Assembly Members Want Answers on High School Project Management

Jay Barrett/KMXT

The Kodiak Island Borough Assembly breezed through its meeting last night in a little more than a half-hour. The light agenda didn’t generate much conversation, but during the last 10 minutes under assembly member comments, things picked up steam.

Assemblyman Mel Stephens started the ball rolling by reiterating his feeling from a previous meeting that the Kodiak High School renovation and expansion project has gone adrift.

The assembly will meet in a work session next Thursday, where the project manager issue for the high school work appears likely to come up again.

Meanwhile, some good news for the high school project, if it survives Governor Parnell’s line item veto pen, the legislature put $7-million in the state capital budget to help pay for the vocational and physical education facilities.

— (Assembly 1 27 sec "It’s been 13 months since the contract … and move forward.")

Assemblywoman Louise Stutes asked that the borough manager be called upon at the next assembly work session to explain the progress of getting a manager for the school project. Assemblywoman Carol Austerman said a manager unaffiliated with any of the principals on the project could give assembly members without construction experience some insight:

— (Assembly 2 49 sec "I don’t necessarily believe … but others of us don’t.")

Assemblyman Tuck Bonney gave a more impassioned statement on the high school project, saying the administration is ignoring the assembly:

— (Assembly 3 33 sec "I know Louise, Assemblywoman … back on this community.")

He said that a lack of a project manager might lead to significant cost overruns:

— (Assembly 4 37 sec "I feel strong enough about that … manager do what we direct.")

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