$400,000 Baranof Ice Rink Repairs OK’d by Council

Brianna Gibbs/KMXT
On August 1st a vandal set fire to the Baranof Park ice rink, damaging a significant portion of the structure and rendering it unusable. While the arsonist has yet to be caught, the Kodiak City Council took the first step in rehabilitating the rink during its regular meeting last night. City Manager Aimée Kniaziowski urged the council to approve a resolution awarding a construction contract to begin making necessary repairs.

— (Ice Rink Cost 1 :47 “This resolution does two things as the resolution title that you just read identifies. It appropriates the funding for the ice rink fire repairs and it authorizes the manager to award a contract to Jay Brant as the general contractor to coordinate and oversee these repairs that are necessary in the amount of $400,000. Now $25,000 of that total $400,000 will be appropriated from the city’s insurance fund. From the fund balance of that fund. That’s our deductible. And the remaining $385,000 is actually passed through, that’s money we will receive through our insurance company and be able to pay out to the contractor.”)

Councilman Charlie Davidson said he is still at a loss with this act of vandalism and encouraged community members to stay active in the hunt for the culprits.

— (Ice Rink Cost 2 :34 “I just want to reiterate the disappointment of course the whole community feels toward this, its going to cost a considerable sum of money and to encourage the citizens to remain vigilant in our parks so that if this were possibly going to happen again we would catch those culprits that are guilty of that. I don’t know how successful we have been so far, but we have a really wonderful facility and when this kind of thing happens this last month or so you see all the kids that could have been playing underneath that covered arena but now we had to have them out playing in the rain.”)

The council passed the resolution and construction is expected to begin soon, so as not to interfere with the coming hockey season.
In other business, the council approved its share of the joint resolution with the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly to support an overall approach to fishery issues and trawl management to be presented at the North Pacific Fishery Management Council meeting in October. During a joint work session in early September the city council and borough assembly agreed to have both mayors present the joint resolutions. The borough assembly approved its resolutions during last week’s regular meeting.
Toward the end of last night’s meeting, Kniaziowski shared what she felt was exciting news about an upcoming project in Kodiak.

— (Ice Rink Cost 3 : 37 “The big news is that the Army Corps of Engineers awarded dredging contracts on September 19 for over $3 million to dredge the entrances to both Saint Paul and Saint Herman harbors. And those of you who have been following this or advocating this has been on the books since at least 2003. It was really wonderful to get the word that they were going to award it, that construction would begin in the spring and I would like to officially mention that Brad Gillman was absolutely essential in working this through.”)

She said this has been a long time coming and she is very pleased that it has finally happened. The next city council regular meeting will be October 11.

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