Routine actions taken in latest assembly meeting, discussion of unmaintained roads

The June 19 meeting itself the assembly dealt largely with administrative matters and changes to road service contracts in the borough. A number of information items were also discussed including a new feature on the Mat-Su borough website that shows the status of known unmaintained roads, by mileage, in the different assembly districts and an estimate of costs to the Road Service Areas, or RSAs, if they were to be maintained.

Borough public works director Tom Adams also described the process that can be followed by citizens to petition for roads to be added to those now being maintained by the RSAs.

An important issue, Adams said, is that roads have to meet certain minimum standards to qualify for maintenance and many of the roads now unmaintained may not meet the standards. Bringing them up to par would add costs.

Many of the unmaintained roads date from the late 1980s and early 1990 and some were built by developers in a hurry to get access to areas for new housing being built. In those days, borough manager Mike Brown said, the state was generous with money for local road maintenance but that support has now dried up.

As a result, complaints now pile up about lack of maintenance particularly after heavy snows come, such as last winter. Brown said the topic was brought up to start a needed public discussion of what is a complex problem.

Assembly member Rob Yundt said, “It’s easy to just keep saying ‘no’ to requests for maintenance, but that’s not the right thing to do. On the other hand, if a developer built a junk road we (the borough) shouldn’t just sign off on taking over the maintenance obligation.”

Meanwhile, in routine administration actions the assembly approved creation of the Echo Lake Drive and Necrason Drive Natural Gas Local Improvement District along with an improvement plan for the district. Borough manager Brown was also authorized to implement the plan. The borough will assess properties in the district for the improvement costs.

The assembly also approved the reappropriation of $80,000 from its planning studies account to the borough’s Port MacKenzie Business Development and Marketing Account to hire consultant to help update the Port MacKenzie Master Plan.

However, an ordinance to accept and reappropriate $72,000 received from the sale of surplus road service equipment to purchase a new truck for the road service superintendent failed to get assembly approval.

The assembly approved a reappropriation of $115,000 from the borough’s land and resource management account to an online auction services project that would allow the borough to sell lands by online auction rather than a traditional bidding system.

In other actions, the assembly approved the following actions:

• Landfill fees were waived for participants in the state “Adopt-a-Highway” program for upcoming Fiscal Year 2025

• Right-of-way acquisition for $250,000 was appoved for the Engstrom Road to Trunk Road connector project

• Playground equipment for the Jay Nolfi Park was approved for a $106,998 purchase from Northwest Playground Equipment

• Late-filed and retroactive senior citizen and disabled veteran exemption applications were approved

• A $200,000 grant agreement with Valley Community for Recycling Solutions was approved for $200,000

• Approval for a $156,764 purchase of information technology services for three years from Info-Tech Research Group

• A change in a contract with K&H Civil Constructors to add $106,820 for additional work on the West Papoose Twins Road upgrade project

• A change in a contact with Dirtworks Inc. for $196,696 to construct improvements to East Devonshire Drive and Oilwell Road

• Tutka LLC was awarded a $149,870 contract for East Gemini Road improvements. A separate contract for $338,241 was awarded to Tutka for South Tanya Court improvements

• An ordinance approving classification of borough-owned lands to be included in the borough’s 2024 competitive-bid land sale and in over-the-counter sales was approved

***Due to an error, a report on the June 19 Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly meeting in the Frontiersman’s June 21 print edition had information that was actually from a previous assembly meeting. Our apologies for any confusion.