FNSB

About 60 projects are on a long list of maintenance and repair needs the Fairbanks North Star Borough wants to address in the next ten years. A new comprehensive Capital Improvement Program, or KIP, is still shaping up. Last night the Borough Assembly finished the third phase, in a meeting continued from last week.

More than 50 people signed up to comment on the borough’s Capital Improvement Plan in a public hearing last Thursday, Jan. 16. The Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly listened to more than three hours of public testimony to prioritize how maintenance and repair money should be spent, in a process that still has a long way to go. A lot of comments asked to preserve the sternwheeler in the Borough’s historical Pioneer Park.

Borough maintenance on the Sternwheeler Nenana, Mary Siah Recreation Center and schools across the Fairbanks North Star Borough is shaping a long-term spending plan that will come before the borough assembly this week. An estimated $200-$300 million worth of repairs are backlogged among borough and school district properties. A new process, called the Capital Improvement Plan, or CIP, has closed-out a first phase where citizens and borough staff nominated projects for the plan. The next phase belongs to the Assembly.

Overhauling the way maintenance and repairs are done on taxpayer- funded buildings has been a goal of Fairbanks North Star Borough Mayor Bryce Ward. An estimated $200-$300 million worth of repairs are backlogged among borough and school district properties. A new procedure to come up with a 10-year capital improvement plan, or CIP, requires a lot more public input.

Comments about the $5.6 billion sale of BP’s assets to Hilcorp will squeak in before today’s 5 p.m. deadline. The Regulatory Commission of Alaska has already heard from hundreds of Alaskans and will also hear from the Fairbanks North Star Borough. Last night the Assembly authorized a resolution for the administration to comment about the BP-Hilcorp sale. 

The Centennial Civic Center at Pioneer Park was shut down last Friday after the building was thought to be dangerous. Events scheduled for last weekend were hastily moved and more will be rescheduled through November, December and January. The biggest impact is on the Fairbanks Arts Association, which is suddenly without office, storage or gallery space, and has to move many artworks while repairs are worked over the next three to four months.

One way to clean up winter air is to get Interior Alaska residents to stop using old, polluting woodstoves. The Environmental Protection Agency just granted five million dollars to the state’s Air Quality office to enhance a woodstove-buy-back program. They are passing some of it on to the Fairbanks North Star Borough, which has been running a change-out program for 10 years. 

Voters returned two incumbents to the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly and put two new members on the body. Two new school board members were also elected. About 12,000 people voted in the borough and school district election. KUAC reached candidates who were watching results at the Operators’ Local 302 hall and at the Borough Assembly Chambers.

EPA scientists say the death rate in the Fairbanks North Star Borough has fallen because citizens are working to clean the air. That was announced among other progress at an Air Quality presentation in North Pole this week. A community meeting featured panelists from the EPA, the state and the borough, who took questions from the audience.