Vetoes Affect Kodiak Schools

Mary Donaldson/KMXT
Late last week Governor Palin vetoed 268-million dollars in capital funds for Fiscal Year 2009 across the state. Kodiak’s Schools Seismic Mitigation Project was one of the items vetoed. Mary Donaldson has more. Kodiak lost over 4-million dollars in funding after Governor Palin took a red pen and vetoed funding for Kodiak Schools seismic project Friday. The project was a part of the Kodiak Island Borough School District’s 6-year capital improvement plan.

The project is to help school buildings in the district to withstand the earthquakes that have 1 percent chance of occurring every year, which is known as a 475 year event. The project would bring Kodiak school buildings up to national standards where they have a 90 percent chance of surviving with minimal damage. Peterson Elementary, two portions of the middle school and the high school library have a greater than 85 percent chance of sustaining either extensive damage or complete collapse.

Kodiak Island Borough Mayor Jerome Selby says he isn’t sure why this project would be vetoed.

(Selby 1 :35s “…it’s pretty disappointing.”)

Peggy Tuttle, the school board clerk, says this isn’t the first time funding for this project has been cut.

(Tuttle 1 :37s “…safe in our schools, period.”)

Palin said that all of the items that were vetoed or cut in the capital budget were because “other funding options were available” in her budget press release.

Selby says otherwise.

(Selby 2 :09s “…the whole idea.”)

Tuttle says this whole process lacks forward momentum.

(Tuttle 2 :17s “…can’t keep waiting for this.”)

Selby says that his staff will have to meet and discuss future options for the project.

(Selby 3 :15s “…work around this.”)

The request for funding addressed several vulnerabilities that were identified district wide in a Seismic Vulnerability Assessment completed by G&E Engineering Systems in February of 2006.

I’m Mary Donaldson.

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