Road bonds on ballot

MAT-SU — Voters on Oct. 5 will decide the fate of $32.5 million worth of bonds slated to pay for 13 road projects throughout the Valley.

Each borough taxpayer would pay $36.65 a year on $100,000 of assessed taxable property for 20 years in order to pay off the bonds, according to the borough.

Mat-Su Assemblymen Jim Colver and Ron Arvin co-sponsored the road bond package voters will decide next week. They will discuss road bonds at today’s Greater Wasilla Chamber of Commerce event at noon, in the Glacier Canyon Grill at the Grandview Inn & Suites on the Parks Highway. There is a $5 program fee.

“Ron and I sponsored and wrote the ordinance primarily because of the need for safety and transportation improvements for less-than-highway-grade roads,” Colver said Monday. “Last year’s state capital budget, there was not a lot in there for [Mat-Su] roads. After vetoes, Mat-Su got $35 million and much of that went to the Port MacKenzie rail extension, sucking up any other possibilities for road projects. The borough was competing with itself.”

The largest projects on the list each cost $7 million. One of those projects would extend Mack Road and adjacent pathway 1.8 miles from the Curtis D. Menard Sports Center in Wasilla south to Knik-Goose Bay Road. The other $7 million project would upgrade 1.2 miles of Lucille Street from Spruce Avenue north to Seldon Road and improve the safety of the Seldon Road-Lucille Street intersection.

“Most roads we drive on around here are glorified subdivision roads, wagon trails,” Colver said. “Seldon was a residential grade road and the borough just paved it. Taking Lucille Street north and coming over the hill approaching Seldon, there’s no time to react if someone runs the stop sign there. I’ve seen the broken glass, new dings on the guard rail. The project would lower that hill.”

Approximately $4.5 million would pay to design and construct 1.8 miles of new road south from the Trunk Road interchange to Nelson Road, to simplify the access to the new Machetanz Elementary School. In Palmer, $4 million would extend Dogwood Avenue just over half a mile west to Felton Extension as well as extend Felton Street at Dogwood Extension north to Arctic Avenue.

Colver said the project is a precursor to the anticipated Bogard Road extension, which is awaiting approximately $35 million in funding.

“That will create a transportation link other than the Palmer-Wasilla Highway to get east and west,” he said.

In Big Lake, approximately $2 million would improve the Big Lake Road intersection with Northshore Drive as well as the intersection of South Big Lake Road with Hollywood Road. In Houston, $2 million would pave Hawk Lane at Houston High School west to Beaver Lake Road.

Other projects on the list include:

• $1 million for paving and upgrading to collector status local roads in Trapper Creek;

• $1 million to upgrade and pave 1.1 miles of gravel road from Kalmbach Lake Drive east to Beverly Lake Road’s end;

• $1 million to pave and upgrade 1.8 miles from 58 Mile Road north to public access at 17 Mile Lake;

• $750,000 to pave and upgrade Caswell Lakes Road 4.6 miles, from Hidden Hills Road to Goshen Hills Road;

• $750,000 to pave and upgrade Willow Lake Drive 0.7 miles, from Sunday Drive south to Long Lake Road;

• $500,000 to pave, widen and upgrade Talkeetna’s local roads to collector status;

• $500,000 to upgrade, widen and extend roads in Meadow Lakes to collector status.

“Passing a locally funded road bond package shows how committed we are to making our local roads safer and more efficient,” Mat-Su Borough Assemblyman Ron Arvin stated in a borough release. “The federal and state government should be responsible for upgrading our main arterials, but they are currently struggling to keep up with maintenance. Our lack of an adequate local transportation grid forces our residents to use the main highways for local trips, causing overcapacity, increased accidents, and huge time delays. To keep pace with the demands on our transportation network we must be willing to help ourselves.”