Docks and Harbors is $3 million short of what it needs to complete a City and Borough of Juneau project to remodel the Mike Pusich Douglas Harbor.
Docks and Harbors has around $5.5 million of the $8.8 million needed to complete the project. Port Director Carl Uchytil announced the shortfall at the Docks and Harbors Finance Committee Meeting on Tuesday.
“The bad news is we need to close that gap somehow,” Uchytil said.
Uchytil said the city could pick from several options to assure the project’s completion — options which include a stop to work while the city petitions the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to complete the project. The city could also dredge the harbor and finish what construction can be done with existing funds, then build out as more money becomes available. Docks and Harbors also has a $2 million Tier One Municipal Harbor Grant on its books. Uchytil said the city could return the grant to the state and apply for a larger grant up to $5 million. This could introduce some risk and would require matching funds.
The project began in 2007, but soon came to a standstill due to the need for an environmental permit, Uchytil said. The U.S. Corps of Engineers expects to have the Environmental Assessment completed in the next couple weeks for dredging 45,000 cubic yards of material from the entrance to the harbor and depositing it in Gastineau Channel. The spoils contain methyl mercury and will need to be capped with six inches of clean material. Dredging is expected to cost around $2 million, and the cap to cost up to $600,000.
The cap material could come from the freight shippers Northland Services or from the Juneau International Airport. Cap material from the airport is expected to cost more than that from Northland Service.
Northland must deposit the material somewhere, Uchytil said. The cost would be from moving it to the Douglas Harbor site.
“It is a good thing for [Northland] as well,” Uchytil said. The sticking point is how to do it contractually, he said.
The remodel project would include 54 vessel stalls and 32 skiff stalls, along with 700 feet of transient moorage. The project is now in the 95 percent design stage.
• Contact reporter Russell Stigall at 523-2276 or at russell.stigall@juneauempire.com.
Comments (13)
Add commentJust do what you've been
Just do what you've been doing for years, raise the stall rates to fund your spending and drive out the locals.
defund
Defund the new library that will only see very limited use and use that money for improvements on a city facility that sees many users. I went by the library in the mendenhall mall the other day and the only people in there were using the computers. Seems all you really need is a school computer lab, not a multi-million dollar facility. I would be real curious to see how many books are actually checked out every year at the mendenhall library
Leaching
I dont get it. YOu dig up hazardous methyl mercury silt from the harbor. Dump in in the channel, then dump non hazardous material on top of it and that will seal it up? WHy not haul the hazardous material away?
But anyway, I agree with the above poster. Defund the library. Its not needed in this time and age.
Valley Library
I also often walk by the library in the Mendenhall Mall and only see people on computers, and reading the newspaper. I still can't believe with the budget shortfall the city has that they can justify spending 14 million dollars on a Library. Why don't we pay off some debt with that money, and build a new library when we have extra money??
I have about had it with CBJs
I have about had it with CBJs spending millions on Docks and Harbor projects.
Douglas Library
The Mendenhall library is a happining place in contrast tot he Douglas library. That place is empty all of the time. CBJ should move the offices they rent in Marine View to the Douglas library and move the library to Gastineau school that is set up to handle it. CBJ opens up affordable housing in Marine View, doesn't have to pay rent, and we get easier access to the engineering department and better parking for obtaining permits and such.
It's funny how the libarary
It's funny how the library keeps popping up in unrelated articles, lol!
Docks and Harbors is an enterprise fund, just like Eaglecrest, but unlike Eaglecrest, they don't get yearly handouts from the Assembly to stay afloat.
Money from cruise ships has to be used on cruise ship stuff. Money from the harbors has to be used for the harbors.
I say move the money over to fix Aurora.
We need to keep the public
We need to keep the public libraries open so the local homeless--like Calypso--have a place to hang out during the day.
FYI Salmon guy: "Docks and
FYI Salmon guy:
"Docks and Harbors is financed through a combination of user fees, lease fees, fisheries business taxes, state and federal grants, and local special sale taxes for specific projects. The annual operating budget of the Docks and Harbors enterprises is about $5 million per year. The annual capital improvement budget is about $10 million per year".
http://www.juneau.org/harbors/
Douglas Harbor ???
How long have they known they were short of funds.
why does the state finance these harbors? Why not just local funds or users?
They are just parking lots for boats. Does the government pay for parking lots for freight haulers, barges, trucks?
Library
is now just a fancy word for 'free internet cafe'.
@al97ct
Great link, thanks for sharing, but for the record, nothing I said was incorrect, you just expanded on it.
The only money D&H collects from non-vessel owners is for the special projects voted on to use sales tax money, a percentage of the fish tax money that comes from local fish processing businesses (this is a state tax), a few federal grants and lease money from land it manages. Money CANNOT come from D&H and be sent to the library or vice versa.
Correct Me
Correct me if I'm wrong..but I thought ALL the money to finish Douglas Harbor was in place..the project just got put on hold while they were deciding what to do with the dredged material,if this IS the case WTH happened to the $?