The Kenai Peninsula Borough administration plans to ask the assembly for $60,000 to fix the boilers in the central borough administration building.
The boilers in the basement of the George A. Navarre Borough Administration Building in Soldotna, which houses the majority of the borough administration as well as the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District administration, are aged and inefficient. Borough Mayor Charlie Pierce’s administration has been working on a plan to replace the boilers and submitted an ordinance for introduction at the assembly’s Tuesday meeting to purchase new boilers.
When the boilers were new, they were designed to operate at about 75 percent efficiency, according to a memo jointly signed by borough Finance Director Brandi Harbaugh, Maintenance Director Scott Griebel and Purchasing and Contracting Director Valentina Sustaita. With age and wear, the boilers have become less efficient and on days colder than 10 degrees Fahrenheit can’t sustain demand without both running full blast.
“The two boilers that provide the only heating source to the building are approaching 50 years of duty and have reached the end of their useful life,” the memo states.
The new boilers would be higher efficiency and are expected to reduce energy consumption. The ordinance asks for $60,000 from the general government capital fund and would also use $60,000 from the maintenance capital project fund, making the project a total of $120,000. Beyond just the boilers, it would also include new piping and connections, asbestos abatement, construction and other related work, according to the memo.
Former mayor Mike Navarre’s administration proposed a bond package to overhaul the energy system in the borough administration building, including a number of other upgrades to the air distribution system and lighting, estimated at $5 million. Borough voters turned down the bonds at the October 2017 election.
The assembly is scheduled to consider introduction of the appropriation ordinance at its meeting Tuesday.
Reach Elizabeth Earl at elizabeth.earl@peninsulaclarion.com.
