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Session: State Capitol, Room 434 Juneau, AK 99801-1182 Phone: (907) 465-2487 Fax: (907) 465-4956 Send E-Mail Interim: 112 Mill Bay Road Kodiak, AK 99615 Phone: (907) 486-8872 Fax: (907) 486-5264 (at LIO) |
Goes on to the Senate Next, Then Governor
| For Immediate Release: March 17, 2000 | |
| Contact: | Cliff Stone, Legislative Aide to Representative Austerman at (907) 465-2487. |
Juneau -- The current operating budget for the State of Alaska contains intent language to restore funding for the opening of the Kalsin Bay Maintenance Station. The full House voted on Friday to send House Bill 312 on to the Senate. If the Kalsin Bay line item is approved then it will go to the governor for his signature.
Representative Alan Austerman (R-Kodiak) was relentless in persuading fellow House Finance Committee members to approve the targeted funding to reopen the Kalsin Bay Station.
Austerman said, "Since this station closed last year, road conditions have caused numerous hardships for residents and businesses alike. Fuel deliveries have been delayed or cancelled. The U.S. mail has been delayed. People lost work because DOT couldn't maintain the Chiniak Highway from town. The children in Chiniak who travel on the bus lost valuable time in school because of the slow response time from DOT some 40 miles away."
The Department of Transportation never could tell the House Finance Committee what they had actually saved by closing this station last year. Other members of the committee went on record chastising DOT for not providing the information they had requested and one member stated that he doubted DOT had saved any money at all by maintaining these roads all the way from the town of Kodiak.
Austerman stated, "I appreciate the hundreds of people from Kodiak and Chiniak who kept up the pressure on DOT and the legislature to reopen this station. I would caution folks though that this isn't finalize yet. The Senate still has to approve this funding, as does the Governor. In this time of "March Madness," the citizens of Kodiak have to provide a full court press on the Senate and then the Governor to open up the Kalsin Bay Station.
Two heavy equipment operators will staff the station at Kalsin Bay when reopened later this summer. Commissioner Joe Perkins of DOT went on record stating that any such station around the state will be maintain by two operators for their safety, if for no other reason.