By Sue Bergstrom for Valdez City News –
Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities Northern Region Director, David Miller met with members of the community at the Valdez Civic Center on Tuesday January Twelfth to discuss the impacts of proposed cuts in service. Attendees were given a handout with a list of frequently asked questions and their answers on one side and a map of the Northern Region on the other(DOT faqs). Once a conference line was open for those who could not attend in person, Miller, assisted by Public Information Officer Meadow Bailey, began with a short slide show describing the budget reduction and the process of deciding where cuts could be made before addressing Thompson Pass in particular.
Miller started by explaining that Valdez Maintenance District and others nearby are included in the Northern Region so that all DOT facilities along the Alyeska Pipeline are in the same region. He explained that the reason that maintenance staff and equipment are being cut is because these are the expenses that are paid with state monies. Federal funds are restricted for use in planning, design and construction, leaving equipment and maintenance to the state. So there is no place else to make the 12.6% cut in the Fiscal 2016 budget or the projected cuts for Fiscal 2017. (Fiscal 2016 is the period from July 1, 2015-June 30, 2016)
This year’s cuts eliminated 96 positions statewide, reduced equipment and overtime funding. Proposed cuts for next year will necessitate closing or reducing service at six stations. Miller explained that the reason only rural stations are being closed is that, because of their smaller total number of employees, a reduction based on the statewide criteria may not leave enough personnel to run the station. He stated that does not mean that all the employees of those stations will be laid off. He gave an example of a station with three employees in which two would be transferred to nearby stations and the third laid off. The proposed closures are the Northway, O’Brien Creek, Chitina, Birch Lake and Central Maintenance stations. Thompson Pass Maintenance Station would become a seasonal station, open only in the winter months. Staff would be reduced from five full-time to one full-time and four part-time employees.
|
|
Comments from the floor were primarily concerned with the quality of service. Several people pointed out in various ways that Thompson Pass is a very involved stretch of highway to keep open in the winter due to high snowfall, high winds and the necessity of avalanche control. They expressed concern that the experienced and knowledgeable staff presently working would not be likely to stay if reduced to seasonal work and that hiring less experienced replacements, or even highly experienced replacements from other areas, would likely increase cost and decrease efficiency. Miller agreed that this was so and not something to be done lightly, but repeated that there was no place else to cut and that it was necessary to work within the budget the Legislature passed.
