Sitka was hit with snow again over the weekend, punctuating a month of persistent snowfall. City staff say exhausted road crews and damaged equipment have slowed the snow removal process.
In an update to local news outlets Monday (3-23-26) morning, Municipal Administrator John Leach said as the snow has continued to fall, crews are running out of places to put snow berms, and are fatigued by long hours. Some of the city’s snow removal equipment has been damaged and taken out of commission. While the city is not declaring an emergency, Leach has formed an Emergency Operations Center (EOC) team made up of city staff to coordinate and respond to snow removal needs.
Leach has proposed dedicating up to an additional $250,000 to pay contractors to plow and remove snow. The appropriation will be added to the Sitka Assembly’s agenda for consideration at its regular meeting on Tuesday (3-24-26).
Leach said one contractor is already working to support the city’s snow plowing efforts, and more are expected to onboard soon. The city currently contracts with K&E Alaska to plow Green and Blue Lake Roads. A local volunteer ATV group also helps plow city streets and sidewalks.
Leach asked for patience and understanding from the public as crews continue to clear Sitka’s streets. As the snow melts, plowing will remain essential to ensure drains are open to prevent flooding.
Spring break for the Sitka School District was extended by a day when school was canceled on Monday– the third cancellation this year. In an email to KCAW, Superintendent Deidre Jenson said the district plans to add additional days to the end of the school year for the first two snow days, but will be asking the state for an emergency waiver for March 23. She said the district will send out more information as soon as plans are finalized.
Snow also impacted Sitka’s energy grid over the weekend with an outage early Saturday morning, and a second outage Monday morning. Both times, Sitka’s electricity was cut off shortly after 4 a.m. when trees fell on the Green Lake transmission line. On Saturday, power was fully restored shortly after 7 a.m. Monday morning, power was fully restored shortly after 6 a.m.
In an email forwarded to KCAW, Electric Utility Director Ron Vinson said the city has been working with local tree removal contractors to remove risk prone trees along the Green Lake corridor 13 times in the last month, as recently as last Friday, but accumulating snow has caused instability with trees in the area. Vinson said the electric department will continue to work to prevent outages as weather conditions persist.
According to National Weather Service data, this month has been the second snowiest March on record, with just over 31 inches of snowfall recorded at Sitka’s water treatment plant as of March 23.
