7 April 2026
We've endured a very expensive winter season with dramatic and dangerous overflow problems, deep ice ruts, and other hazardous driving conditions in our LRSA. Our provider has been superb, responding as quickly as possible and doing the best he could for our residents. Mr. Baxter...thank you.
We just received and paid an invoice for $14, 288.00, paying up to date since 28 February. We currently have $37,831.75 in our Muni account.
This invoice was predominately for steam thawing, some sanding, and ice ripping with graders.
11 March 2026
Our provider supposedly arrived in the valley last night, but does say that a grader is working now on removing ice from Kings Way between Brewsters and Paine.
10 March 2026
For those living in our LRSA but North of Brewser's on Kings Way, the roads are in fair condition. Kings Way South of Brewsters is impassable with heavy glaciation. As you can see below, we requeted overflow and culvert service but our provider wasn't able to arrive until this evening. If you're crossing these areas, take care!
6 March 2026
We have requested that our LRSA roads be cleared before the morning commute. We're on the list but I can't promise that it'll be done early enough. We called at 3PM. We've also requested that the culvert under Kings Way south of Brewsters be thawed.
PLEASE, vote to approve our request for a LRSA mill rate increase.
28 February 2026
Please join the Bear Valley LRSA Board (Bill and Paul) on 3 March at 7PM (1900 hours) on Zoom to discuss our LRSA and have your questions answered. The boad has requested a 0.75 mill increase to be on the ballot on the 7 April 2026 Municipality elections. Find out what the plan is for that extra money and why we think it's important to approve it.
Meeting ID: 835 4943 6956
Passcode: rysGP7
Culvert thawing and ice removal on our roads are our primary sources of road maintenance. Low snow has led to a lot of water moving toward the surface. The under-driveway culvert just south of Cinerama Terrace, and the equally bad under-road culvert just south of Brewsters Road are the main problem areas. Our provider is out thawing as quickly as he's free, so wave nicely to his crews when you pass them.
5 February 2026
CAPSIS is the Capital Projects Submission and Information System to the Alaska Legislature. It is an online program for various government entities to submit requests for state funding for specific projects.
For the past several years, the Bear Valley LRSA has requested state grant money for road maintenance projects in the valley. As you can imagine, state money for such grants has been extremely limited and in most years, non-existent.
Today, 5 February 2026, we received word that our 2026 submission for project grants has been received. We do NOT expect any grants in 2026, but we have submitted our paperwork if some does appear.
Our requests have centered on two projects:
1. Paving the first 0.5 miles of Kings Way, from the bus turnaround to the Snow Bear sign. Every resident must drive this section of road in and out of the valley, so paving it would bring benefits to us all.
2. Improve our road drainage system by ditching, culvert work, and removing brush. This is an obvious benefit to all drivers in all seasons.
4 February 2026
For those Bear Valley residents concerned about slick roads today (4 Feb), the board requested gravel last night. As the board has said, the entire Hillside has had the same slick conditions and we are a small LRSA, high in the mountains. Our service provider has all equipment required by his contract, but with the entire Hillside asking for gravel, there are limited resources.
We have received our first invoice from our service provider. Our total usable budget for fiscal 2026 is $65443 out of $71,043 collected in road taxes. Muni bookkeeping has allocated 9.2% of our budget for administration of our accounts.
Our first invoice was $8939.75 and the breakdown of items is predominantly for steam thawing and gravel, as you would guess. Our largest items were two steam truck uses, both for culverts. One episode was on 1/9/26 on Cinerama, the other on 1/23/26 on Kings Way south of Brewsters Road exit. Each cost the LRSA $900.
We have $56,503.25 remaining for the year.
3 February 2026
In an effort to explain the workings of the Bear Valley LRSA, we have posted articles on Nextdoor.com. If you wish to read our articles, simply search for them by name: Bear Valley LRSA. All of the posted information was taken from this site, so it's also here for your use.
For the past two weeks, we have concentrated on thawing culverts and opening drainage ditches. Frozen culverts and ditches have resulted in homes being in danger of flooding water, and overflow over roads have created hazardous driving conditions in the South end of the valley. We have also used graders equiped with ripping blades to remove inches of overflow on several locations along Kings Way, especially in the South end of the LRSA.
We have not received a new invoice,but we suspect that work contracted during January will be very expensive. We have requested the Muni Road Maintenance Departent to free Emergency Funds should be need it to pay our service provider. Northern Gravel has done exemplary work on our behalf.
2 February 2026
Your board has just removed "Notices from your Board" from 2025. We hope that this meets with your approval since the information on budgets and work are now outdated.
22 January 2026
Road condition update. Our provider has been working for several days on Bear Valley roads. Most of the work has been concentrated on saving homes from water intrusion from nearby overflows. Cinerama has received several days of steam thawing work on their western cross-road culvert.
Those of you who live in Snow Bear/upper LRSA are not aware of the terrible overflow conditions in the south end of the valley since you don't drive through there in your commutes. A severe overflow situation has been ongoing just south of the Brewsters Drive "Y". There are two culverts that have been thawed, at least temporarily: one parallel to Kings Way and the other under Kings Way. Both have been thawed to try and prevent a nearby home from flooding. A culvert across Kings Way at Paine Road was also thawed to prevent house flooding.
ALL OF THESE CULVERTS will refreeze at some point and we'll begin the process again. Today, Thursday 22 January, we requested that our provider bring in a grader equipped with ice rippers. These graders removed built-up overflow ice just south of Cinerama, and another severe overflow ice problem just south of the Brewster's "Y". A final location was a small but severe overflow at Kings Way extended south of Paine Road.
Overflow cannot be eliminated but with summer work, we can be prepared to deal with it more efficiently. Our forthcoming mill rate increase request is primarily aimed at this project. 1. Remove brush that now makes it difficult to maintain and access ditches. 2. Deepen all drainage ditches. 3. Install tubing in all culverts that allows for more rapid thawing. 4. Mark all culvert ends with permanent markers to eliminate the search for culvert opening. These four projects will greatly aid the winter control of water overflow. Low-snow winters followed by severe cold temperatures will inevitably lead to overflow conditions as we have experience the last two winters. Even winters with "normal" snow loads are more expensive. Both of these situations will require more LRSA funding.
18 January 2026
For residents reading this and wondering where our road service is, it's working hard to keep passable our 2.5 miles of roads. Northern Gravel, our service provider, has worked with a steam-thaw truck to thaw a long culvert on Cinerama that caused water to overflow into homes there.
There's another severe overflow on Kings Way, just south of the Brewsters Road junction. Northern Gravel is working on that today. Another overflow that's not appeared in decades at the corner of Kings Way and Paine Road is also on the list as is an overflow at the end of Kings Way extended.
Warmer weather has allowed more water to flow, but not frozen it, thankfully, so perhaps we'll get a break.
If you are aware of road problems that are not being adddressed, contact your board.
17 January 2026
Our 2026 budget has been released.
The total amount collected by the Municipality of Anchorage in resident-paid road taxes is $71,043. Out of that, the MoA takes 7.9% or $5600 for administrative fees. As we have stated, the MoA handles all of the money and the LRSA Board has no control over it. Your peace of mind over the security of your tax dollars is probably worth 8%.
Our remaining budget is $65,443 which is released in quarterly loads of $16,360.75. This has started as an expensive winter season for us since there has been less snow to clear and more steam truck time, including the required 2-3 staff to operate the equipment.
As we pay invoices from our provider, we'll update what we spend. You will always know how we spend our tax dollars.
15 January 2026
Overflow control has been extremely expensive this winter and we have months of winter ahead of us. During late Decemeber 2025 through the first two weeks of January 2026, we have spent over $6000 on overflow control: steam trucks, graders, and service staff to run equipment. We will report on our 2026 budget as soon as the documents are available.