8 Nov 2013: Alaska Aerospace Response to Kodiak Residents' Comments on Proposed Pasagshak Barge Dock

The barge landing proposed by Alaska Aerospace is for medium-sized rockets; AAC has no contracts or firm commitments to launch any such rockets at this time.  As you read this letter, note that in point #5 Mr. Greby makes reference to the "true community"; apparently Kodiak residents who took the time to write and submit comments are not to be considered the "true community".  A PDF file of all comments is available by emailing kodiakrocketlaunch@gmail.com
Apologies for the formatting - it appears to be fine in the draft page, but when published, strange line breaks appeared.
 

-----Original Message-----

From: Mark Greby [mailto:mark.greby@akaerospace.com]

Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2013 9:28 AM

To: Laura Gurley; Roberta K POA Budnik

Cc: John Cramer; Jeffrey Roberts; John Zbitnoff

Subject: Public Meeting on Pasagshak Barge Landing

Dear Laura and Roberta,

Alaska Aerospace Corporation will be happy to host a public forum session about our Barge

Landing permitting. Our Public Affairs officer, John Cramer, is out of pocket through next

week, so I'd like to postpone specific scheduling and planning until after he returns to the

office. Our target timeline would be the latter part of October to ensure we have done our

research on the questions already received and allow time for arranging the venue. We truly

want to be open and fair to the entire Kodiak community, and never be seen as "rushing to

judgment" or avoiding contact.

Some thoughts:

1. We do want a Corps of Engineer rep at the meeting so it is seen by all as open and fair.

2. We do want our Public Affairs Officer (VP, Chief of Admin) to work with the CoE about

timing and format of the session. We don't do these often, and would like to benefit from

their (your? <grin>) expertise.

3. The great majority of the comments received seemed to be a very vocal group of folks from

Pasagshak who do not want a boat landing on public property because someone other than them

may actually use it. We would like to discuss appropriate meeting formats to ensure that

those folks get heard, but not allow the public forum to be hijacked by a few folks. The AK

and Kodiak communities can be very entertainingly vocal.

1

4. We think the public forum should be structured to provide the design, clarify any factual

misunderstandings, and collect comments. We do not believe that this is the correct forum

for a debate or rant by either sides about relative merit.

5. I know the CoE has dealt with groups whose voice and presence is disproportionate to the

true community, and we'd like to discuss how they measure and evaluate that input.

I'm on the road today, and I'll give Laura a call on Friday to follow up. Thanks for the

help so far!

Mark Greby

Sr VP & COO

Alaska Aerospace Corporation

907-343-9627

mark.greby@akaerospace.com