Winter meeting 2-12-11

Hello Neighbors

Please mark your calenders on February 12, 2011, for the winter meeting of our RSA. We will meet at the Moose Crk Community Center at 4:00 PM. This is an important meeting as we have much to discuss and finalize. Discussion items that require voting include the 2011/2012 budget and a 90/10 matching grant in the amount of $500,000. Yes,our project was approved for funding in 2012. We approved this project at our last meeting for submittal to the borough for review and approval. The project, Eielson Farm Road Safety Improvements, passed muster by the review committee, ARSAC, and the borough assembly. We have since received a letter from rural services outlining what the RSA needs to do to receive these funds. If we vote to receive these funds and pay the $50,000 match, we must then prioritize the safety improvements we want. We submitted the following safety issues in the project application: improve line of sight at the S curve at 4.2 mile, 3 slow moving vehicle pull-outs, and a school bus turn-around. We can discuss other items as necessary at the meeting.

The resurfacing project at mile 7.2-7.5 continues in process. There will be an open house on January 18, 2011, in the Borough Assembly Chambers from 6-7:30 PM to learn more about this project, comment and ask questions of the engineer, Michael Breadlie. I plan to attend and will report more at the meeting. This is 2K/mile project money that has been in our account for 2 years. Construction is planned for this summer. It will be interesting to see the engineer's cost estimate.

Other things to think about for this summer is reclamation of the AAA site on Mental Health Lands near 5.3 mile. This will cause heavy truck traffic for the duration of this project and could damage EFR. I would like your input on how to monitor this project to recover any damages that may occur.

So far this winter we have plowed the road 3 times. As you know the first time in November we graded the road during the icepacalypse causing some extremely slippery conditions. We added two loads of gravel to the curves and intersections. We had not done this before. We have since plowed the road twice to define the shoulder using the contractor's truck plow. Using the truck plow is much less expensive than bringing out the grader, $1800 vs $450. During the last plow on January 8, Mitch hit OVT, the paper boxes, and Arctic Fox Loop in addition to the main road. We will review our plowing needs for the rest of the year at the meeting.

Finally, this is a call for other agenda items to discuss at the meeting. Please phone or respond via e-mail. The commissioners hope to see you at the meeting where more information will be available.

Thanks Stu Davies