The Haines Borough is advancing its Small Boat Harbor expansion project, but public facilities director Brad Ryan said the municipality will likely need to apply for a deadline extension from the state grant agency.
Bid documents are expected to go out by the end of this month, and Ryan is shooting to have the contract approved by the assembly at its Sept. 27 meeting.
None of the $15 million in general obligation bond money the borough received in 2012 for the project has been spent. Of $4.5 million the municipality received from the Alaska Legislature for harbor expansion, the borough has spent about $2.8 million, according to Debi Kruse, the state’s community aide and accountability manager.
The borough’s grants are scheduled to lapse on June 30, 2017.
Kruse said grantees can request one-year extensions, and the process is “pretty short and sweet.”
“They shouldn’t have to worry about the money stopping on June 30, because that wouldn’t be the case,” Kruse said. “We try to make it easy for the grantee because we want the grantee to get this done without having to jump through a lot of hoops.”
Ryan is hoping bids come in at or below $14 million, what he calls the “magic number” for the project.
Bid documents don’t include plans to move Lookout Park in Phase One of the expansion project. Ryan said the borough was considering changing the bid documents to include moving the park, but decided instead to rely on Fish and Game contributing up to $300,000 as part of the cooperative agreement the two entities are entering for the sport boat ramp.
“They are promising us to at least attempt to get us grant funding, and part of the scope of that work would be moving Lookout Park,” Ryan said. “It’s worth waiting for, as opposed to us putting the money into Phase One. They are saying there is a really good chance, and we want to wait for it.”
Ryan admitted he was essentially “gambling” on Fish and Game coming through with the money. “We are taking their word for it, and if it didn’t happen, it would be because something unforeseen happened,” he said.
Because movement of the park was left out of the Phase One bid documents, resident Debra Schnabel rescinded the $1,000 she had donated to the effort.
One of the harbor expansion’s spin-off projects – a waterfront trail connecting the Port Chilkoot Dock to the Small Boat Harbor area – has hit a snag. Upon developing a draft request for proposals for the trail, the borough “ran into some pushback” from the Cruise Lines International Association on whether the borough could use cruise ship head tax revenue to develop the trail, Ryan said.
Tourism director Leslie Ross said she reached out to CLIA because it recently sued the municipalities of Juneau and Skagway for misuse of head tax funds.
“It’s not required to get approval from CLIA to move forward with it. It’s something that I’ve reached out to ask for advice on,” Ross said.
Critics of the controversial expansion project remain committed to effecting changes in the design, though the loose coalition of residents who are unhappy with the current project is running out of options.
Resident Evelyna Vignola was looking into whether she could get an initiative on the October ballot to repeal the assembly’s 4-2 vote from April that approved the 95 percent design.
“We’re not going to do that, at least partly because of timing with the October election,” Vignola said. “The government system still offers initiative, referendum, special elections (and) maybe more as routes for citizens. The next assembly meetings may include harbor topics from other angles. My sense is that other likely stones to turn will be coming up.”
Vignola said while seeking an injunction against the borough has come up during discussions of how to proceed, that avenue isn’t being pursued right now.