Things could really get rolling Monday, January 4 on the Petersburg borough’s top capital project priority.
Local officials will be learning about plans for renovating Petersburg’s police station, jail and municipal building. The architect hired by the borough to design the project will be presenting the plans to the borough assembly during a work session starting at 10 a.m. Monday and also at the assembly’s first regular meeting of the new year at noon.
The assembly will be touring the municipal building during that 10 a.m. work session and the public is welcome to attend. During the noon meeting, borough staff will present plans for funding the nearly 10 million dollar remodel. The borough has over half that amount in state grant money. To make up the rest, staffers are proposing to sell some borough land, use some money from a 911 phone bill surcharge and fund the rest with the borough’s property development fund, general fund reserves and a loan from the electric utility. That funding plan will be up for a vote in the form of resolution Monday. There’s also a vote to authorize the borough to start the bid process for a construction firm to do the work.
In other business,the assembly will discuss a letter from the city of Kupreanof to the state of Alaska seeking to take over the state dock on Kupreanof. Petersburg officials recently met with the state about the possible transfer of that dock and two other state-owned docks in the new borough.
And there’s a report scheduled by the local marijuana regulation advisory committee. The assembly will be voting on a resolution asking the state to relax the 500 foot setback requirement for marijuana businesses. Under new state regulations, those businesses won’t be allowed within 500 feet of a school, youth center, church or jail, which would put most of downtown Petersburg off limits.
U.S. Forest Service deputy forest supervisor Jason Anderson will be updating the assembly on efforts at the Petersburg Ranger District.
There’s also a vote on the second reading along with the public hearing for an ordinance to rezone land at 205 South Third Street.
The regular meeting starts at noon Monday in borough assembly chambers and will be broadcast live on KFSK.
