WASILLA, Alaska (KTUU) – A Wasilla resident is taking the phrase “digging out” to the next level, as a personal friend slowly made his way down North Engstrom Road operating an excavator to remove drifted snow from driveways.

Unable to get his vehicle out of his driveway since last weekend’s windstorm, William Krostek has only left his house twice in the last six days. According to Krostek, plow crews contracted by the Matanuska-Susitna Borough buried his driveway under six feet of snow.

“Once the wind started blowing all the snow from the fields across the street they started using that snowblower, and just immediately started blowing snow over here,” Krostek said. “And did so for probably 50, 60 passes a day, for four days straight.”

Krostek took nearly a dozen videos from inside his home that shows crews with industrial-grade blowers plowing Engstrom Road. The videos demonstrate that the blower’s chutes are aimed in the direction of Krostek’s property.

Road maintenance crews contracted by the Matanuska-Susitna Borough clears snow off of N. Engstrom Rd. in Wasilla.(William Krostek)

At one point in one of the videos Krostek took, snow can be heard hitting the window he was filming from.

After submitting the occurrence to the borough’s Problem Reporter online portal, Krostek said the contractor was pretty responsive and returned to his property to clear a portion of his driveway on Monday. The portion that was cleared, however, still didn’t give he or his neighbor access to their vehicles.

“He honestly believes that he removed as much snow as he deposited, which is pretty obvious that’s not the case,” Krostek stated, pointing at the walls of snow surrounding the clearing.

A response from the borough was issued this afternoon.

“We are aware of the homeowner’s concerns. Staff in our road maintenance division are evaluating,” the statement said. “We will follow up with residents today.”

Tired of waiting — and leaving on vacation Friday — Krostek took the matter into his own hands and called in a favor to a friend who owns an excavator. They spent the afternoon clearing the two driveways enough for both he and his neighbor to get vehicles in and out.

Krostek indicated that he will likely rent equipment to clear the rest of the snow, but thinks there’s a lesson to be learned out of the situation.

“The borough needs to make some kind of restrictions on these snowblowers so they can’t just bury people this,” Krostek said.

Copyright 2022 KTUU. All rights reserved.