Work on an outdoor deck at Chief Shakes Hot Springs up the Stikine River has been delayed until next spring, after federal funds the Forest Service expected for the project have yet to arrive.
The site, which consists of two hot tubs — one indoor and one outdoor — was supposed to get a facelift this month, favoring a higher river and tide levels for easier access at this time of the year.
The project, which had been estimated at $190,000, received $81,200 from the Great American Outdoors Act — or so the Forest Service had been told, District Recreation Staff Officer Tory Houser said last Thursday. But the funds haven’t been released yet, and Houser said she’s not sure why.
The project did receive $11,000 from the Resource Advisory Councils under the Bureau of Land Management, which went toward paying for the site design.
Sitka Conservation Society helped the Wrangell Ranger District come up with a design, which was approved by Forest Service engineers.
“Now they will help us with the construction,” Houser said.
With lumber prices rising, the cost of the project is probably going to go up, beyond $190,000.
The (Great American Outdoors Act) funds have not been issued to the district for us to use yet,” Houser said May 24. “I’m on hold until that happens. I have to get my agreement in place, and my partner, Sitka Conservation Society, is hopefully still going to be able to come in July and do in-town work. And we’re going to try to do the on-site work in the spring (of) 2023.“
The plan is to “pre-fab a bunch of stuff in town” as a less intrusive construction practice, in line with Forest Service wilderness management practices, to minimize the total time they would spend at the Chief Shakes hot tub site.
“Our plan is to receive the $81,200 and do what we can, the best we can, get a really good start, and then we'll have to go back and seek extra funding for whatever we might not be able to accomplish,” Houser said.
Separately, the Chief Shakes tribal house walkway bridge relocation effort by the Wrangell Cooperative Association hasn’t moved forward. The borough planning and zoning commission in February recommended approval to the assembly, pending a proposal and more detailed information from WCA, which the borough has not received.
Planning and Zoning Administrator Carol Rushmore on Friday said she spoke with Tribal Administrator Esther Reese about the status and “she said they haven’t had time to work on it.”
WCA needs to submit a development plan and conduct an appraisal of the property. If the tidelands haven’t been surveyed, that will need to be done first. WCA would have to pay for the appraisal and tideland survey.
Reese on Friday said the tidelands have not been surveyed.
“WCA has no timeline for that project at this time,” Deanna Horner, of WCA, said via email May 24.
WCA is proposing to move the bridge access point about 50 to 60 feet to what is now a gravel lot, to create more room at the harbor parking lot, and rebuild the decade-old wooden walkway to the island, which is at the end of its 10-year lifespan.
“They envision the new access to not only clean up the former harbor parking lot but create an in/out access for buses and a place to potentially sell Native goods,” Rushmore previously wrote on Feb. 4 to the planning and zoning commission.
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