The Haines Borough Assembly Tuesday finalized a plan for spending most of the $4 million the borough is scheduled to receive from the federal CARES Act, including a program granting $1,000 per adult and $500 per child to lower income households.
Unlike the previously approved household grant program, which was open to any household negatively impacted by the pandemic, the proposed individual grant program is designed to target lower income individuals and families by limiting eligibility to dual income households anticipating a combined 2020 income of $80,000 or less, and individuals who anticipate earning $40,000 or less.
After considering options including rental assistance, gift cards and prepaid credit cards, assembly members settled on distributing the funds in the form of checks made out to grant recipients to allow for the greatest flexibility in spending.
With the program approved, borough staff will work to finalize an application, which the assembly’s CARES Act ad hoc committee is expected to approve at its Sept. 16 meeting.
At Tuesday’s meeting, the assembly also scaled back the plan to build a new morgue using CARES Act funds in favor of using funds for other infrastructure projects.
The original plan the assembly approved in June involved using $200,000 from the CARES Act to build a morgue next to the current public safety building. The borough’s current morgue, a refrigerated room in the public safety building, presents numerous problems including porous walls that make it difficult to clean biohazards like blood, carbon dioxide risks when the refrigeration unit is running, and very limited space for viewing and storing bodies.
Under the assembly’s new plan, the borough will use $100,000 to turn a refrigerated shipping container purchased this winter into a temporary, two-room morgue, which the borough will use until a new public safety building is built.
“The CARES Act committee is trying to respond to public input,” public facilities director Ed Coffland said in an interview with the CVN regarding the change in plans. In recent weeks, some members of the public have questioned whether a morgue is the best use of CARES Act funds.
At a CARES Act ad hoc committee meeting last week, Coffland said now that the borough is moving forward with plans for a new public safety building, it makes less sense to build a new, permanent morgue as a morgue will likely be included in the new building.
Coffland said he believes most of the money the borough spent on initial engineering design work for the permanent morgue can be repurposed for the more temporary structure.
Work on the temporary morgue will move pretty fast, Coffland said. Once the shipping container is moved into town and hooked up to utilities, the borough can begin hiring for the carpentry work.
Interim borough manager Alekka Fullerton said another factor in the morgue decision was the recent breakdown of the wastewater treatment plant’s sewage filter press, a perennial problem for the borough.
The filter press system is at the end of its useful life and is increasingly difficult to keep running, Coffland said. Repairing the press each time it breaks requires exposing employees to sewage, putting them at risk of coming into contact with COVID-19, which has been shown to exist in sewage in communities with active cases.
The assembly approved $295,000 for the wastewater treatment plant upgrades.
At Tuesday’s meeting, the assembly also approved $70,000 for a new drinking water public fill station, another long-neglected capital project.
The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation has given the borough several extensions to replace the water fill station, located at the wastewater treatment plant, with one that meets department requirements, Fullerton said, but the borough has struggled to find a funding source for the project.
A water fill station falls under acceptable uses of the CARES Act as it gives people access to clean water, especially those who reside in dry cabins, Fullerton said.
As of Tuesday, the assembly has earmarked $3,777,500 of the $4,007,216 CARES Act funds. This leaves $229,716 free for future use.