Hot off a tour touting the city’s revamped snow-clearing plan where he declared, “If this winter’s anything like last year, we are ready,” Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson announced a snow emergency on Thursday night.
The emergency declaration, which has no stated end date, suspends parts of the city’s procurement code, allowing the mayor to call in private snow-clearing companies to help the city’s snow-clearing team dig out after a snowstorm dumped more than a foot of heavy, wet snow in the city.
“By proclaiming a Snow Emergency, I am able to secure additional resources to get the city streets cleared within the 84-hour timeframe as outlined in the Snow and Ice Removal Plan,” he said in a prepared statement accompanying the release.“The safety of Anchorage residents is my highest priority. We have to make sure school busses can operate and parents can get to work and we’re working really hard to make that happen.”
The Anchorage School District shifted to remote learning on Thursday due to the storm. Schools in the area were out on a pre-planned closure for students on Friday.
With snow continuing to fall on Friday morning, the city has also canceled service with People Mover buses with only essential rides — for things like cancer treatment and dialysis — offered through the city’s AnchorRIDES system.
The Bronson administration struggled to keep up with last year’s December snowstorms—when back-to-back storms blanketed the city — leaving neighborhood roads treacherous for days or weeks. Bronson faced criticism that the city knew about shortcomings with staffing snow-removal crews but failed to take action or request additional funding from the Anchorage Assembly.
At the time, Bronson refused to call an emergency, which he said would be pointless.
“Some have suggested that we declare an emergency,” Bronson said when asked about it during a December 2022 news conference. “There’s nothing we can do beyond what we’re doing, so the emergency would be simply meaningless.”
The mayor’s Snow and Ice Removal Plan sets three different levels for response based on the amount of snow. The current snow emergency is a level 2 response, which allows the city to contract out services and enact an emergency parking ordinance enabling the city to tow vehicles ahead of plow trucks.
During last year’s winter storms, the Bronson administration relied heavily on contracts with McKenna Brothers Paving, a prime backer of Bronson’s 2021 election. At one point, an investigation by The Alaska Current found that the city was allowing McKenna Brothers trucks to refuel at the city’s pumps. The company wasn’t billed for the fuel — totaling $14,250.82 — until The Alaska Current asked about the practice. A subsequent records request found the company improperly filled up 97 times between Dec. 20 and Jan. 25.
Anchorage Assembly Chair Christopher Constant — a frequent critic of the Bronson administration — said he’s waiting to see how Bronson’s snow-clearing plan plays out over the next 84 hours before judging whether it’s really been improved.
“We had a record snow dump. Now it’s the mayor’s task,” he said, “and I hope for all of Anchorage they’re able to manage this.”
Matt Acuña Buxton is a long-time political reporter who has written for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and The Midnight Sun political blog. He also authors the daily politics newsletter, The Alaska Memo, and can frequently be found live-tweeting public meetings on Twitter.