Deal between tribes and City will expand utilities in Nome

The City of Nome is collaborating with the Village of Solomon and the King Island Native Community to expand water and sewer hookups on the eastern end of town. The utilities will serve several new houses that the tribes are planning to build along 6th Ave.

“We’re really hopeful that this leads to more partnerships, whether it be with our tribes or other entities within the community, to develop more sustainable and more affordable housing,” said Heather Payenna, King Island Native Community tribal chief. “We’ve known we need more housing and hopefully this is just a catalyst.”

Kirsten Timbers, president of the Village of Solomon, also expressed excitement that the tribes were “in a position to provide safe, secure, state-of-the-art, affordable housing for tribal members.” Her tribe will build single-family homes on four lots, and King Island will build on five adjacent lots.

“I hope that we can chip away at the housing crisis that we’re experiencing, especially among people that are lower income and working but in overcrowded or unsafe homes,” Timbers said. “We hope that we’re just getting started.”

The effort to extend water and sewer services to the areas known as block 113 and block 114 was on a list of Nome Joint Utility Service projects in need of funding, said Ken Morton, NJUS assistant manager. That list was submitted to Sen. Lisa Murkowski last year. “Of all of the projects that were submitted, this is the one that found favor back east, and it was designated as a $1.6 million grant that requires a $400,000, or 20 percent, match,” Morton said. That grant is administered through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s State and Tribal Assistance Grants program.

Last summer the tribes split the cost of procuring the topographic survey and geotechnical information that was needed for the expansion.

Now they’ve formally agreed to contribute the 20 percent match, and the project is in the design phase. Timbers, Payenna and Nome Mayor John Handeland signed an agreement last month that lays out the terms of this agreement.

“It’s pretty exciting how the project is unfolding,” Morton said.

Deilah Johnson, environmental coordinator of the Village of Solomon, said that rising costs due to inflation have increased the estimated cost of the utility expansion project from about $2.1 million to about $3.5 million. She said the tribes are looking to other funding sources to help fill in those gaps. Johnson said they received $500,000 from the Denali Commission and they will submit a proposal for a capital grant from the Rasmuson Foundation. She also noted that an Indian Health Service program to address sanitation deficiencies could help fund the direct service lines to the homes from the main utility line.

“We are anticipating one way or another the utility expansion will be completed hopefully by August this year,” she said. “We really hope that we can get the prefab homes out there by wintertime this year, but we may be looking at spring 2024.”

King Island recently built three duplexes in Nome. With two separate units in each, the duplexes were meant to serve younger couples or single individuals who wanted to move into their own housing but couldn’t find anything available at an affordable price, Payenna said. The houses on 6th Ave., meanwhile, are meant to serve families, keeping in mind that many households are multi-generational and may require larger spaces for additional adults.

Johnson noted the significance of a project being undertaken by two tribes that have been displaced from their villages and forced to reside in the hub community of Nome.

“And as tribal members residing in the city of Nome, Bering Straits Regional Housing Authority does have housing opportunities, but we’re competing with the rest of the tribal members located in Nome and the surrounding villages that have their own housing needs,” Johnson said. “So I think both tribes were really under-resourced as far as housing opportunities. They wanted to take it into their own hands and make sure that their communities were served.”

For now, funding has only been secured for the expansion along 6th Ave. However, the project is being designed for a whole loop that would go up to Greg Kruschek Ave. and back to N Street, potentially serving another dozen or so underdeveloped lots.

“We’ve been advocating for the whole loop, which will not just serve the two housing developments of King Island and Solomon, but it’s going to benefit the entire area over there,” Johnson said. “We’re really excited that this partnership and the collaboration has been supportive of the whole east area and the future development of that area.”