Skagway was slated to be Alaska’s first recipient of grant funding under a Federal Emergency Management Agency program. But recent changes at the agency have put nearly $20 million in funding in question.
It’s a lot of money to lose for a community that hoped to use the funding to fix its unstable mountainside.
The title of the press release wasn’t encouraging: FEMA Ends Wasteful, Politicized Grant Program. That press release is how Skagway found out it likely won’t receive federal Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities funding to mitigate rockslides above its busiest cruise ship dock.
FEMA is cancelling all BRIC grants awarded from 2020 to 2023. Skagway was recently approved for phase one of its grant in 2022. Borough Manager Emily Deach said she was just about to send a project bid to the Assembly. Phase one, which is $1.3 million from the federal government, is for project planning. Phase two is the actual construction.
“It looks like we may still get phase one funding, because it’s already been awarded and obligated,” Deach said. “But it seems as though phase two for construction is not going to be funded. And we’re sort of, we’re sort of waiting on this to get more information.”
In 2023, Skagway spent a little over $3 million installing safety mechanisms on its mountainside. Last year, it cost just over $1 million to mitigate the site. Deach estimates that this year, the municipality will spend $2 million.
The BRIC grant was meant to help the borough find a long-term solution.
What happens if phase two funding doesn’t come through?
“I don’t think there’s a need to panic at this point,” Deach said. “I think the project will be done. I think, if anything, maybe it will delay it a little bit because we’ll have to accumulate funding, or look at other options.”
Deach said that Skagway collects $13 per passenger on its two municipal docks and $8 per passenger on the privately owned Railroad Dock. That money goes into the vessel impact fee fund.
“We could potentially spend maybe a few years accumulating funding that would go towards this project,” Deach said.
But she acknowledged that losing the federal funding isn’t best case scenario, with all of the other capital improvement projects Skagway currently faces.