Kawerak says CARES money nearly finished buildings in 5 Bering Strait villages

Kawerak Inc. said Monday that construction is nearly complete on new multipurpose buildings in Teller, Elim, Shaktoolik, Gambell and Shishmaref. The nonprofit says the buildings were paid for with $12 million in federal COVID-19 relief money from the CARES Act.

Most of the work happened during this summer's building season. Kawerak says the buildings give each village a central place to coordinate pandemic relief if it is needed again.

Each modular building has 1,000 square feet of space for three offices, a mechanical room, two bathrooms and a kitchen. The buildings are designed so they can be expanded, but Kawerak says that will take more funding.

Teller's building arrived in two halves over the Nome-Teller Highway. Crews hooked it up to power, heat, a 2,000-gallon fuel tank, a sewage treatment system and three insulated 2,500-gallon water tanks.

Gambell's building sits next to the Presbyterian Church, up the road from the school. It was nearly finished in early October and will hold offices for the Tribe, Kawerak says.

Cheri McConnell, senior vice president of Kawerak's Infrastructure Division, said the work required coordination among each village's city, Tribe and Native corporation, and planning for future expansion. She described the tight timeline as "a bit of a pressure cooker." Gambell Tribal Coordinator Cheryl Lowery spoke about how quickly the work moved and said she hopes future funding will let the building grow.

Kawerak says it developed the grant with state Rep. Neal Foster and state Sen. Donny Olson. Project partners included Bore Tide Construction, ECI / Hyer, Inc., Arcadis and Q Trucking, according to the release.

The release says the window to use the money is nearly closed, but it does not say which deadline it means. It also does not name the federal program or award that paid for the buildings.

The release describes the money as CARES grant funding. A Dec. 23, 2022 U.S. Treasury Department notice on the Coronavirus Relief Fund, a CARES program, says tribal government recipients had to incur costs by Dec. 31, 2022 and spend the money by March 31, 2023. In Gambell, the paperwork went through at the end of 2025 and construction took place this past summer, Kawerak says.

A search of USAspending.gov, the federal spending database, found no $12 million COVID-relief grant with Kawerak as the direct recipient. That search did not cover subawards, which is money a direct recipient passes on to another organization. The money may have come through the state or through another CARES program, but the records reviewed do not show either.

The release does not give the cost of each building or say who will own or maintain them.

Kawerak says each community will set its own opening celebration in the coming months.