Loring board weighs dock grant options with $60,625 on hand and an $8.5 million cheapest fix

The Loring Service Area Board meets Friday, Oct. 9, to weigh dock grant options and spending authority. Its year-end fund balance of $60,625 is well short of the cheapest stabilization concept engineers have priced: $8.5 million for a breakwater float.

The meeting is at 5:30 pm at the White Cliff Building, 1900 First Ave., Suite 224, with citizen comments on the agenda.

At the July 23 meeting, PND Engineers presented three concepts based on eight years of Guard Island wave data. They ranged from the $8.5 million breakwater float, which would cut wave height by 7%, to a $63.5 million extended rubble mound breakwater, a wall of piled rock, which the minutes say reduces "the wavelength to 80%." Float replacement alone was estimated at $2.3 million.

The minutes record no clear direction and no motion. Rich Stage, as the minutes name the speaker, favored replacing floats and hinges and routine maintenance. Mariah Cogswell favored pursuing Tier II state harbor grants, a lower-priority tier.

The state harbor grant requires a 50-50 match, caps awards at $5 million a year and closed in August. The Denali Commission's window, up to $1 million per community, closed Aug. 28. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game's boating access program has no deadline, requires a 25% nonfederal match and excludes subsistence or commercial fishing uses.

The fiscal 2027 budget allocates $10,000 for dock maintenance.