Borough officials plan to share with the public the information they are assembling for Wrangell’s federal grant application to pay for utilities, site prep and other work to develop an industrial-use deepwater port at 6-Mile and downtown waterfront expansion.

The assembly will receive an update from borough staff about design concepts and preliminary cost estimates in a work session from 6 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 10, at City Hall.

The assembly work session is open to the public but is not a question-and-answer session for the public — that comes the next week.

“The work session allows the assembly to ask questions and provide comment on the preliminary engineering reports and offers the public an introductory overview of the projects in advance of the community town hall scheduled for the following week,” according to the borough calendar.

The public is invited to a town hall on Feb. 19 to get more information about the projects, the potential economic benefits for the community, and to ask questions about the proposed development plans.

Corvus Design, which has won awards for its design work at the Anan Wildlife Observatory and Wrangell Mariners’ Memorial, will moderate the town hall, said Mayor Patty Gilbert.

“We can gather the concerns and comments from the community,” she said of the town hall.

The meeting will provide an overview of the downtown waterfront expansion plan, which includes adding fill to create more uplands; the deepwater port development at 6-Mile, which could include a privately operated shipyard and new barge and freight terminal; and also plans to replace the flume that diverts water into Wrangell’s reservoirs.

“Those are things we need to do … to incentivize private development,” said Kate Thomas, Wrangell’s economic development director.

The borough is applying for a $50 million federal grant to help with all three projects, with a March 3 application deadline.

“We’re going after an Economic Development Administration grant for a large part of the development,” Thomas said.

“The town hall will give us an opportunity to explain the scope to the community,” the mayor said.

The Feb. 19 meeting will start at 5:30 p.m. and will be held at the Nolan Center.

The session “will be used to gather community input and better understand public perspectives, questions and priorities related to the projects,” according to the borough announcement.

The borough’s planning and zoning commission, economic development board and port commission are involved in the reviews, with final approval up the assembly, the mayor noted.

“When it gets to the assembly … community concerns and questions will be woven into the lease agreements,” Gilbert said.