If it can't be paved, safety demands at least a new layer of gravel, some meeting attendees said.

Held at the Anchor Point Senior Citizens Center on Nov. 10, the meeting brought about 28 North Fork residents together with Carl High of the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities and Rep. Paul Seaton, R-Homer, who represents the area in the state Legislature. Also attending the meeting was Gary Davis, roads director for the Kenai Peninsula Borough Road Service Area.

While some residents expressed concern that paving the winding and hilly road would lead to higher driving speeds, most said improvements were needed, not only in the surface itself, but also in the way the current road is maintained, according to a press release issued by Seaton's office.

High told the gathering that a rough estimate for all engineering, preliminary design work, rebuilding and paving the road could cost roughly $1 million a mile. But such a project has several bureaucratic hoops to jump through.

To get there, a North Fork Road project would have to be added to the State Transportation Improvement Plan (STIP) list. The unpaved section from Mile 8.5 to Mile 17 currently sits on a DOT "needs list," a kind of wish list that is a precursor to the STIP list.

A reconstruction and paving project had been on the STIP list in 2001-03 with a score of 88.8 points, but did not progress from there, High said. To be considered for the STIP list now, projects need a minimum of 115 points, he said.

According to Seaton, the North Fork Road project could gain additional points if the borough would commit funds to the project. Unless the road project is on the borough's priority list, paving is unlikely to be funded through the STIP list, Seaton said.

Re-evaluating certain criteria such as safety also would earn more points. The fact the 17-mile-long North Fork Road serves as the only alternative route north out of Homer in case of a natural disaster is a factor his office would investigate as a way to boost the safety score, Seaton said.

A logical step for concerned North Fork residents, who weeks ago circulated a petition asking legislators to take a closer look at road conditions, is to channel efforts through local and borough officials first, Seaton said.

Both routinely create priority lists containing certain projects, lists that eventually make their way to legislators for consideration, he said.

"As a policy, I try very hard to make sure that we use the public process that has developed for priority lists," Seaton said.

Any construction effort would take at least three years of research and preliminary work before completion, Seaton noted.

North Fork residents are familiar with the hazardous conditions typical of the road during the winter months. But slippery conditions occur in the summer, too, because of the calcium chloride the state applies to control dust. Residents said they believed the poor quality of the road gravel makes calcium chloride ineffective.

Seaton said DOT would look at using the more costly product Permazine as a dust-control treatment instead.

Seaton noted that North Fork residents left the meeting intending to keep pressure on local elected officials regarding paving the road.

Davis said the Road Service Area Board has rejected weighing in on state road projects in the past, neither supporting nor opposing them.

State roads are DOT's purview, Davis said. Generally, that makes them more of a political issue for the assembly, rather than a practical consideration for the borough road board.

He said it would be up to the Anchor Point community itself, through its advisory planning group, to submit a request to the assembly to make the North Fork a road priority.

However, he also said there were board members familiar with the hazardous North Fork conditions, and that it was possible the board might consider a resolution to the assembly in support of state action.

At one point the state had allocated money for a road project, said Homer resident and former Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly member Marie Walli, who attended the meeting. The assembly, however, redirected that money, Walli said, although she voted to spend the money on the North Fork.

Walli, who attended the Nov. 10 meeting, said she is frustrated to see that the issue still hasn't been resolved. She questioned whether the Anchor Point Advisory Planning Commission has felt obliged in the past to look as far outside of Anchor Point as the south section of North Fork Road, which is closer to Homer but outside of the city limits.

Hal Spence is a reporter for the Peninsula Clarion. Chris Eshleman of the Homer News contributed to this story.