At this week’s Caswell Road Service Area Board meeting, Mat-Su Borough Operations and Maintenance Division Manager Chad Fry floated an idea for the community to find a way to fund capital projects.
For many years, the Caswell area has had very little funding after paying for their regular road maintenance contracts. Board Chair DJ McBride says there was less than one dollar left some years. Which means that the community can’t fund any major, or RIP List, projects. And with a growing population and more traffic on the roads, there will be more need for larger projects. The same is true for other RSAs.
Though Fry discussed increasing the mill rate for the Caswell RSA, he says the Borough wants to hear from all the RSAs about what the appropriate mill rate increase might be for their community. The extra funds would go directly toward capital projects in their RSA and not anything else. With an increase of half a mill in the Caswell RSA, that amount could raise about $100,000 per year based on their 2025 numbers.
Fry says the Department of Public Works has tried to come up with a plan for completing more major projects, but there needs to be a constant source of revenue to make that happen. He says there currently is no other option except mill rate changes.
All RSAs can begin the discussion about how an increased mill rate could pay for RIP List projects. Fry says residents can propose a rate increase or not in their RSA and that is where residents have a collective voice. The Borough Assembly ultimately votes on mill rates for each RSA. Fry says any rate increases would likely be proposed for the next fiscal year.
