeting at 10:38 p.m.