Nome Port Commission discusses port expansion project

The Nome Port Commission met Thursday, Jan. 21 in City Council chambers for their first meeting since Congress approved funding for the Arctic Deep Draft Port project in December. That was a big step on the road to making the port expansion project a reality. Port Director Joy Baker pointed out it’s the first project on the Corps of Engineers’ list.
“We just found out that the Corps has their money and the City match money is sitting in a grant waiting for the Corps to get their funds,” said Baker. “So we are definitely moving into design. There’s no longer a question about that.”  Two years is planned for the design. “We’re hopeful that they can shave four or five months off that two-year period which would enable a 2023 construction season.”
The project’s estimated cost is $505 million, of which the Corps will pay around $379 million and the City of Nome is responsible for the remaining $126 million.
The next big hurdle is getting the funds for construction appropriated by Congress. “During the two-year design phase that will be the effort being pursued by the congressional delegation as well as the city and our government representatives, our lobbyists,” said Baker. “We’ll be doing our lobbying online, federal and state. Now that we have an authorized project and the feds have their federal design money we can move forward.” But until construction funds have been allocated there’s no certainty that there will be construction. A lot of projects undertaken by the Army Corps of Engineers have been authorized and never built.
“Congress has to authorize the federal side of the construction funds,” said Baker. “A number of conversations are being had about the overall scope and purpose of the port.” What is the national purpose, what is the state purpose? “There are a lot of conversations going on that we’re not even privy to because they’re not made public. Army Corps, DoD, things like that.”
“Now that the project is authorized and the design funds are out and we’re moving forward, the city can start fine tuning this plan,” said Baker. Up until now it has been only a rough, preliminary idea. “Things are just starting to move so we have to get our feet wet.” said Baker.
Commissioner Gay Sheffield raised the question of which direction development of the port was going to go. And who would the new port serve?
“For those greenies in the room like myself no port means no ability to enforce regulations, no ability to do emergency services, and all that,” said Commissioner Charlie Lean. “So, the Port of Nome is the country’s Arctic port. It’s not just Nome’s port, or Alaska’s port, it’s everybody’s port. Certainly Nome will have use of it. Realistically, we can’t afford the $120 million or whatever it is. But bringing in partners, whether industry or military or whatever, that’s the way this port will get built. When you have a cooperative project you have to share the use of things. So, do you think that way is better than having China in charge of our port? Or a big mining company?”
Commissioner Scot Henderson asked how the change of administration might affect the future of the port. He observed that the Alaska congressional delegation is not with the majority now. Joy Baker answered that plans were being made on how to deal with that change in the political alignment.
“In fairness, there is bi-partisan support about doing something for a port,” said City Manager Glenn Steckman. “I’ve tried to get people to refer to it as the Arctic port at Nome or in Nome, however you want to put it, so that we can emphasize the regional and national aspects of this port. So, it’s not just whose side won. There is bi-partisan support on that. It’s like the building of these heavy icebreakers. We’re way behind.”
“It’s time to start outlining and defining what our plan is,” said Port Director Baker. “And we’re going to be doing that. You guys will be in the loop just as soon as we have something we should share.”
“We’re still crawling along. We haven’t got momentum yet to get up and start walking,” said Commissioner Jim West Jr.
The commission next turned to the DOT road improvement for the Thornbush Pad. The new map has incorporated suggestions from the commission and was seen as a step forward.
The project to replace the launch ramp at the port next grabbed everybody’s attention. “Looks like they’ve bit off more than we anticipated,” said Jim West Jr. “The bids came in more than we anticipated.”
“By about a million dollars Mr. Chair,” said Baker. “Our funding level is about a million short of the lowest bid. And the lowest bid was for construction only.” So, it’s a million plus the costs of engineering and of inspection. “What we’ve done is come up with a different plan but one we’re confident will work. The issue is going to the EDA for more money to elevate the city’s cost share to some degree. “In 2019 we committed $123,000 of city money as a cost share,” explained Baker. “We also have a $300,000 NSEDC grant that we keep extending while we work out the kinks of this project. They’ve been very gracious about that. Now it’s looking like we need to elevate that $123,000 cost share to probably to the $250-270,000 range to replace this ramp.”
Jim West Jr. said he’d talked to one of the contractors who said the design was over engineered. “Naturally, engineers design things way overboard,” he said. “We need something but do we need all of what was presented?” Joy Baker answered that the plan was to ask for the increase in funding before the bids go out again. “The plan is to put the package back out on the street in a modified fashion and get the same parties that bid rebidding on it and maybe some additional parties. Because the dewatering barrier is no longer a component.”
The commission passed a motion to encourage the Nome Common Council to raise the match for the project to $250,000 so that the commission can apply for a larger grant so as to afford the project, as the ramp is critical to the port’s revenue stream.
Also at the meeting Isaac Thompson spoke to the commission about getting permission to place a 30-by-60-foot steel building on city property next to the building where he currently works, which is adjacent to the port’s boat parking area. He wants to open a machine shop in the building. He has a business license as Arctic Works LLC. “As far as I know there is no other machine shop,” said Thompson.
“This is exactly what we’ve been talking about at these meetings where a local business is stepping forward seeing a demand and hopefully the city can work with him to provide those opportunities,” said Jim West Jr. “If we can make it work, I’d like to see it happen.”
Commissioners raised a number of questions about parking, how long a lease he might need, and other potential issues. As it was presented in the citizens’ comments part of the meeting there was no action taken.