The Fairbanks North Star Borough has applied for an $8.5 million U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) grant that could help fund the animal shelter’s replacement, according to Borough Mayor Grier Hopkins.
He spoke at an Animal Control Commission meeting on Monday, and Hopkins said his office is also working on related intergovernmental support agreements (IGSAs) with officials at Fort Wainwright and Eielson Air Force Base.
“Because there’s some need on those bases for additional animal control authority and a place to put those animals and help assist with what would be considered the readiness of the bases – the families that need to deploy, the families that need to get transferred,” he said.
As of 2023, 170 IGSAs have been established across the country for a wide variety of public services, including animal control, according to the Association of Defense Communities.
Hopkins said that the agreements with the bases could intersect with some elements of a new animal shelter, and the borough’s grant application to the DOD drew letters of support from leadership at Fort Wainwright and Eielson.
USAG Alaska Garrison Commander Col. Jason Cole wrote that military families account for about 10% of adoptions at the current facility and 8% of the surrenders.
“A new, expanded facility will significantly increase capacity to accommodate these seasonal fluctuations and ensure a smooth transition for Service Members and their beloved pets,” he said in the support letter from Fort Wainwright.
With a price tag of $33 million, the animal shelter replacement is among the most expensive of the borough’s capital projects that has programmed funding.
In recent years, borough staff has repeatedly said that the existing, 50-year-old shelter is on its last leg. But the replacement project saw an uptick in community pushback early last year after construction cost estimates doubled. Since then, it’s often been a political touchpoint among elected officials and hopefuls for borough office.
If received, the federal grant could reduce the cost to the borough. It would come through a Department of Defense program that’s aimed at addressing “deficiencies in community infrastructure that can/does support a military installation’s readiness and lethality.”
Hopkins says he’s hoping to hear back about the borough’s application by September 18.
“As with any nationally competitive grant, we’re not holding our breath, but we feel that it was a decent application for it,” he said.
Current and past assemblies have set aside all $33 million in the borough’s Capital Improvement Program, with about half of that total previously appropriated and the other half slated in the “beyond years” of the project roadmap. But only a small portion of that money has been spent because the animal shelter replacement project is still in the design phase.
Hopkins told the commission Monday he expects the contractor to complete the design in mid-September, just before hearing back about the grant. He said that timeframe will give the community and assembly more information as they weigh whether it’s something they “want to move forward on.”