KMXT 100.1 FM Public Radio in Kodiak, Alaska
At last night’s regular meeting, the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly decided to wait until all members were present to vote on a deputy presiding officer.
And as KMXT’s Maggie Wall reports, assembly members approved four contracts, including a sole source contract to do repairs that could have a big impact on future fisheries research.
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A rusty pipe in the sprinkler system in the Fisheries Research Center on Near Island is getting an emergency fix following last night’s approval of a sole-source contract approved by the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly.
The contract with Taylor Fire Protection Services is for repairs not to exceed $53,000.
That was one of four contracts approved at the regular assembly meeting.
Borough Engineering and Facilities Director Dave Conrad said he is not in favor of sole-source contracts but feared the outcome if the sprinkler pipe in the seawater tower were to break while awaiting going through the normal bidding process.
“If there’s any Kind of seismic movement, any type of water hammer in a system or anything this pipe is going to go. This is on the top level of a four level. Water. This is where our water filters for the filtered sea water is on the top. This is where this is. So these pipes are exposed continuously 24 hours a day to saltwater environment at the top of the building.”
Assembly member Rebecca Skinner asked Conrad to explain why he felt the contract need to be approved now and not later.
Skinner: “Since you presented this as an emergency request, can you just bullet point a few of the reasons why this rises to the level of emergency and this is mainly for the listening public and also so I have a frame of reference for these kinds of things.”
Conrad: “Absolutely. So if this sprinkler pipe were to burst, what it would do is you have the threat of all the equipment on the lower floors being damaged by water impact. You are also going to flow your sprinkler system and until you can somehow do an emergency repair to stop that and close this off. And shut down the system. We would either have to go with shutting the facility down, or there would have to be a 24-hour fire watch until that system was brought back into service.
“I won’t even venture to guess what the cost would be to replace boilers to replace you know, the various filters. In addition, with this contaminated, I’m gonna call it contaminated freshwater because of all the rust and debris that would most likely come out that will get into the saltwater, which will directly affect could potentially directly affect all the experiments that NOAA is doing at any time.”
Plus, added Conrad, there is another big benefit to doing the repairs right now.
“I will say the other reason that it’s attractive to bring this before you is the experimentation level of NOAA at this time, and the facility is down at this point in the season. So consequently, if we tried to do this in the summer, where they’ve got tanks full of crab, then we have a greater risk there. So it risks the operation of the building damage to equip. And potentially damage to some of the Noah ongoing experiments.”
Conrad said that Tayler Fire Protection has agreed to do the work based on time and materials only.
Other contracts approved last night include a replacement fuel tank for the bailer facility, the renewal of a lobbying contract, and a structural analysis of the old wing of the hospital.
Greer Tank Inc. of Anchorage was awarded the fuel tank contract not to exceed $52,000. The tank is scheduled to arrive by the end of January.
The Assembly renewed the state lobbying contract with Hickey & Associates for $45,000. This is the firm that represents the borough when it deals with State of Alaska issues, and the Alaska Legislature.
The final contract is for a structural analysis and project list for the older portion of the Providence Kodiak Island Medical Center. As explained, the information provided in this $42,000 contract will help in determining whether or not to fix or replace the old section of the hospital at some point in the future.
For KMXT News, I’m Maggie Wall.
