Ketchikan's Loring Service Area Board weighs dock grants with $60,625 on hand

The Ketchikan Gateway Borough's Loring Service Area Board is scheduled to discuss dock grant options at 5:30 pm Wednesday, Nov. 18, at the White Cliff Building, for float and breakwater work engineers have priced at $2.3 million to $63.5 million. The agenda lists the item for discussion only.

The service area ended fiscal 2026 with $60,624.55, down from $64,866, after taking in about $4,000 and spending about $8,250, mostly on dock maintenance and insurance, according to the board packet.

The cost figures come from PND Engineers, whose work the borough funded through a Denali Commission design grant that paid for a dock condition assessment, a marine survey and modeling of wind and wave conditions. According to that borough manager's report, residents shared historical observations and discussed design options with the engineers during the site assessment.

At the board's July 23 meeting, Brandon Ivanowicz of PND presented three breakwater concepts built on eight years of wind and wave data from Guard Island: a breakwater float at $8.5 million that would reduce wave height by 7%, a short rubble mound breakwater at $10.5 million (17% to 19%) and an extended rubble mound breakwater at $63.5 million (80%). He priced float replacement alone at $2.3 million. Asked about anchor chains, he said 15 to 20 years is a reasonable life. The same options were on the agenda for the board's Oct. 9 meeting.

The July minutes record no motion and "no clear direction." Rich Stage favored replacing floats and hinges and continuing maintenance, while board member Mariah Cogswell supported pursuing a Tier II state grant, the program's second-priority category. There was also discussion of hiring a local builder to replace the floats.

The packet lays out three grant programs. The state's harbor matching grant program pays half of a project's cost, up to $5 million a year; its fiscal 2028 cycle closed Aug. 19. Under those 50/50 terms, the float replacement alone would require roughly $1.15 million locally.

The Denali Commission's transportation program accepts requests of up to $1 million per community per application. It considers projects with federal funding that requires a local match, or projects that have secured funding but face a gap of up to 30% of total cost. Its round closed Aug. 28, and the commission expects to make awards in spring 2027.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game's Boating and Angler Access Program covers up to 75% of a project's cost, with a 25% local match and no deadline. It applies only on public land where recreational boaters are the primary users, and it excludes projects that benefit commercial, subsistence or personal-use fishing.