Before the latest round of snow fell on Anchorage, city and state officials met with members of the Anchorage Assembly on Wednesday to review the snow-clearing efforts from the November storms.
The key message was that while operators performed admirably in the face of one of the worst snow storms to hit the city, the city and state could do better to manage expectations about when to expect streets to be cleared. Anchorage Chief of Staff Mario Bird and others pushed back against calls for increasing snow-clearing budgets and instead suggested revising the city’s plow-out plan, extending the timeline based on the severity of snowfall.
“The biggest takeaway here is that as we are currently staffed, the municipality cannot move 40 inches of wet, heavy snow in 84 hours,” Bird said, referencing the city’s plan of clearing all residential streets after main arterial streets are cleared. “What we’ve considered is if we’re going to have more than 8 inches, maybe it’s a 96-hour plow-out. … If it’s more than 16 inches, 120 hours.”
Staff told the Assembly Enterprise & Utilities Oversight Committee crews reached the goal of plowing out residential neighborhoods after the November storms in about 160 hours, nearly a full week. Along with managing expectations, they said the storm showed areas where communication and coordination could be improved.
During that time, the Anchorage School District canceled several days of school because of unsafe road conditions. Assembly members at the meeting relayed several complaints about vehicle damage, difficulty getting to work or critical health appointments — such as a knee replacement surgery that was canceled in one case — cramped roads, uncleared sidewalks that have forced pedestrians into the street and a feeling that the city’s plow-out plan prioritizes certain areas over others.
Many questioned whether the city and state’s snow plow operations are adequately funded and staffed, but officials from both pushed back on calls to ramp up hiring.
“You don’t want to build a church for Easter Sunday. You don’t want to staff to a record snowfall,” said Sean Holland, the regional head of the state Department of Transportation. “As a taxpayer in the city of Anchorage, I don’t think we should staff to a record snowfall. I think lots of people would agree with that.”
City Manager Kent Kohlhase echoed the pushback, noting that for the city to have met the 84-hour plow-out goal for the November storms, they would have needed 30 more graders and 60 more drivers for a capital cost of about $9 million and another $9 million in annual wages.
Several assembly members countered, however, that they weren’t calling for a perfect snow response and understood the underlying difficulties created by the snow, but that there’s room between.
“We’re hearing from our constituents that they expect not a perfect level of service, but a better level of service,” said Assembly member Daniel Volland. “Is there a meet in the middle? Does the administration want to bring on more operators? Is the administration willing to reopen the contract with the operators to have more competitive pay and benefits?”
Assembly member Randy Sulte, one of the few conservatives on the body, agreed with the need to manage expectations about snow removal—urging the city to be more proactive in communications that urge people to stay off the roads following major snow events—but said that most would agree that at least some investment is needed.
“I’m pretty sure that even the most conservative person in Anchorage would spend a little bit more money to put some more yellow iron on the road,” he said, referring to the city plows.
Assembly member Zac Johnson, the co-chair of the committee, urged the administration to put some serious thought into what it would take to improve the city’s snow response, noting that the current staffing levels wouldn’t even meet the 120-hour goal suggested by Bird. He said that kind of work would at least allow them and the voters to make an educated decision about the proper investment in snow removal moving forward.
Johnson also noted the city and state have increasingly relied on costly contracts with private operators to fill gaps, questioning whether such heavy reliance is wise in the long term.
“Some people were essentially snowed in for 10 days in their neighborhood. Maybe 84 hours isn’t a realistic goal, but if it’s 120 hours, what does it take to actually achieve that? I don’t think we’re going to say buy 30 graders and hire 60 operators,” he said. “If we’re not able to meet that threshold, then we need to figure out what resources we need to bring to bear. It allows people to decide for themselves what’s reasonable, right? Like, how much am I willing to be taxed to get the level of service that I expect?”
On increased investments, Kohlhase told the Assembly that the Bronson administration was “not prepared to commit right now.”
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.