Fairbanks borough declines federal grant to paint historic sternwheeler, citing concerns over strings attached
FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTUU) - The S.S. Nenana may not see a new paint job this summer after the Fairbanks North Star Borough opted to decline a $500,000 appropriation from the federal government for that purpose, citing provisions binding the borough to future maintenance.
And the group Friends of S.S. Nenana Inc. is asking the community to speak out against this refusal.
The 237-foot-long sternwheeler, currently located at Pioneer Park in Fairbanks, operated along the Tanana and Yukon Rivers from 1933 until 1954, and was declared a National Historic Landmark 35 years later, in 1989.
“It is now the last remaining wooden hull sternwheeler in the nation. You cannot find another one,” said Patricia Schmidt, President of Friends of S.S. Nenana.
According to Schmidt, the group secured the $500,000 appropriation through the Save America’s Treasures Grant under the National Park Service.
The sternwheeler, she said, badly needs new paint.
“Unfortunately, the last time it was painted, they used latex paint instead of oil-based paint, and if you’ve seen the boat, that’s why it all the paint is peeling off the boat and there is raw wood exposed to the elements ... it’s going to rot, and it’s causing destruction, and this is this will prevent it,” Schmidt explained.
Borough Mayor Grier Hopkins said the group secured these funds on their own without partnering with the borough, and that the specific funding system involved attaches strings to the money.
“Between 15 and 25 years, we would be required to maintain that boat up to the standards that it would be under this grant. That comes down to the very specific ways, the type of paint that you have, the color of the paint that you can use,” he said. “Every single time you use a consultant, it has to be approved by the Department of the Interior.”
Hopkins said he wants to give the borough the flexibility to maintain the sternwheeler in the best way possible.
“By accepting that grant, we have concerns we could be violating Alaska’s constitution, by locking in future legislatures for funding and maintaining that boat, not allowing them to make decisions they see as needed in the future,” he added.
Schmidt, however, said this explanation is not good enough, because by refusing the funds, the administration will “condemn these future assembly members to having to come up with the funds to repair the damage that’s going to happen by not accepting these funds to paint the boat.”
She argued that because the borough owns the S.S. Nenana, future assemblies will be responsible for maintaining the boat anyway, saying the borough’s past neglect has caused the damage currently seen to the historic sternwheeler.
Hopkins, on the other hand, said the borough has continued to fund the renovation and preservation of the S.S. Nenana over the years, working with Friends of S.S. Nenana to secure funding opportunities and sometimes using borough funds through the Capital Improvement Program.
According to Schmidt, since the mayor indicated his intention to decline the money, Friends of S.S. Nenana has reached out to the borough assembly to garner support for accepting this appropriation, adding that the deadline for the paperwork to be completed is the end of May.
This summer, Hopkins expects work on the boat to be completed this summer and for the boat to reopen for tourists later in the season.
This work includes rehabilitation to the front of the boat, funded by $500,000 out of the borough’s Capital Improvement Program, and work on the stern and its wheel, funded by money raised by Friends of the S.S. Nenana.
However, he expects there will be no end date to the renovation and preservation of the S.S. Nenana.
“It is an old boat that is on the ground and consistently deteriorating, no matter how much work you put into it, so it will be an ongoing cost well into the future,” he said.
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