Thanksgiving Musings

ITN has much to be thankful for, and as another successful season winds down, we feel the love coming in from the community as well.  Thanks in large part to the support of our membership, we have measurably improved the health and well-being of the people of Kodiak by providing them with a low-impact way to experience the outdoors.  We have also improved the environmental health of the island by providing bridges at important salmon stream crossings, reduced the erosive impact of a 350-mile trail system on Kodiak's fragile soils, and removed over 40 tons of marine debris from our otherwise pristine shores.

We continue to mature as an organization by developing technical expertise among our staff and volunteers and by building capacity for trail construction and coastal stewardship. Our full-time staff has grown to three and as we enter our seventh year, I feel we are no longer a young organization, but rather are just beginning to hit our stride. As it happens, the rapid growth we have experienced since our inception has, for the first time, leveled off. As I draft the the 2013 operations plan, I am forecasting a slight to moderate decrease in our project budget.  We may not always be able to do more, but we will strive to always do better.

The work we are doing is perhaps more important than ever.  The impacts of the 2011 Tohoku tsunami are just starting to be felt here.  In sharp contrast to the terrible devastation that hit the east coast during Hurricane Sandy, the total impact of this event may take decades to fully comprehend.  The tsunami wreckage is spread across tens of thousands of miles of uninhabited shores, and even the most conservative estimates of the debris expected to make landfall in Alaska are in the tens of thousands of tons.  The impact of all these synthetic materials  into the food web is still unknown, but the body of science is growing.  We do know that we need to respond to this environmental crisis, and hope to boost our efforts in marine debris removal while maintaining the other services we provide to this community.

Bike Path in Jeopardy

After two work sessions this the city has balked at entering an agreement  with Alaska Department of Transportation (DOT) to design and construct the first phase of a multi-use path from downtown to Bell’s Flats. 

The project would connect Pier 2 to Deadman's curve, with subsequent phases extending to Bell's Flats. Such a path would make travel safer for pedestrians and cyclists, reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and the associated air, water, and noise pollution that goes with it, provide a measurable boost to our economy and provide exercise and recreational opportunities for an overweight population. The route is used for transportation by an  increasing number of non-motorized commuters, and for recreation by local events including the city-sponsored Crab Festival races.

Originally estimated at $3.1M, a 50% contingency fund  placed on Phase I of the project brings the estimated cost of the project to $4.65M. Before the contingency requirements were added the city had obtained the required 10% matching funds through a legislative grant. With the new, higher price tag  the city finds itself $81k short of their match requirement. Through a private donation and reallocating other trail funds we have been able to donate $25k to the shortfall. The Borough Assembly has the option of kicking in another $25k from cruise ship head tax funds, leaving the city with an out-of-pocket expense of only $31k. This sum is less than 1% of the total funds raised to date, a token gesture to a hard-won  public project.

Though the price seems excessive to some, the majority of expense in Phase I is centered around engineering difficulties involved with the short segment of road at the foot of the rock slide between Pier 2 and Pier 3. Subsequent phases of the path would likely not need the same level of engineering. In fact the recent passage of the Transportation Bond, which contains a project to renovate Pier III, may resolve some of these engineering issues and drive the cost down to something closer to the $3.1M original estimate.

But the fact that we don't know the total cost is part of the problem, as is the sinking feeling among council members that once they enter this agreement, they are writing a blank check. It is apparent that communication is poor between the city and DOT, and so far the questions have not been as probing and the answers not as definitive as we need them to be. DOT needs to reassure the city that the project can  be kept within budget or be re-scoped to do so before requiring full commitment of all these public resources. If we find out we can't afford the path, or the cost is simply beyond the limits of taste and decency, we don't build it. That's just good business.   

Maintenance has also been an ongoing concern of the project. Seeing this coming, we obtained a resolution from  the borough assembly to authorizing the borough to assume maintenance of all  future phases of bike path in perpetuity. So far this hasn't done much good because it conflicts with some boilerplate language of the contract, and  the three entities aren't communicating well enough to figure out if the borough can legally assume maintenance or whether snow removal is required.

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking on this contract and DOT may take steps to re-program the funds if an agreement cannot be reached within the next few weeks. If the council does not act quickly, there are 14 lower-ranking pedestrian projects in Juneau, Fairbanks, Talkeetna, Kotzebue, Cooper Landing, Naknek and Sitka which will gladly snatch them  up.   

For Kodiak, there may never be a better time to build the path-- the cost of building a healthier infrastructure is only outpaced by the rising costs of fuel and the cost of caring for a sedentary society. 

If the Kodiak multi-use path is viewed as boon to public health, what kind of return on our investment? Consider it in the context of the cost in dollars of an unhealthy country; last year our taxpayers footed the bill for a $500,000 increase in medical insurance premiums for city employees, and collectively we paid millions if not tens of millions out-of-pocket more for our own health insurance as well. To put it another way, the $56k funding gap is less than the medical costs of one heart attack in Kodiak.  Perhaps that should be the benchmark--one life saved.