Skip the flowers
Published Thursday, July 10, 2008
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Stumble It!July 6, 2008
To the editor:
First off, I want to say how great the North Pole Fourth of July celebration was. If you missed it — shame.
Next, a complaint.
As you fall into the holes around Fairbanks’ streets, think of the conversation I had with a tourist as we watched the parade in North Pole.
She said, “It looks like Fairbanks could take at least one or two guys to fill in the holes in the streets when they can use three or more to plant flowers. Looks like a waste when the streets are so bad.” From the mouth of a visitor.
Maybe she meant the street behind Sam’s Club.
Community Discussion
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Construction on the Steese Hwy., on the Johanson,on College Rd,on Airport....and she's kavitching about a delivery road behind a strip mall w/o signs or lights or sidewalks or ditches or.... WOW! Just wait till she gets her electric bill! Now THERE'S something to kavitch about!
It's a good thing tourists support the local tax base, so those holes can get filled in.
I happen to know exactly how much those flowers around town cost, and the visitor happens to be right. Flowers are pretty, flat tires are not.
ANd just who does the flowers around town? I know! Its not the city who needs to maintain the roads, it a non profit group that has to not only find a budget to plant those flowers but to also have some one to go around and do the necessary yearly maintenance of watering those flowers. Just because something looks like the city does it does not mean that it is so.
Sniffles,
The writer was only speculating about the road behind Sam's Club.
kornmonkiedotcom,
If the fine folks of Fairbanks would support a sales tax, the tourists would indeed help support the infrastructure. But since no one wants to pay the extra tax, Fairbanks citizens are left shouldering the entire burden through property taxes.
...and if you think the FNSB property taxes are ANYWHERE near normal, let me share: I was looking at houses with a realtor down here and looking at houses that are about $75K cheaper than our house up there. I brought up property taxes (mine jumped to $3,800 last year there), and her jaw hit the floor. No, property taxes on a house like that here would be about $650/year. Sure, there's a 5% sales tax, but my mortgage (because property taxes go into escrow, yadda, yadda) would drop over $260/mo on that house. Wow. I could afford the fill the fuel tank. :-)
Akhusky Out of staters don't pay for sales tax all they have to do is show ID, proving they don't live there and are visiting and they are exempt from the sales tax.
The road behind Sams is not a city road,and sometimes holes are not filled to keep traffic slow.Complain about this stretch of road too much and it could get closed-it's been suggested before by the owners.
Dont tourists say the darndest things? That's a hoot, some tourist presuming backwards priorities about how we spend our tax money. If she only knew the half of it.
I believe that Festival Fairbanks does the flowers in the downtown area. And a fine job they do (on contributions). I dont know about North Pole. Is there a similar group out there?
What is the reason that we, with 24/7 daylight during the summer, don't run two DOT crews to "get 'er done?" As things are done now we waste time, and cause MUCH mental anguish/road rage!! At the VERY least, they could put up ROAD CLOSED signs to prevent one from entering dead end expressway/highway/etc., rather than directing hundreds of motorists on a wild goose chase, to find after being in grid lock traffic for fifteen minutes, you end up exactly where you began.
What a joke this place becomes in the summer...get it together DOT, or outsource your work to private companies. As they don't have to play the games involved in having the state provide a service, they would perhaps finish the job in a fraction of the time, and we may actually enjoy the benefit of driving on good roads before winter hits again.
I always thought the road behind Sam's was a privately own sort of driveway for delivery trucks to the stores. Much like the road behind the new Fred Myers, Walmart, Sportsman, etc. Maybe a simple sign, private road would clarify it for everyone and give people one less thing to complain about.
that road behind sam's and bentley mall isn't going to be closed soon. it is the route for trucks in and out of there. i can't imagine the trucks trying to negotiate the parking lots full of cars trying to get to the loading bays from college road. never fear people! winter will soon be upon us and the ice and snow will fill in those pot holes just fine.
The road behind sams club isn't a public road, it is not maitained by the city, borough, or state, it is maintained completely by private funding from (I beleive, but may be wrong) the bentley group that owns all that and the businesses on the road.
the streets arent bad. Its all relative. There are a couple streets in town that need improving, as in any city in America. I would like to see less flowers and more other things (street or sidewalks improving, christmas lights, other).
Hello all, Time for my 2 cents. Have any of you driven on the roads in Washington state? THEY SUCK. Now Fairbanks does have a problem with bad roads and potholes. Some I have seen could swallow a gas sipping small car. Have any of you ever noticed the DOT truck out patching and filling in these fore mentioned potholes? I have and what I see happening is that the next year the pothole is back and the patch from the previous year is sunk down 6 inches. The city and state are fighting a unwinnable battle with poor road infastructure and PERMAFROST. That stuff is a real road killer. As to the flowers Vs. road problem, I along with a lot of people would most likely prefer nice roads instead of pretty flowers. We are not going to get and keep nice roads. That is the curse of the interior. What we will have is nice flowers and landscaping compliments of donations and the work of some City and borough employees.
The reason I mentioned washington state is they have very high car registration and a sales tax and there roads still suck. So stop smell the flowers and enjoy the day
nmg60- As far as I know, the DOT usually can't work in certain areas 24/7 because of a mandated ordinance regarding noise produced by machinery.
Well North Pole has a sales tax so that they can do their holes and anything else that needs to be done. Festival Fbks does the flowers and the lighting at christmas and whatever else they can do that the city does not because they don't have a sales tax.
If you don't like the road behind Sam's stop using it.
nmg60, my husband says the same thing all the time. He is from a state that is in constant " Construction Hell " as he likes to call his home state of California. They have three crews working around the clock and they don't have all night light like our city, they use big overhead lights like at the stadiums. I thought he was full of "IT" until I saw it with my own eyes on our way through to PCS to Georgia. I would love to see that here, considering our extremely short season here.
I love this town!!!!!!
Dreamweavr,
I'm very familiar with roads in eastern Washington, and they are in great shape compared to "Alaska's.
AK_Nyhtwind,
Can you point me in the direction of a reference regarding tourist exemption of sales taxes in Alaska? Thanks.
Thanks to all the volunteers who provide us with the beautiful flowers!
Akhusky, I havent been to eastern Washington in a while but I have been in the Seattle area and western Washington. The groves in the roads and such and there roads seemed just as cracked up as ours here in Fairbanks. So I should've been more clear about the area I was referring
Woodman--DITTO!!! And to those who support sales tax, income tax, bed tax, air tax, gift tax, death tax, gas tax...... good for you-- I DON"T! I actually NEED my money for SPECIFIC things ( food, water, fuel...) .
The flowers along Airport Way are planted and maintained by the Borough.
When George Byrdsong died a few years ago, (he was the one who used to voluntarily do the Airport flowers), the FNSB Assembly wasted no time waiting for potential volunteers to step up.
Instead, it created Borough positions to do it.
I like the flowers. I am not sure if the same organisation fills in potholes and fills in pots are one in the same. I like the flowers. I also like driving prudently so I get where I am going and see the holes in the road. You'd have to be a moron not to see the holes on that back access road at Sams, that road is not there for thru traffic anyway. If you hit a pothole, get out of your vehicle and go smell the flowers - you'll feel better at least....
What does planting flowers have to do with filling holes in streets? Neither of them even go together. The whole street of Cushman needs to just be redone. Behind Sam's is not nearly as bad as Cushman.
As far as Fairbanks roads I've seen worse in big cities, such as Kansas City and Las Vegas. The bridges in some of those towns you can see through the bottom.
Just tell the tourists that's how Alaskan do roadkill hunting. If you notice there are circles painted around the potholes. The instructions on roadkill hunting is when you drive into town and come across a carcass you paint a circle around it. On the way back home when you come to one without a circle that's fresh and you scoop it up with a shovel. Walla tenderized seasoned by goodyear rabbit.
I go through South Cushman a few times a week and the roads back there could use some work. Though I assume there are just areas all around Fairbanks in need of some re-doing.
Anyway, I think it's funny around the streets by the hospital where there's supposed to be paint- they've just been spray painted over by hand. I'm guessing the job is temporary while they get some painting done downtown, but lends some amusement none the less.
I love zig-zagging down a straight road avoiding the potholes, it warms up my tires so I can peel out on a green light just so I can pay out the A$$ to fill my gas tank; beet the guy next to me to the next red light all to do it over again just to end up at the same place 30 seconds earlier then the guy next to me all the while enjoying the flower sceenery. ;)
Where are all the folks that want Fairbanks like it was back in the 50's, 60's, 70's and so on? I thought Alaska was supposed to be the "Last Frontier"! Why are we gripping? Atleast we give the tourist something to talk about when they go back to wherever! Part of the beauty of Alaska is permafrost.
As for flowers, who cares! Alaska has some of the prettiest wild flowers growing on the side of the road. Why waste our time and money for 3 months out of the year when we can just enjoy the flowers that are given for free.
My sisterinlaw thought the fireweed was beautiful too. She tried taking some home with her on the plane. When she went to get them out of the overhead they had poofed and there was all this white stuff floating around the plane. Needless to say Delta Airlines was not happy with her.
Goes to show if tourists will buy moose poop they will buy anything.
Why doesn't the borough just seed wildflowers on those areas they want to "beautify?" There is NO reason we need foo-foo hothouses petunias - wildlfowers are beautiful, will self-seed or come back year after year, and the maintenance is virtually zero (trim around the edges with a weedeater - you're done). Oh, wait - that makes too much sense, and it wouldn't create those summer "parks" jobs.
AKHusky - that is not just in Alaska but with all states. When I travel outside and purchase a considerable amount of merchandise, (If I am only purchasing $5 or $10 I don't bother)I simply ask for the form, show my Alaskan driver's license and voila - the sales tax is taken off. Before, when Fairbanks had a sales tax, those not residing in the community were issued tax exempt cards to exhibit when purchasing items. As for the flowers - I love them and kudos to the group that plants them! It takes a lot of time and effort to do it and it is well appreciated. Thanks!
Ak Husky this is from an article on taxation in the US "The Constitution of the United States limits the power of the states to subjects within their jurisdiction. Jurisdiction over interstate commerce is reserved to the federal government. Nevertheless, a resident of a state with a sales tax who purchases goods from a place with no sales tax is exempt." For example Washington state has a sales tax and Oregon doesn't if you visit Washington and purchase something and you are from neighboring Oregon, you can show your ID to the sales person and you are exempt from the sales tax. I admit that I am not sure how this works in other states. I would think a broader tourism tax would make more sense, as in the one charged for people who take cruises to Alaska, if tourists are your targets!
Why not just have the flowers planted in the potholes? Fill the holes with dirt and flowers and both problems are solved.
I was thinking about this last night...
And about 4-5 years ago (before the flowers) didn't a tourist complain about how ugly our city was make the suggestion that we plant trees in our medians so we could beautify our city. Which I thought was a bad idea considering they would probably be wiped out with snow removal.
Kinda funny now there is another tourist complaining about flowers and pot holes.
ak_nyhtwind... you are correct, you are only tax exempt if you are from a state that has no tax visiting a state with tax. And you are not exempt on items such as food & gas. When I visit California you have to have a special tax exemption card that states the dates that you are visiting and the location that you are from if you do not have this card which has to be issued ahead of time you will not get the exemption. Every now and then you can get the exemption just by using your I.D. card but not always.
I have searched for this special tax exemption card only to continue to come to a dead end. Folks such as our fearless leaders, delegates & diplomats can get these cards with no problem, where they get them from I have no clue. Every where I asked; tax man, post office, ect the didn't have a clue what I was talking about and sent me on a goose chase to another place that may know what I was talking about. So anybody that knows where we can get such a card please let me know.
That is why WA state is so easy, just show your AK id, sign your name, viola!
Thats also why you dont pay sales tax on online items or through infomercials or anything like that UNLESS you are a state resident of one of their distro depots.
I would like to know where the money came for repaving the access road to Chena Lakes? Two weeks ago I was out there and thought to myself what a smooth and straight road this is. Yesterday I waited 20 minutes for a pilot car because they had tore up the entire road to repave it.
Not only is this a seasonal access road for a small recreation area, but it was in excellent condition to begin with. This 5 miles of new road could have replaced much more traveled roads that are in much worse condition.
One of the most beautiful things about Fairbanks are the flowers! Any money spent on them is more than recaptured in tourist appeal.
However, the past three summers, the flower baskets along the street and the baskets along the bridge have not been the most attractive combination of colors. One greenhouse employee said the colors are specified by the city. The colors clash. Sometimes they use a blue and gold theme, and the blue used is dark, colorless purple. The colors are not well chosen. They're better than no flowers at all, but someone really should look into choosing brighter colors that compliment each other - like maybe shades of pink or fuchsia with blue or a not-too-dark purple. Or even red, white and blue.
Thank you to whoever does plant the flowers, and to all the Fairbanks homeowners who create beautiful yards for us to enjoy! Boy, have we come a long way in the past 35 years when it comes to landscaping!
are you serious... alaskaflower... your complaining about the color of the flowers... omg that is truly pathetic. "greenhouse employee said the colors are specified by the city" that doesn't mean they picked the flowers put the arrangement together
No, but the simple fact is, blue and gold may look great on the Alaska State flag, but it's hard to use those colors and come up with a bright and attractive basket of flowers. They are "cold" colors. "Warm" colors are brighter and happier, and can be seen from a greater distance.
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