There have been lots of words and noise in recent daily news coverage of the municipal plowing response documenting failings between city and state responsibilities within the Anchorage bowl, but not much clarity. And good luck divining answers from the information provided by former municipal manager Mike Abbott.
Here’s a start: In 1990, MOA had 3 dedicated and well-staffed street maintenance operations and one satellite station — one in downtown, the current municipal jail location; Northwood station off International Airport Road; and a fully staffed facility off Klatt, Lang Street; plus a satellite station off Fourth Avenue and Muldoon. Any attempt to portray recent municipal snow plow-out failings as some combination of city/state coordination or shared funding failures obscures the reality that the city government has failed to fund and staff one of the most basic government responsibilities and then got bit during consecutive years of high snowfall events.
Look at a map of street maintenance stations, fully staffed in 1990 as opposed to today, and the clarity missing from Mike Abbott’s comments and other coverage is clear — how long does it take to drive a road grader from International and Northwood Drive to Government Hill or Huffman Road, as opposed to what was in place and funded in 1990?
It’s pretty clear that when viewed through that lens, “doing more with less” has brought on the current snowplowing and street maintenance crisis that’s bedeviling Anchorage drivers and property taxpayers. You did more with less and paid more for it.
Please don’t let partisan politics and revisionist history obscure the facts that would help real and fundamental solutions and changes from happening.
— Hal Homer
Palmer
Have something on your mind? Send to letters@adn.com or click here to submit via any web browser. Letters under 200 words have the best chance of being published. Writers should disclose any personal or professional connections with the subjects of their letters. Letters are edited for accuracy, clarity and length.