The Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly passed a resolution Wednesday asking Mayor Grier Hopkins to accept a federal grant meant for repainting the historic river boat on display in Pioneer Park.
The special assembly meeting came after a group called the Friends of SS Nenana, which sought and secured the federal money, announced in early May that the borough administration was refusing the half million dollars.
Assembly debate on the resolution surfaced both caution and conviction as members weighed the repercussions of looping in the federal government as a partner in maintaining the borough-owned sternwheeler.
As KUAC reported earlier this month, Hopkins had opted to reject the funds, which are from the Save America’s Treasures grant program, because the award came with a 15-year maintenance requirement attached. The mayor feared that would lock the borough into unforeseen obligations that could prove expensive or hamstring later projects on the boat.
Other unknowns were layered on top of that fear Wednesday as mixed messages circulated about the deadline for accepting the money and the details for fulfilling grant match requirements.
For those who voted no on the resolution, like Assemblymember Scott Crass, the confusion and unanswered questions were enough for caution to prevail.
“Attempting to rush this through, where it’s an all or nothing, where it may cost us another half million dollars of money that we haven’t appropriated … we need clarity before we can make a wise decision. Otherwise, like I said, it’s just ‘ready, shoot, aim,’” Crass said.
Assembly members who favored the resolution pointed out that it was only a request for the administration to work toward a goal and didn’t mandate any action from the borough mayor.
The resolution’s cosponsors also emphasized the cultural value of preserving the SS Nenana, which is a National Historic Landmark and one of only three steam-powered sternwheelers remaining in the United States.
Assemblymember Barbara Haney, one of the cosponsors, along with Brett Rotermund and Tammie Wilson, says the opportunity to use a half-million dollars in federal funds to preserve the boat overshadows the various uncertainties that were raised Wednesday.
She used a pop culture reference to communicate that position.
“The [SS] Nenana is sitting here like Nemo, stuck in Sydney, [Australia,] in this fish tank. And the Friends of the [SS] Nenana are like Dory. They just keep swimming, keep going. And we are like … Nemo’s father. We’ve got every other reason why something can’t be done,” Haney said. “And I think we need to start thinking about how do you do things, not why we can’t.”
If Hopkins doesn’t accept the federal funds on behalf of the Friends of SS Nenana, the assembly’s resolution posits a separate request. In that case, it asks the administration to instead try to lease or sell the boat to a different community organization.
That option would likely require subdividing land in Pioneer Park so that the boat and land it sits on could be leased or sold together, the administration said Wednesday.
Friends of SS Nenana Vice President JoAnn White says her group might be able to take over the historic landmark, but that there would be a lot to hammer out before reaching a final agreement.
“It’s something that we’d like to look at, but I think that’s a whole ‘nother meeting to see what the borough would require or what the conditions would be because it wouldn’t just be handing it over to us,” White said.
The resolution requests that Hopkins either accept the federal funds or reach an agreement to offload the boat by June 30. Assemblymembers Wilson, Rotermund, Haney, David Guttenberg and Mindy O’Neall voted yes; Assemblymembers Kristan Kelly, Liz Reeves-Ramos and Crass voted no; and Assemblymember Nick LaJiness was absent.