KUAC - Fairbanks

Most of Fairbanks North Star Borough’s 250 or so buildings are badly in need of maintenance.

Mayor Karl Kassel told a couple hundred area residents who showed up for two meetings Wednesday that many are so old that they just need to be torn down and replaced, which comes with a price tag of nearly $400 million to catch up on that backlog.

Because it’s unlikely the state will pay for much, if any, of that work the borough and their local elected leaders will have to solve the problem, the mayor said.

Kassel said the Fairbanks North Star Borough and all other Alaska municipalities have for decades relied on the state to pay for building and maintaining local roads, schools, libraries and just about all other public structures.

“That’s been our business model,” Kassel said. “And that’s what’s broken.”

The state’s been cutting that funding since the price of oil began to nosedive four years ago. So much so that Kassel said he expects little or no funding for either maintenance or capital projects in the years ahead.

Kassel told about 130 people who turned out for the first of two meetings Wednesday at the Pioneer Park Exhibition Hall that borough officials have tried to lessen the impact of the steady decrease in state funding by juggling funds and finding operational efficiencies, while lobbying lawmakers and the governor to restore at least some funding.

“We’ve just been sucking it up,” Kassel said. “How long can we do that? I’m telling you, we’re at the end of the road. OK?”

The mayor says the backlog of some $389 million in deferred maintenance and capital-project spending over the past 10 years, and the need to spend more than a billion dollars over the next 20 years to replace the borough’s aging structures – and the unlikelihood of state officials solving the problem anytime soon – all make it necessary for local officials, and the residents they serve, to take matters in their own hands.

“We’ve got to sort this out,” Kassel said, “We’ve got to sort it out soon, because we’re still digging a hole.”

Which brought Kassel to the inevitable question: how to pay for all that work?

The mayor says budget cuts are inevitable, but he also says borough officials must consider boosting revenues and look at other strategies, such as issuing more bonds to finance construction.

“We’ve got to look at revenues – fees, taxes. The bad words. We’ve got to look at that,” Kassel said. “We’ve got to look at bonding …  so we can bond things and stretch payments out.”

The latter alternative appealed to Jerry Rafson, who sat in on the noon meeting.

“I think the simplest way, in my mind, is to run out some bond issues,” Rafson said. “Preferably (for) individual facilities, and see what the voters vote for.”

Bob Hildebrant said he favors both cuts in services, such as closing one of the borough’s three pools, and revenue increases.

“I think maybe cutting some things and raising revenue, getting a balance in there, and see if we can work it out,” Hildebrant said.

Hildebrant said he opposes the borough tax cap, a voter-initiated limit on the amount of revenue the borough can collect and that must be reaffirmed by voters every two years.

He said he’ll vote against it in next year’s local election.

Linda File, who also attended the noon meeting, said she strongly believes the borough must boost revenues. File said voters should lift the borough’s tax cap, and she says she’d pay higher user fees and a sales tax, as well as a state income tax.

“I feel like it’s a citizen’s responsibility to contribute,” File said.

Kassel said he’ll convene more of the town hall-like meetings in the near future to talk with residents about other fiscal issues as he and his staff begin work on the coming fiscal year’s budget.

The National Park Service is considering fee increases at 17 parks, including Denali.

Higher entry fees would be in effect during peak season, or the busiest five months, starting May 1.

An park service news release announcing the proposal said additional money raised would be used to address aging infrastructure at the popular parks which also include Glacier, Yellowstone and Yosemite.

Denali National Park spokeswoman Katherine Belcher said under the proposal the Denali entry fee would jump threefold.

”The current fees here in Denali are $10 per person,” Belcher said. “Under the new proposal, that would go up to $30 per person.”

Denali season passes would jump from $40 to $75 under the proposal, but a nationwide annual park’s pass would remain $80.

Kids are not charged fees, and there are special passes available for seniors and veterans.

At Denali, where visitation tops 500,000 people annually, the fee increase could bring in an additional several million dollars a year, money Belcher said would help pay for deferred maintenance.

“At last check, our maintenance backlog was between $51 and $53 million,” Belcher said.

Belcher said 80 percent of fees are retained by individual parks, with the remainder going into a national pool for distribution to parks across the country.

Under the proposal, permit fees for tour operators would also be adjusted up at the 17 parks. The National Park Service is taking public comment on the fee increases through Nov. 23.

Fairbanks North Star Borough Mayor Karl Kassel said the buildup associated with two squadrons of F-35 warplanes that’ll be coming to Eielson Air Force Base in a couple of years will offset decreases in population and state funding that are both being driven by Alaska’s recession-wracked economy.

In better times, Kassel might be crowing about an expansion of the Fairbanks area’s economy that would be driven by half a billion dollars in construction and 5,000 new people who are expected to be drawn here by the F-35s. Instead, the mayor said he’s just glad that the economic benefits will basically just enable the area to hold its own.

“So, it’s huge for all of us in the borough,” Kassel said, “and it’s helping save our bacon so to speak with the changing economy and what’s going on in the state.”

What’s going on statewide is a continuation of the economic slowdown that’s been under way for more than three years now caused by plummeting oil prices and a corresponding free-fall of state revenues that come from the industry. According to the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Alaska’s unemployment rate in August stood at 6.3 percent. In the borough, it was 5.5 percent. Statewide job growth, wage growth, GDP growth and home prices were all down by more than two percentage points in August from the 10-year average.

So Kassel said the near-term prospect of slow or no growth of the borough’s economy doesn’t sound too bad.

“We’re going to see our economy stay comparatively flat,” Kassel said. “While the rest of the state is going to be taking a pretty good hit.”

Kassel took a few minutes away from schmoozing during Tuesday’s F-35 celebration of sorts at Eielson to explain studies that suggest most of the 5,000 people coming to the area with the warplanes also will likely offset a decrease in the Fairbanks-area population that’s largely due to cuts in funding for state agencies and the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

“We have also been quantifying the exodus from Fairbanks as a result of cuts at the university (and) state cuts,” Kassel said. “There’s been a number of those that are resulting in people leaving Fairbanks now.”

Kassel said most of the new residents probably will find homes on the city’s east side, closer to Eielson, while much of the population loss likely will occur on the west side, around the university.

Eielson Air Force Base opened its doors Tuesday to local, state and federal officials to give them a chance to see an F-35 fighter up close and to learn about its capabilities. The Air Force sent the warplane there for a few weeks for testing in anticipation of the arrival of two squadrons beginning in 2020.

The road to Eielson was coated with ice Tuesday, but the Air Force officer in charge of testing the F-35’s ability to operate on icy runways said he can’t use the natural stuff that comes from precipitation.

Lt. Col. Tucker Hamilton commands the 461st Flight Test Squadron out of Edwards Air Force Base in California. And he said the controlled testing the F-35A Lightning II is undergoing at Eielson requires consistent ice thickness, in order to get valid test data.

“We have to clear the ice, then we have to put some ice down, so it’s consistent and we control the test.” Hamilton said. “So today, it’s literally just starting with steering. At five knots, how does it turn? Is it skipping at all? And then we’re going to his the ice and slam on the brakes at different ground speeds.”

Hamilton said the Air Force has been testing F-35s for years, and he says the icy-runway tests are among the last that the state-of-the-art warplane will undergo before two squadrons begin to arrive at Eielson in 2020. He said most of the cold-weather testing at temperatures as low as 50 below took place in a climate-controlled facility at Eglin Air Force Base – in subtropical Florida.

“Does the engine start? How was the maintenance on the jet? Are people’s hands too cold? Are there things freezing, with the helmet? Y’know, we did all that testing in the lab itself,” Hamilton said.

Lt. Gen. Ken Wilsbach, who heads up the Air Force’s Alaskan Command, said all that testing has proven the F-35 is well-suited for operations out of Eielson. He said the location is ideal, because it’s next door to vast expanses of airspace above the 65,000-square-mile Joint Pacific Alaska Range Complex. And he said in real-world situations, the 54 F-35s that will be stationed at Eielson will be able to take advantage of Alaska’s key global position to get to most any potential trouble spot between here and the equator within 12 hours.

“So that’s why we say Alaska is a really important, strategic location,” Wilsbach said. “Because of the technology that we have, with air-refueling, we can be in a lot of places really quick.”

The general said that’s why Tuesday’s event held inside a cavernous hangar included a KC-135 air tanker like those used by the Alaska Air National Guard’s 168th Air Refueling Wing that’s based at Eielson. And parked next to the F-35 was another stealthy advanced fighter, an F-22 Raptor out of Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson. Wilsbach said the F-22’s air-to-air combat capabilities combined with the F-35’s advanced sensors and air-to-ground armaments will deliver a potent punch against adversaries.

“And so when you put them together, which is typically how we would plan to go into a fight, it’s a pretty awesome capability,” Wilsbach said. “And there’s no threat currently in the world that would probably be able to handle these two, because of their synergies when they’re put together.”

Congressman Don Young said that capability shows the value of bringing the F-35s to Eielson.

“This aircraft will put us within nine hours of Korea, if there’s a conflict that occurs; 12 hours between us and the Middle East,” Young said. “It is the most advanced aircraft, but we have the right location for it to be stationed.”

Young called Tuesday’s event a “celebration” of the buildup at Eielson, which includes 18 construction projects worth more than half a billion dollars that are being built around to support the F-35s.

The Fairbanks City Council on Monday approved an ordinance that’s intended to help provide drinking water for property owners in an area on the city’s south side who’ve lost the use of their wells because of groundwater contamination.

Mayor Jim Matherly said it’s only the first step toward addressing the mounting costs of the contamination problem.

The council voted 5-1 to approve an amended ordinance that would provide a $2,500 stipend for two years to help pay water bills for property owners along 30th Avenue near the Regional Fire Training Center, who until recently had used their wells for drinking water.

Councilwoman Valerie Therrien said she voted no because she didn’t believe the ordinance would do enough to compensate those residents fairly for the loss of their drinking water supply.

She said, “$2500 just isn’t enough to me.”

Therrien proposed paying the water bills for property owners who were most affected by the contamination for five years.

The other council members rejected that motion over a concern it would cost the city too much, but agreed to her amendment to set the stipend at $2,500 – not up to $2,500.

Councilman Jerry Cleworth said the city had to draw a line somewhere.

“All I can say is it’s a compromise,” Cleworth said, “It probably won’t make very many people happy.”

The ordinance authorizes appropriating $100,000 for the stipends.

Councilman David Pruhs, who along with June Rogers co-sponsored the ordinance, said the city in part modeled the stipend after the system North Pole set up earlier this year to help its residents deal with groundwater contamination caused by a chemical substance that leaked from an oil refinery in that city.

“Their stipend was $2,000 over a two-year period,” Pruhs said. “We took their stipend and increased it.”

City Engineer Jackson Fox told Pruhs that since the Fairbanks officials learned about the contamination last year, the city has paid more than $3 million to survey the problem and clean up around the training facility. That amount also covered the cost of connecting 20 properties with the area water system operated by Golden Heart Utilities, and for providing drinking water to those and another 20 properties in the area that have yet to be hooked up.

“We could be looking at connecting another 25 or so homes next summer,” Fox said.

Fox told the council that each hookup will cost the city $35,000.

Pruhs used that figure to estimate the total amount the city will have pay in the coming year to mitigate the problem.

“We’re looking at basically 65 to 70 homes, not including a water stipend at $35,000, added on to the $3 million that we’ve already spent,” Pruhs said. “We’re looking at (a total of) $5.5 million.”

Cleworth said that equates to about a $1.5 million increase in the city’s property tax, that’s why the council must move quickly to limit payouts and other costs and to recover compensation from the manufacturer of the firefighting foam and other parties.

“We need to get something done by next May,” Cleworth said. “Or else the residents are going to be hit with a mill-and-a-half of property tax increase.”

Therrien asked City Attorney Paul Ewers whether he’s been notified of any legal claims filed against the city over the contamination issue.

“We don’t have any lawsuits that were filed,” Ewers said. “We’ve had basically claims inquiries, and (we’re) just starting those discussions.”

Matherly told council member the city must talk with officials from other agencies that have used the training center about their possible liability.

He said he talked about that with Gov. Bill Walker last week while he was in town.

A Fort Wainwright soldier is charged with assaulting his infant son.

Ronald L. McGriff, 22, was arrested Wednesday and charged with first-degree assault for severely injuring his 8-month-old son in August, Fairbanks police said.

Police said McGriff admitted to kicking, shaking and throwing the baby, actions that resulted in severe brain bleeding and other injuries.

They say the child remains hospitalized in Seattle, and is expected to have permanent damage.

Police ask that anyone with information about the assault to contact them.