As seen on September 29, the mossy northern stalls at Wrangell's 40-year old facilities at Shoemaker Bay Harbor are due for replacement next year. Slightly less than half of the funds needed to rebuild its sagging fingers are coming from a Department of Transportation facilities grant, an allocation approved by the State Legislature and signed by Gov. Bill Walker in a special session this August.
Finalized designs to replace existing facilities at Shoemaker Bay Harbor have been greenlighted by the Wrangell Assembly.
Built by the state in 1977, management of the harbor and responsibility for its upkeep were devolved to the city in 2003. The wood-and-iron floats have since reached the limits of their useful life, and plans to replace them with a more modern design have been in the works for several years. A design for new floating facilities and a dredging of the harbor was put together by PND Engineers in Juneau, and a financing plan adopted by the city in 2015.
The project was made possible by the Alaska Legislature's inclusion this year of $5,000,000 for the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities' Municipal Harbor Facility Grant Fund. As the Shoemaker project was the top of the list for consideration this year, the funds were earmarked for that request. During the previous fiscal year, Wrangell's project was second on the list after a Kodiak request, and a shortfall in allocated capital funding meant Shoemaker was skipped over.
With the grant now in place, Wrangell will more than match the allotment with a combination of its own
funds and municipal bonds. Harbormaster Greg Meissner explained money from a combination of deferred maintenance, fishing infrastructure and reserve funds will make up several million dollars of the cost, with the final amount depending on final estimates for the
project. When it was first designed by PND Engineers several years ago the initial estimate for it had been $10.7
million, but that has since been adjusted most recently to just under $11.5 million.
The city finance director's office is in touch with the Alaska Municipal Bond Bank Authority, which is capable of money at more favorable interest rates than smaller municipalities might. This money then gets used to purchase the bonds offered by those municipalities and other authorized borrowers. These borrowing entities repay principal and interest to AMBBA on these debts over an extended period.
The Borough Assembly had in June 2015 approved a spending plan for the improvements project, including the issue of revenue bonds for up to $2.5 million. The plan's adoption had been necessary to applying for the state facility grant. Under it, the city intends to pay back the bond over the course of 20 years.
Annual repayments could run at approximately $182,000, and would be covered in part through a portion of stall fees currently deferred to the harbor reserve fund. Under estimates put forward earlier this year, stall revenues for the Harbor Department are approximately $450,000 a year, with the larger stalls expected to earn an added $25,000. Forty-eight percent of these revenues head to the reserve fund, from which the money to repay the debt would come. In this scenario the Harbor Department would still reserve some money for other projects and emergencies.
During its Tuesday meeting, the Assembly approved two contract addendums for PND, one revising its engineering design contract to add $51,227 for additional finger and gangway design. Funds are to come from the Harbor Department's FY18 capital expenditures account for Shoemaker Bay, which now stands at $1.2 million.
The other contract amendment enables PND to move forward with the 100-percent design, in the amount of $122,331. PND's existing
contract only required it to take the design to a 90-percent completion level, and the additional work would make the harbor's plans shovel-ready. Funds for this contract addendum are to come from the Shoemaker capital expenditures account.
A completed design is anticipated by the year's end and Meissner expected the project to be ready to bid out by January. How long it will take to build will depend on the time needed to acquire the components and the scheduling availability of contractors.
"It'll be nice when it's done," Meissner commented.
To be built using synthetic, more durable materials, the new float structure will consolidate access to one gangway and reduce the number of slimmer slips to accommodate wider, modern vessel designs.
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