HPR Road Extension
Dear Editor: As a Sitkan of over 30 years, I’m disappointed and worried that DOT is going ahead with the HPR Road Extension project. I believe it will be bad for Sitka. The majority of us opposed the road more than once. We boat around here and would rather have improved ferry service. As for the justification mentioned on DOT’s site that it will ease access for commercial berry picking, I think we all know how easily we can pick berries anywhere around here without that road. There are also no state funds to maintain it. Katlian Bay is a gorgeous place. Why take paradise and put up a parking lot?
But of course, my biggest concerns are about risk. The project is too likely to experience slides and more people may die as a result, as William, and Elmer and Ulises Diaz did in the 2015. I only recently learned that about 30 working people were in the area just 15 minutes or so before the slide occurred. So very many more family and friends could have been swallowed up by the earth that day.
Engineers, geologists, DOT and others studied the road project proposal over many years and concluded it was a high risk proposition, not worth taking. In 2014 the slide on Starrigavan Ridge was about 100 acres. Compare that to the 12 acres on the Benchlands in 2015. Road construction crews for the Extension are likely to be in harm’s way. How many more deaths must occur during this time of extreme climate change events before we wake up and stop destroying our home, our health, the future of our children and all the living things that make life beautiful?
We’ve already experienced the very serious effects of extreme weather events from climate change. We also know that it’s best for the climate, environment and wildlife to keep carbon sequestered in the ground. Thank you,
Libby Stortz, Sitka
