The borough has nearly $30 million in capital projects in its budget for the current fiscal year that runs through next June 30. The majority of funding — 58% — comes from grants, with 23% from borough coffers and 19% from loans.
The costliest upcoming projects by far are related to the borough’s water infrastructure, particularly the water treatment plant and reservoirs.
Preparations are underway to upgrade the water treatment plant, allowing for more consistent water quality and more production. The project went out to bid in mid-July.
The borough has about $15 million available for a new treatment plant, most of which is federal money. Capital Facilities Director Amber Al-Haddad is hopeful that the borough may be able to get additional funding from the U.S. Economic Development Administration once it has a contractor for the project and a firm price tag for the work.
Construction is estimated to last at least a year.
A separate project, the upper reservoir bypass, would connect the upper reservoir to the water treatment plant, protecting 14 mobile homes, nine single-family residences and the wastewater treatment plant from damage in the case of dam failure. The borough still needs additional funding before it can start carrying out the project. “It’s been in the works for years,” Al-Haddad said at a capital projects public forum earlier this year.
The first phase of the Alder Top Village (Keishangita.’aan) Subdivision site work, which will include clearing the land and constructing roads, has started. The borough last month approved a $1 million contract with Ketchikan Ready-Mix & Quarry for the work, and True North Sustainable Development Solutions has contracted to take on archeological monitoring of the site while construction is underway.
Work has wrapped up for the final design of the Mount Dewey trail extension project and borough officials are preparing to solicit bids for construction on the new trail. “Hopefully, that will be a quick turnaround,” Al-Haddad said at an assembly meeting in late July.
Residing the community gym building is still underway — a rotted-out wall and miscommunication about the siding design temporarily paused construction. Parks and Recreation Director Lucy Robinson “has selected a beautiful design” for the siding, Al-Haddad said at an assembly meeting earlier this summer. “We’re anxious for that project.”
Foundation problems with the Nolan Center’s outer storage building are also on the work list. Now that another BearFest has come and gone, work is underway on the foundation repairs this month.
A delay in materials has affected the repair timeline and put the Nolan Center’s regular weekend movie offerings on hold this month.
“Because of the project, it required us to empty that entire (storage) building,” explained Nolan Center Director Cyni Crary. “We had to move everything from that storage building into the civic center, which is obviously where we play movies and do events.”
“It’s impacting activities that we have normally going on,” said Crary. “Hopefully it’ll be done before the end of the month, because we have a lot of things planned for September.”
The water-damaged Public Safety Building remains in dire need of rehabilitation, but after voters chose last October not to take on debt to finance repairs, the project is stalled. In hopes of qualifying for grants and low-interest federal loans, the borough assembly last month approved a $53,605 contract with NorthWind Architects to complete a preliminary architectural report on the facility.
The report will allow the borough to pursue competitive funding opportunities with in-depth application processes that require an architectural report.
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