Public works group meets

PALMER -- The Mat-Su Borough Assembly Chambers, Tuesday, were filled with more starched fabrics and suit cloth than many area residents had seen in the chambers in years -- a small indication of the level of importance people in the chambers granted the occasion.

Alaska U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski chaired a field hearing of the Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee Tuesday to discuss the reauthorization of the Transportation Equity Act, commonly referred to as TEA-21. Murkowski was the only committee member present, but the hearing was recorded and the information will be reported to other committee members.

The committee, Murkowski said, is presently working on a six-year reauthorization of the bill that will dictate how much federal money is allotted to the nation's states during that period.

"We are coming up on the reauthorization next year," Murkowski told reporters in a press conference after the meeting. "We're working on determining the priority of where the [Federal] Highway Authorization funds go, a long-range plan for the transportation needs for our country."

Murkowski said the committee hopes to have their suggestions wrapped up by the end of June, and she feels Alaska is sitting in a good position, given that Alaska Congressman Don Young chairs the U.S. House Transportation Committee and senior Sen. Ted Stevens chairs the Senate's Appropriations Committee.

Currently, Murkowski said, the committee is looking at spreading $231 billion in transportation funding across the nation, but that number continues to fluctuate, depending on other factors that figure into the nation's budget.

"I don't know what the final outcome will be," Murkowski said. "Everything is in flux."

Murkowski said although Alaska has delegates positioned in the right places, making legislators from Outside understand the vast scope of Alaska's transportation needs is sometimes difficult, and holding the field hearing in Palmer was one way to let committee members hear firsthand Alaska's needs.

"There's a recognition that Alaska is behind the curve, with regards to infrastructure needs, in part because we're such a young state," Murkowski said in response to a question as to whether Alaska, a large state that is sparsely populated, should qualify for the amount of infrastructure funding it has brought in in the past. "For those who say we should be denied critical infrastructure … we are a state just as any other state. We have residents with needs … as Americans, we're entitled to that, just as anyone from Ohio or Arkansas."

Several needs were identified by those who spoke at the meeting. Speakers attended from across the state, and included members of the Alaska Legislature, Lt. Gov. Loren Leman and representatives from cities and boroughs across the state, along with representatives from the Alaska Railroad Corporation, the Alaska Federation of Natives and the Port of Anchorage.

Although some projects were touted time and again -- such as the Knik Arm Crossing, a road linking Juneau to the Alaska road system and a rail link to Canada, each speaker had a different emphasis on what projects were most important and why.

Trefon Angasan, co-chair of the board of directors of the Alaska Federation of Natives, shared just how much access could mean to the rural villages. When the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act was formed, Angasan said, many Native groups chose land according to the natural resources that could be developed from it. He pointed to Red Dog Mine as one of the successful projects to have come from ANCSA land, but said it was only successful because it was accessible.

"Not all ANCSA lands are being developed at this time," Angasan said, "due to lack of utilities and infrastructure."

Angasan requested more transportation infrastructure be developed to allow access to rural villages, where jobs are few and the unemployment rate is overwhelmingly high.

Rep. Beverly Masek, R-Willow, serves as co-chair of the Alaska House Transportation Committee. She spoke about the need for several state projects, and pointed out to Murkowski that the transportation infrastructure that is taken for granted in other states is simply nonexistent in Alaska.

"Among your colleagues on the committee, the word 'rural' will have different meanings, depending on where you are from," Masek said. She pointed out that someone taking a particular highway in Vermont from one town to the next may feel they are traveling through a rural area. "In Alaska, when you think and understand 'rural,' you think of having to hitch up to a dog team, catch the next flight … without continued funding, Alaska is inhibited in its ability to becoming a modern state."

Borough Mayor Tim Anderson, when he addressed Murkowski, said along with funding for rail improvements, trail development and the Knik Arm Crossing, he'd like to see a change in policy that would allow area communities to communicate directly with federal funding agencies to communicate their needs.

"Local governments must work with the Alaska Department of Transportation," Anderson said. He explained that, while DOT does an admirable job of keeping up with transportation needs around the state, their ranking method, in which needed projects are placed on a list, ranked according to their need and community importance, and scheduled accordingly for construction, is sometimes unbearably slow.

"Seventy-five percent of the calls I get are transportation-related," Anderson said. The ranking mechanism, he said, often delays needed projects until they become safety hazards. By allowing local governments a way to communicate these pressing needs directly with federal funding agencies, Anderson said, the process may be able to become more proactive than reactive. And that, he said, would reduce the cost of doing business in Alaska.

"The lack of transportation increases the cost of doing business," Anderson said. "Increased traffic congestion is causing increased travel and delivery times."

Murkowski said she understood Anderson's plea, and would look for a solution.

"They're not asking for anything unreasonable, they're asking for a voice," Murkowski later said. "We will certainly to what we can to make it easier to work the system, if you will."