The Petersburg Borough is planning to repair a breakwater that protects a popular boat launch south of town. That’s after the borough assembly voted unanimously on October 7 to accept nearly one million dollars of grant funding.
People in Petersburg use the Banana Point boat launch for recreation. It’s also important for ferrying things like cars and building materials between island communities – and students traveling to towns south of Petersburg for competitions and other activities.
The state of Alaska built the breakwater at Banana Point decades ago, but no longer maintains it. Now many of the anchor chains that keep steel booms of the breakwater in place have detached. Some of the booms have floated away altogether.
Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht said that affects the people who use the Banana Point boat launch.
“Makes it harder to launch and retrieve there, the way that’s facing, you get some nice wind in the wintertime,” he said. “And if that breakwater doesn’t cut the waves down a little bit, it can be messy for the boats, trying to land there.”
The $900 thousand dollar grant for the repair comes from the Denali Commission, a federal agency that provides infrastructure, utilities, and economic support to rural Alaska. The grant requires a 10% match from the borough, which will likely come from the borough’s Property Development Fund. The money for the fund is generated by the sale of borough land. It’s separate from the general fund, meaning it won’t affect the borough budget.
Giesbrecht said the borough needs to check permits and engineering estimates, but expects to put the project out to bid in the new year.
There is also $2 million for Banana Point projects awarded through a federal earmark. It’s part of a federal appropriations bill that the legislature will vote on in the next few months. Giesbrecht said that money could be used for a variety of projects at Banana Point, including replacing the bathrooms, grading the road to the boat launch, and looking into the possibility of dredging so the launch could be used during very low tides. The borough might also look into building a boarding float so that passengers could walk to shore without wading through the water. Giesbrecht stressed that it’s impossible to know how far the money would go until evaluations are done.
Funds for various repairs at the state-owned boat launch were in this year’s capital budget, which was passed by the Alaska State Legislature. However, Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed the appropriation.
