New Boardwalks in Selawik – At Last

A summer four-wheeler ride down Selawik’s boardwalks would qualify as a breath-taking amusement park ride, if it weren’t so downright dangerous and threatening to the residents.  The three and one-half miles of decaying, dilapidated woodways had become such a problem over the last several years that it would have seemed that replacement of that system would top the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) priority list.

Well, while the cost of this boardwalk (boardroad) project was calculated at about 2.4 million dollars, only $460,000 had been confirmed on the on the 2004-2006 STIP.  Then, last December through the proposed STIP Amendment 8, the state administration pushed the project indefinitely beyond 2006, effectively dropping it from funding consideration.  Equally waylaid was the 1.7 million dollar landfill road project.  I am very proud to say that an all-out grass roots effort by Annabelle Alvite of our Borough office, the leadership of Selawik, the residents of Selawik, our State representative and senator, EPA, BIA and Alaska DOT representatives, engineering consultants, and others, resulted in a reversal of this decision.

Additionally, as a result of that public outcry, the full 2.4 million dollars for boardwalk construction has now been confirmed.  The landfill project funding was reconfirmed and increased to 1.8 million dollars.  Though construction for these projects is slated for 2006, we are hoping for advanced construction this summer 2005.

These are especially valuable projects to Selawik not only because of the critical health and safety needs within the community, but also because a host of other related projects worth hundreds of thousands of dollars were contingent upon these STIP projects being confirmed as matching funds.  Furthermore, these projects combined should provide job opportunities in the village for the next couple of building seasons and even beyond.

One of the challenges in obtaining state funding for village projects is coming up with the necessary matching funds.  One source of funds that villages do have is IRR transportation tribal shares, which are federally funded each year.  Recent communication from the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs has made it clear that these funds can be used as match money for state projects if the local IRA, which is the Selawik Traditional Council in this case, chooses to commit the funds in that way.  The Selawik allocation of these funds based on 2004 numbers would have been $104,631. 

We have also learned that different village IRA’s are now able to borrow or lend their annual shares of revenue for transportation projects to others.  For example, if a major road project in Kiana in a given year required $300,000 of local match, it would be possible for Noorvik, Selawik and Kiana to all commit their local shares to that individual project.  Joint funds might then support a project in Noorvik the following year.

Part of the match for the Selawik boardwalk project was the Community Block Grant award of $233,700.  That grant application was successfully prepared and pursued on behalf of Selawik by Annabelle, the Borough’s grantwriter, and Roger Clark, the Selawik City Administrator.

It is always gratifying to see needed improvements come to fruition and I would like to praise all those who contributed to this major team effort, especially all those in Selawik who applied themselves to documenting the need and support for this project.