Snowstorms, state budget cuts hinder DOT’s sidewalk snow removal

With snowstorm after snowstorm—and state budget cuts—the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (DOT) is struggling to keep up with sidewalk snow removal.
Spokesperson Shannon McCarthy said DOT has half the staff devoted to sidewalks it did two years ago. There are now only four employees working around the clock to plow hundreds of miles of sidewalks around Anchorage.
“What happens, often times, is when you clear sidewalks in an ongoing storm is you have to