West Stacy Street Closed
5161 Stacy street in Wasilla is home to an estimated 200 residents of the Mat-su Borough. There is One road in and One road out, Stacy Street. This street is a maintained road having service from the Mat-su Borough. Residents tell me for that over a decade they can expect the same thing. Every spring the road thaws and becomes impassible and then to road crews come out and Patch things up to make it last another year.
All that changed recently when the it was noted that the road became so deteriorated that Fire Trucks, Ambulances and School Buses decided they will no longer come down the road to service the residents.
What does this mean?
Little Girls Alone on Stacy Street Wasilla
Well, it means that all the little school children of the community have no way to school if their parents cannot drive them or walk them the half mile to Suzanne street. That walk is only passes by 2 homes. Most of the walk is desolate, remote wooded area which would present a clear danger to little children out walking alone.
Once such case in point. The two little girls in the photo were standing on the side of the road. Alone. Waiting on a bus that was NOT coming. They were told the bus was not coming but their mother told them to walk the half mile up Stacy street, alone to the bus. They were told to walk over a half mile on a road which not only is frequented by moose, but also there are NO HOMES on that road!
This is a public safety issue! Don’t you think?
1. Children left with no ride to school.
2. Emergency Vehicles refuse to come to the aid of residents for Fire, Medical Emergency.
Said of the firetrucks and emergency vehicles that were recently called out, But the ruts and potholes on Stacy Street have gone above and beyond, taking out two Central Mat-Su Fire Department trucks that responded to a fire there on Sunday evening. Fire chief James Steele said the Mat-Su Borough was watching the road as it deteriorated through breakup. The nine fire trucks his crews brought to the flaming mobile home made it worse. The ruts, he said, had come to resemble something more like a series of miniature sinkholes. LINK TO THIS STORY
But this was before the ban on trucks traveling down the road…
The time has come to stop patching this road and actually UPGRADE IT or Pave it. I recently noticed a road that had been set to receive $500,000.00 of road repairs. That particular road only had in the neighborhood of 20 homes on it. Those homes also could be reached by 2 directions. Stacy street has over 80 homes at the end of it with only 1 way in and has not been put on the chart for repair. I have to ask.
RSA 27 is set to use $500,000.00 to fix Gunflint Trail, which has only 20 or so homes on it… but NOTHING to fix West Stacy Street, a half mile long road that serves over 200 residents. Why would the RSA group allocate $500,000.00 to fix a road that has two entrances and only 20 homes, when a whole community has only one road in or out with 80 homes in it and cannot get their road upgraded so firetrucks, ambulances and school buses can get in and out as needed?
In my ignorant way of thinking, somebody, somewhere up the chain of command is not thinking clearly possibly.
w. stacy street wasilla
By no means do I have the knowledge of what it takes to get the needed money to build and maintain roads in the area. The only thing I do know is pouring money year after year into patching roads.. and then having them roads be so poorly constructed that hundreds of residents either cannot even get to their homes, or Firetrucks, Ambulances or School buses refuse to service the area is no way to operate.
Someone in the Borough is responsible for this mess. At present 26 roads are CLOSED due to poor construction or maintenance. Is this a public safety issue? I think so!
