Can we afford to invest in our future?

All in all, Alaska is short on roads. As a state, we’ve developed an extensive network of airports to provide a year-round transportation link from rural Alaska to the Railbelt road system.

In fact, about 85 percent of Alaska’s communities can’t be accessed from the road system. Though some of those off-road communities are in the Mat-Su Borough, most of us here rely on cars and trucks to get to work, pick up the kids from school or to go grocery shopping.

Whether you live in Chickaloon, Sutton, Palmer, Wasilla, Knik, Fairview, Meadow Lakes, Big Lake, Houston, Willow, Talkeetna, Sunshine or Trapper Creek — we all share the same road system.

Take the Parks Highway through Wasilla and you’ll share the road with semi trucks loaded with heavy equipment bound for the North Slope oil fields as well as soccer moms picking up a gallon of milk on their way home from practice.

There’s even a bumper sticker for that one: “Please, Lord, help me make it through Wasilla.”

If you’ve driven the roads here for the last 20 years, you don’t need the U.S. Census Bureau to tell you the population has doubled and doubled again. We’ve noticed the change in how fast, furious and close to our tailgates people drive on the back roads like Church, Pittman, Shrock, Bogard, Wasilla-Fishhook and Knik-Goose Bay Road.

That two of the state’s three highway safety corridors are in the Mat-Su Borough also says something about our roads, drivers and traffic: one is along the Parks Highway heading out of Wasilla and the other is on KGB heading out of Wasilla.

People argue roads aren’t dangerous, it’s careless or distracted drivers who are the problem. But that assumes it’s just you on the road and that you as a careful driver can ward off all present dangers.

What about the young man who rear-ends you while trying to set his cruise control? Or the vehicle that swerves across the centerline and collides head-on with the car your daughter is driving?

We think the fact that Knik-Goose Bay Road carries more traffic than it was designed to handle, is home to many moose and months of long, dark days of winter driving also contributes to the number of fatalities on that road every year.

A story on Page A3 of this edition of the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman tells the story of Art and Boots Scates, two community activists who lost their lives in a head-on collision on KGB Jan. 5. The Point MacKenzie firehouse has been renamed in their memory.

Maybe you traveled KGB last weekend on your way to the Fish Creek personal use dip net fishery at Mile 17. Maybe you drove to Palmer for Friday Fling, or to Houston to buy fireworks. Or maybe you drove to Willow to check out their farmers’ market or tour of gardens.

In any case, we all use the same roads, regardless of our mailing addresses. We’re in this together.

But we share your concerns about taking on more bond indebtedness during times when our personal incomes are shrinking and jobs are scarce. And while bonding for roads might make it easier to drive to work, to the grocery store or to hockey practice, we know we still must find a way to pay the tab.

That brings us full circle. Roads are an investment in our community. Building roads means hiring local companies that in turn hire local men and women who in turn spend their paychecks on athletic fees, buying groceries, house payments and health care.

Come October, Mat-Su Valley voters will have the chance to invest in roads and jobs. Voters will have to decide individually whether each can afford this collective investment in our shared future.