Governor Murkowski, please get your broom

The story about the recent DOT&PF meeting in Glennallen (DOT reveals plans) points to the need for a complete overhaul of the Department of Transportation & Public Facilities (DOT&PF).

Here’s the story in a nutshell: Two top level planners travel from Fairbanks to Glennallen— supposedly to tell area residents about the state’s plans for transportation projects, and to gather input from those same residents. They don’t tell anyone they are coming, so only four people show up. It was almost as if the DOT&PF folks didn’t want anybody to come.

Think about it. How would you feel, if you had to tell a large crowd that, “Yes, the O’Brien Creek Road is closed, and yes, the Lakina Bridge on the McCarthy Road may well wash out this coming summer, and we know you want major improvements to the McCarthy Road, the Old Edgerton Highway, the Nabesna Road, and many segments of the Glenn and Richardson Highways, but what we plan to do is to build you some paved bike trails in Chitina and Glennallen and a wayside park at the end of the McCarthy Road (that nobody will be able to get to if the Lakina washes out). Yes, small crowds are better. A large crowd could get out of control.

Unfortunately, this sad story has become all too common over the past eight years.

It has been my observation that the more loudly the DOT&PF proclaimed the merits of its “public process,” the less influence the public has actually had in any decisions.

The department publishes two documents that relate to transportation projects. One is called the Transportation Needs and Priorities in Alaska, or “Needs List.” The other is called the State Transportation Improvement Program or the STIP.

The Needs List contains unfunded transportation projects in Alaska that residents, elected officials and transportation professionals have formally proposed.

The STIP contains projects that the department has decided to pursue, after going through their “public process.”

Pick up any of the recent Needs Lists, and you will find it full of things like repairing or replacing bridges, repairing, upgrading or building roads, and airport improvements. Remember that these are the projects that the “folks” have proposed.

Now look at a copy of the STIP. In some mysterious fashion the bike trails (off-limits to snowmachines and ATVs), wayside parks, interpretive signs and other non-vehicular traffic projects jumped to the forefront for funding after the public process was complete.

The current Kennicott River Wayside Project shows how the public process works. You announce a few public meetings. If a large group shows up, then cancel the meeting due to poor weather. (You don’t actually expect DOT&PF planners to drive to a meeting, do you? Especially over the McCarthy Road, AKA the worst road in Alaska). Have meetings in Anchorage and Fairbanks, where you are assured that almost nobody will attend. Ask for written comment, then ignore it. (“It’s not voting,” said project manager Janet Brown.) Go ahead with whatever plan that you and two or three other unelected state workers decide is best for the community. Then announce loudly that you faithfully followed the public process, as set forth in state law and department policy. Look hurt when the public objects to the final plan.

Governor Murkowski ran on a platform that included major road upgrades and the construction of new roads and bridges. Several years ago, the good governor, who was then Senator Murkowski, said that upgrading the McCarthy Road should be one of the state’s highest priorities. He mentioned it again during his campaign. We at Wrangell St. Elias News wholeheartedly agree. So do the eighty plus people who joined the Coalition for Access to McCarthy.

The proposed road upgrade has been the subject of almost continuous studies for at least the past 60 years. Five years ago the department decided to do an official Environmental Assessment. A year ago they finally got around to giving a contract to a private firm to do the official document. On December 3rd, in Glennallen, DOT&PF planner Paul Prusak tells the four people present that it will be another 2-3 years before the study is completed.

Governor Murkowski, please get your broom. DOT&PF needs a clean sweep, fore and aft.