Denali Borough adds $130,710 to fix roads damaged fighting a fire

The Denali Borough will spend another $130,710 repairing June Creek subdivision roads torn up during the Bear Creek Fire response, about 20 miles north of Healy.

Most of it, $100,274, buys 1,200 cubic yards of pit run for Eisenhower Way so the contractor can hold grade, Mayor Chris Noel told the assembly. The rest raises Culkin Way about 6 inches, where water tanks were staged during the firefighting, and pays for a culvert nobody knew was needed until the raised roadbed started ponding water.

Drainage is what brought residents to the meeting. One said they had driven the road in the rain and watched water run straight across the new gravel. Presiding Officer Jared Zimmerman said the center of Eisenhower Way has sat 6 inches below its ditches for years. "After the fire this year, the water came down, there was a river," he said. "I had to wear my waders to do my chores."

The assembly approved the money unanimously Wednesday, after fixing the resolution, which named a road that does not appear on the borough street map. No new appropriation was needed. The borough had set aside $178,000, with the state covering the base contract.

Zimmerman did the math on the gravel: $83.33 a yard placed. "It is incredibly expensive to build roads here," he said.