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The Kenai Peninsula Borough has begun its annual wish-list exercise, compiling projects that will need the support of state funding.

Mayor Dave Carey's administration presented the first draft of its 2009 state funding priorities to the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly's last meeting. The document could still be revised before a planned vote on an adopting resolution Tuesday.

Once adopted, the final list will be presented to the Legislature. The draft currently lists the borough's capital and legislative priorities, school district maintenance projects, road projects and special projects, as well as the capital project priorities of the service areas, unincorporated communities and cities.

How much of the tens of millions requested is likely to make it into the state's FY 2010 budget either from the state or via the federal government is hard to assess given the national financial crunch.

"Oil prices in July were at their highest, now they're low," Carey said Wednesday. "We will ask for what is needed. Even if it appears unrealistic (to expect funding), we should ask for what we need."

Carey said he believes projects such as river bank restoration and the Cooper Landing bypass are ones that warrant consideration in any federal infrastructure stimulus package.

"I anticipate funds for these types of things," he said.

Here is a look at some of the other projects for which the borough is seeking funding.

School district priorities call for state lawmakers to fully implement, rather than phase in, the area cost differential and intensive needs funding in the state's education foundation formula. That step is needed, say district officials, to eliminate inequities still present in the program that fail to recognize the higher costs of delivering education services in the urban-rural mix that is the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District.

Other district priorities include adequate funding to sustain current and promising new programs; addressing energy costs; funding early learning programs; additional workforce development courses; addressing health care costs; and an educational accountability system.

The district has also requested more than $22.6 million to cover a host of educational facility maintenance projects across the borough.

Service area projects include such things as:

* $75,000 for a new Anchor Point Fire and Emergency Service Area ambulance;

* $4.2 million needed by the Bear Creek Fire Service Area for a new community multi-use facility;

* $500,000 for a new fire engine for the Kasilof station in the Central Emergency Service Area;

* $400,000 to expand the Women's Imaging Service at Central Peninsula Hospital;

* $2.6 million for a Diamond Ridge fire station in the Kachemak Emergency Service Area;

* $158,812 for a storage facility in the Lowell Point Emergency Service Area;

* $1.125 million for construction of a second fire station in the Nikiski Fire Service Area;

* $4.2 million for a new Nikiski Senior Service Area senior multi-use facility;

* $650,000 to refurbish the Jason Peterson Memorial Ice Rink in the North Peninsula Recreation Service Area;

* $425,000 for bed load removal in the Salmon Creek and Japanese Creek watershed within the Seward/Bear Creek Flood Service Area; and

* $1.78 million for a new MRI machine and building to house it at South Peninsula Hospital.

The above list is not exhaustive, but representative of the kinds of projects needing state funding within the service areas.

Unincorporated community projects requesting funds include a new library building and sewer construction for Anchor Point, a health center for Cooper Landing, improvements to Willard Road in the Fritz Creek, Voznesenka and Kachemak Selo area, a new school building in Razdolna, design, construction and renovation of Funny River Community Center, street lights and an erosion study in Lowell Point, a new tanker/pumper truck and equipment for Moose Pass, a water system upgrade for Nikishka Bay Utilities, fairgrounds improvements in Ninilchik, and a health, safety and educational multi-use facility in Sterling.

Kenai Peninsula College is seeking $22 million to build a 100-bed student housing facility in anticipation of rapidly growing demand for skilled labor for large new construction projects across Alaska in the oil, gas and mining industries.

The agenda for the assembly's Tuesday meeting includes Resolution 2008-091, establishing the state capital projects priorities for 2009. Those winning legislative favor would go into the FY 2010 state budget. FY 2010 begins July 1, 2009 and runs through June 30, 2010.

Hal Spence can be reached at hspence@ptialaska.net.