Juneau Assembly to take up $582,000 grant for Mendenhall riverbank repair

$582,000 grant to repair Mendenhall riverbank and protect flood-damaged homes heads to Juneau Assembly

Repairs to 1,300 linear feet of Mendenhall River bank, meant to protect homes from further flood loss, would move forward under a $582,000 grant subaward the Juneau Assembly is scheduled to introduce Monday, Aug. 17. City Manager Katie Koester's agenda memo recommends the ordinance be introduced that night and set for public hearing at the Assembly's next regular meeting, so the money is not yet approved. The grant flows through the Tlingit Haida Regional Housing Authority, which received a $600,000 Housing and Urban Development Indian Community Development Imminent Threat grant, with Juneau acting as subrecipient. The August 2024 glacial outburst flood affected 173 tribally owned residential structures and 470 families, according to the memo.

Two other flood-related items appear on the same Aug. 17 agenda but at different stages. An ordinance appropriating $427,990 in FEMA reimbursement, including $406,000 for Antler Way embankment armoring and $21,990 in staff overtime incurred during the disaster, is also up for introduction, not final approval. A separate ordinance appropriating $526,602 for View Drive stormwater repairs, Rivercourt Way embankment armoring, debris removal and an Emily Way pipe disconnect sinkhole repair is further along: it is scheduled for public hearing and recommended for adoption Aug. 17. That measure also deappropriates $302,781 in Restricted Budget Reserve funds already spent in fiscal 2025. More FEMA applications remain under review.

The largest single figure on the agenda is a debt reserve. The city would move $3,563,596 into the Debt Service Fund toward the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation loan that financed installation, reinforcement and rehabilitation of the HESCO barriers. That loan carried an original principal of $25,845,000 and provides 50% principal forgiveness upon entry into repayment, leaving Juneau with a maximum principal obligation of $12,922,500, excluding interest. A separate $500,000 reserve would fund rebuilding driveways, fences and other riverbank features the city removed, once the barriers eventually come out.