Rep. Mary Peltola, D-Alaska, has submitted fiscal year 2025 community project funding requests for Alaska’s at-large district, seeking nearly $60.2 million in diverse projects, including $7.2 million to remove toxic coastal plastic debris and community waste plastics in the Gulf of Alaska.
Other major projects range from a multi-purpose emergency shelter building in Kotzebue to asbestos abatement in Whittier.
The largest of the funding requests filed on Friday, May 10, was $12 million for an emergency shelter for Kotzebue and neighboring communities in the event of natural disasters that require evacuation, plus a command center.
Peltola requested $9.8 million for a districtwide heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) controls replacement project for the Northwest arctic Borough School District, to replace malfunctioning automatic building controls in eight of 12 schools in the Northwest Arctic Borough School District. Current HVAC systems are manually operated due to control failures, resulting in inconsistent temperatures, inadequate ventilation and increased energy costs, she said.
A total of $7.2 million is on the list for the Gulf of Alaska for removing and sustainably converting ocean plastics and community waste plastics to concrete aggregate. The project aims to provide protection for critical subsistence resources and relieve Alaska landfill facilities while producing a product needed in the Alaska construction industry.
The list includes $5.7 million to construct a marine haul-out facility at the Gary Paxton Industrial Park in Sitka. Peltola said the project is needed to continue to allow for local vessel haul-out options that have been historically provided in Sitka, to reduce safety risks, costs and emissions for vessels have to travel to other backlogged regional shipyards and to retain and grow local marine service sector jobs.
Other projects include: $5 million for the Port Mackenzie port infrastructure development program; $5 million for an in-season genetic analysis of chum salmon bycatch at Unalaska; $3.7 million for a 20-acre land expansion for future leases by companies performing marine work at the Seward Marine Industrial Center Waterfront; and $3.3 million for new statewide housing for the Department of Public Safety in new and established remote posts for troopers and Village Public Safety Officers (VPSOs).
Other projects include over $2 million for Minto teacher housing duplex renovation and an addition for the Yukon Koyukuk School District; $1.59 million for renovating a portion of the Egan Library at the Cyril George Indigenous Knowledge Center in Juneau to bring together materials about Alaska Native culture, technology, literature and art; $1.75 million for a Bering Straits workforce development and training facility at Nome; and $1.54 million for critical float replacement in the Homer Harbor.
The requests also include $565,400 to establish a network of Alaska seafood distribution hugs in western Alaska, including the purchase of mobile shipping containers where salmon can be frozen whole for distribution or custom-processed for regional markets; $550,000 for ventilation and plumbing updates at Begich Towers, which houses most Whittier residents; and $310,000 to purchase equipment to continuously monitor phytoplankton and detect harmful algal bloom species, which create toxins taken up into the marine food we, putting shellfish, fish, birds, marine mammals and humans at risk.
This story was originally published in the May 17 issue of The Cordova Times.
