Kaktovik residents press North Slope Borough on cracked homes

Residents of Kaktovik and Nuiqsut told the North Slope Borough Assembly on Tuesday that homes are cracking and sitting unlevel. A separate Utqiaġvik resident asked the borough to refund her February water bill.

A Kaktovik resident read the borough's home rule charter preamble and its 1974 signing certificate into the record, then presented photographs from the village. The mayor addressed him as Fenton and thanked him for his service as a founding Charter Commission member. The photographs showed cracked walls, doors that will not shut, and sinkholes melted by utilidor heat. He also described sewage backing up through a bathtub he said remains unrepaired.

He asked the assembly to create a Kaktovik industrial storage district. Title 19 of the borough code provides a Barrow Industrial Storage District with no equivalent for the other communities, he said.

"I would like to see the Assembly start a Kaktovik Industrial Storage District to be able to fill in the village sinkholes, placement of fills," he said.

The mayor listed several follow-ups. He said he would look into the intent behind the Utqiaġvik industrial storage district and how it applies in the title. He said he would verify with the borough's capital projects staff that water and sewer dig-ups are being backfilled to the engineered standard, and follow up with Public Works on culverts and supplies. He said the housing director would contact homeowners about which repair program fits. Damage tied to borough operations would go through the risk department's claims process, he said.

Sheldon Brower, the Kaktovik fire chief, spoke as a homeowner. He said a borough window-and-door replacement effort had not reached Kaktovik, and that his house needs at least four new windows and a new door before freeze-up. He said the water and sewer box at his house has leaked for years despite his calls to the water plant. He repeated a request for reflectors along the road to the airport to help crews moving patients to medevac flights during storms.

The mayor said he had directed Public Works to find the appropriate reflectors when the issue first came up, about a year ago, and would hold the responsible appointee accountable for not following up. He said the leaking box falls under the borough's above-ground and below-ground water and sewer contractor, and that staff would follow up if they can get the house number. On windows, he said a needs assessment was done and orders have been processed and received across the slope, something on the order of 1,000 windows region-wide, with a minimum of three installed per approved qualified household.

Nuiqsut residents said home leveling there has remained unresolved for years. The mayor said the borough scoped the work last year and was then awarded a $1 million grant under the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska impact program for home leveling. The Alaska State Legislature adopted the funding and the governor signed it in the new fiscal year, with the money available through the Department of Commerce. The housing department will begin the work now that the funding is available, he said.