My Turn: Fulfill the dream of a road to Juneau
Thank you Ken Koelsch, for your leadership in passing the resolution by our Assembly supporting the completion of the Juneau Access EIS. I also wish to thank the other four Assembly members who had the courage to stand up for Juneau and be counted. This should have been a slam-dunk resolution passing with all members support. I believe what happened was that the road issue was not expected to come up and did not give the anti group any warning and they could not cloak or disguise themselves. The Assembly members had to be for it or against it. No wiggle room. No smoke and mirrors. No double talk. No passing the buck. The members of the Assembly were exposed in a very bright light of truth and their true colors evident for all to see.
Does Juneau need road access? Yes, far more than many residents are aware. For decades, I have served on the statewide boards whose members are from every corner of Alaska. I have been told countless times that all Alaskans want road access to their capital. This one issue alone is critical to our remaining the capital of this state. Many of our fellow Alaskans view Juneau as Alaska's mythical Irish town of Brigadoon that wakes up periodically and then goes back to sleep. Juneau sleeps until another capital move then wakes up reaches out and promises to do better. Then back to sleep.
There are other reasons that make the road so imperative. It is the most cost effective method we have of moving people, goods and services any time day and night. A family could be in Haines and Skagway is less time than they would spend in line waiting to board a ferry and for very little cost. Juneau is on the mainland and does not require an expensive restrictive alternate, such as a ferry, as our sister communities do. The ferry system is heavily subsidized through funds largely from the budget reserve. This pool of money will be gone shortly and the subsidy will be severely reduced. The communities in Southeast that cannot have a road link need a viable ferry system, not an under-funded agency unable to give adequate service. A ferry is not a road, but a means to get to a road.
This community and Alaska were done a monumental disservice when Gov. Knowles vetoed the funds to complete the EIS. What we don't know will hurt us. I have lived in Juneau over 65 years and can remember many, many times over the years the discussions of those who have gone before, their dream of a road connecting Juneau to the rest of the world. Many of us still have that dream. We have had so much talk on the matter and so little progress. It is not possible to have meaningful public input restricted to Juneau when most of the people affected live in other areas of Alaska.
Frank Murkowski, Ken Koelsch, Dale Anderson and others, you are right on. Ken, I thank you again.
Donald B. Abel Jr. is a 65-year resident of Juneau, a lifelong Alaskan, and a graduate of the University of Alaska Fairbanks.