The Kenai Peninsula Borough is asking the state to reconsider its closure of a remote highway maintenance station on the Peninsula.
Last month, the state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities announced that it would close the Silvertip station at the intersection of the Seward and Hope Highways, citing a decline in revenue from fuel taxes and a three-quarter million dollar budget shortfall.
Borough Chief of Staff James Baisden says reducing the routine plowing of the Seward highway will make it even more difficult for responders to get to the inevitable accidents.
“We hope that we can convince them to maybe look at this again and see if we can have them do something different. Mayor Pierce has been in communications with the state and our local representatives trying to have conversations. We just want to make sure we can keep that road safe, because everyone’s driving at high speeds and you’re just in the middle of nowhere. That’s our concern.”
A couple years ago, the borough created a new emergency service area just for this part of the peninsula. But it’s staffed with volunteers from Moose Pass, Cooper Landing and Hope.
Connie Bacon is the fire chief at the Bear Creek Fire Station just outside Seward, where she coordinates operations for the Easter Peninsula Emergency Service Area. She says the planned lack of regular snow removal basically between Hope and Girdwood will add to response times that are already measured in hours.
“If the accident is past mile 50 (Seward highway) and Seward ambulance responds to that because Girdwood is unavailable...they might as well take them on into Anchorage because bringing them back here is (a lot) of travel; you’re into two hours to the scene, two hours to Anchorage and four hours back. That’s a long time to be taxed on a volunteer.”
Plowing through Turnagain Pass will be handled between the DOT stations in Girdwood and Crown Point, near Moose Pass. The department says it will approve additional shifts to respond to winter storms. Instead of two ten-hour shifts, those crews will now work from 4 a.m. to 8 p.m.