Shoemaker renovations extended to boarding float, parking lot

Shoemaker Bay Harbor has been undergoing renovations since the summer of 2018.

First built in 1977, according to Harbor Master Greg Meissner in a previous interview with the Sentinel, it has grown well past its life expectancy. The work has seen the installation of a new gangway and floats. The harbor was also dredged to make it a little deeper. Meissner, in an interview in August 2018, said that the plan was to rebuild Shoemaker to make it more easily accessible to wider, deeper boats.

During a meeting of the Wrangell Port Commission on Oct. 9, Meissner said that work on Shoemaker was all but complete, save for a few minor jobs and some ongoing discussions about changes to the project's ICAP fees.

However, during a borough assembly meeting on Oct. 22, a change order to the contract was approved, adding a few new scopes to the Shoemaker project. The borough assembly approved a budget amendment of $318,264.26.

"Also included within the Change Order, for authorization by the Assembly, is $540,500 worth of additional construction work," the Capital Facilities Department Report from the meeting reads. "This work includes improvements to a portion of the parking lot's main entrance and main driving and parking throughway, as well as the replacement of the existing boarding float, adjacent to the launch ramp."

The Capital Facilities department report also stated that an increase in the ICAP rate, from one percent when renovations began to 10 percent, was going to be applied to the entire amount of the project. This fee, costing about $430,000, will be paid from a $5 million grant set aside for Wrangell. The report also states that the ICAP fees are not expected to impact the Harbor Department's reserve funds and there will be some grant funding remaining.

Capital Facilities Director Amber Al-Haddad said that work on the parking lot is expected to begin within the next two weeks. The boarding float, meanwhile, will not be coming to Wrangell until next spring. Work on its replacement will hopefully begin sometime around March, she said.