Ten new projects have been proposed, including two suggestions by city council members Doug Stark and Matt Shadle. Stark submitted a plan for a 1,600-square-foot addition at $560,000 to the new Homer Public Library and Shadle has proposed a $2 million Mariner Park Fishing Hole.
A first public hearing on the CIP is at the regular city council meeting on Monday. After public testimony, the council will adopt resolutions ranking and supporting a short list of projects; that decision is planned for Oct. 23.
“The really important projects are the ones that wind up in those resolutions,” said City Manager Walt Wrede.
The city uses the CIP when it applies for state or grant funding. If a project is on a city’s top-10 list, it gets more attention.
“One of the first things (legislators) ask you is ‘Where is this on the city’s CIP list?’” Wrede said.
With 60 projects, the council has its work cut out for it. Many projects build or improve new roads, like paving Freight Dock Road or improving downtown intersections. Others are for new buildings, like a new police station or city hall. The council is also asked to weigh in on area road improvements, such as Williamsport-Pile Bay Road rehabilitation near Iliamna or Sterling Highway reconstruction at Cooper Landing.
Stark’s proposal for a library addition comes out of an idea he floated last year to put the Kachemak Bay Campus library in the new Homer Public Library. Rather than take away space by adding more books than planned, he proposes adding a room.
“It meets every objection that was brought up the first time,” Stark said. “It’s just an outgrowth of the proposal in January.”
That 1,600-square-foot addition was designed for future library expansion, said Brian Meissner of ECI/Hyer, the new library’s architect. When the Library Advisory Board’s building committee first looked at the new library plan, it proposed a 19,000-square-foot plan with a 50-person meeting room. That plan was scaled down to the current space of 17,000-square-feet with 15,000-square-feet of usable space.
Meissner’s design made it possible to easily add a new room near a reading area on the Heath Street side. The new library won’t need an addition for at least 10 years, Meissner said.
“They have room to breathe with this new facility,” he said.
Kachemak Bay Campus director Carol Swartz said Stark dropped off his plan, but the college hasn’t reviewed it. Swartz said her understanding with the city is that after the new Homer Public Library has been open for five years, the city would be open to reevaluating the idea of a shared library. That process would require a cost-benefit analysis.
“All groups thought that the whole thing had been tabled until after the library was in the new beautiful place for a few years,” Swartz said. “It was a surprise.”
The college is putting its energy into acquiring Homer City Hall and expanding there — one of the projects on the CIP list. The $2.5 million purchase and remodel was backed by the city council in a June 2006 resolution. A concurrent CIP proposal would build a new city hall as a civic anchor in the Town Square, at a proposed cost of $10 million.
Swartz said if the college expands into city hall, it will build a bigger library there — in the Cowles Council Chambers.
A complete list of proposed Capital Improvement Program projects is available at the clerk’s office.
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