Port presents Strategic Development plan draft

Consultants to the Port of Nome presented a draft Strategic Development Plan for onshore development of port infrastructure last week to the Nome public and took community comment on it.
Last week’s meeting was a continuation of input sought from the Nome public earlier this year.
The plan, as presented, would add restrooms, additional small boat access and moorage, and tourism-related facilities to the harbor.
The City of Nome and Port of Nome contracted with Corvus Design, a landscape architecture firm from Anchorage and Juneau, and PND engineers, who specialize in waterfront and coastal engineering in the Arctic. After last week’s meeting, the team will work on alternatives based on community input, and then present a final draft to the community in Nome.
Joy Baker, Project Manager for the Port of Nome, clarified that the plan was “in conjunction with and as an added bonus to the Port Expansion,” but it was a separate project. She briefly spoke to the delayed port expansion, calling the perception that it was canceled “misinformation.”
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers canceled its solicitation process for the first phase of port construction on October 16, when the Corps issued an amendment to the bidding solicitation that stated that the pricing received exceeded “statutory cost limitations” and that costs surpass the available funding for the project.
“We are simply recalibrating right now,” said Baker. “When that recalibration is done, the project will go back out to bid.”  
Bryan Hudson of PND explained that the current strategic plan came out of a series of public meetings earlier this year. “I see some familiar faces in here and a lot of new faces as well,” he said.
He said that there were a few things that were heavily requested during the last public meetings: Better laundry and restroom facilities, more moorage and access for small boats, more areas to launch boats and better tourism facilities.
The plan presented last week shows seven highlighted sections: A cruise ship connection hub, a boat ramp with seasonal floats, a park with personal watercraft access, improvements to the Harbor Master facility area, a tourist hub, another park and another boat ramp and a mariner’s memorial.
Hudson said that it was highly requested to have a boat launch out of the Belmont Point area.
“Our understanding is that this area becomes available earlier in the season. That allows people to get access to fishing, recreation and subsistence,” said Hudson.
Hudson said that with the port expansion project, people wanted additional tourism amenities and facilities.
“One thing we looked at was having a hub for getting people off,” said Hudson. This might be somewhere that gave the visitors access to Front Street or Bering Street. “Just get them out of the port area. That’s going to be kind of an industrial area.”  
There will be a beautification project, which will improve sidewalks and provide “interpretive signing” that show tourists interesting places to visit and the history of the region. The tourist hub will allow tourists to find coverage while they wait for buses.
“Some of these might not happen, since they’re still conceptual. There’ll be a wide range of costs, but it’ll just get you in the ballpark for planning,” said Hudson. “The Port Commission and the port workers can figure out which direction they want to go and what they have funds for, and what funding they need to go out for.”
Most of the plan will be funded by the city, but parts of it will be funded using federal and state money.
An attendee pointed out that there was flooding near the Belmont Point area. She asked how the engineers were thinking of protecting that infrastructure.
“In order to put something permanent that we knew would have a 30-to-50-year design life, we would have to put something in there to protect the shoreline,” said Hudson. He said while there wasn’t much design or sizing yet, there would likely be some armor rock there.
Baker said that the Port would be looking for grant funds to dredge the additional moorage area.
There was also some concern about congestion near the small boat harbor storage facility. Hudson and Peter Briggs of Corvus said they would make note of that.
The plan put the tourist hub west of the Mini Convention Center, right where the Iditarod Trail Committee sets up the dog yard for sled dogs that have finished the Iditarod race. In an email to the Nugget, Baker confirmed that she was aware of the conflict. She confirmed that the team had “had multiple discussions on ways to compromise or rearrange the potential plan” to address the conflict.
“Considering these are all speculative and conceptual, we will continue to evaluate options to mitigate any conflict,” Baker wrote. “We do know the importance of the site use by the ITC [Iditarod Trail Committee] and will work to determine a solution that doesn’t impact their use, or we will reach out to discuss a compromise.”