The Denali Commission has plenty of money to build infrastructure and health care projects in rural communities this year. But funding for 2005 has been zeroed out of the federal budget proposal submitted by President Bush.
The commission was created in 1998 by Alaska Senator Ted Stevens with initial funding of $20 million. Stevens is chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and he said he will go to bat again this year to keep the organization intact.
"We believe the Denali Commission saves money by lowering overhead expenditures and requires local participation for expenditures of federal dollars," Stevens wrote in a statement to the Journal.
The Denali Commission's budget requests have been cut before, the senator noted.
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"I will do all I can to convince Congress to assist Alaska's expansion of a modern system of heating, water, sewage treatment, airports and roads, consistent with a sound budget policy," the statement concluded.
Meanwhile there is much to be done in the Bush, and for 2004, the commission has $110 million to work with, said the commission's chief of staff, Al Ewing, in a recent interview.
About half of the money comes from "base funding" appropriated directly to the commission by Congress; the other half comes from various agencies funded through the recently passed federal Omnibus Spending Act, he said.
It is substantially more funding than just three years ago when the figure was approximately $65 million, and it will go a long way toward getting things done.
"We are set for 2004," Ewing said.
"We have geared up the program so that we can actually be moving a lot faster.
"We will probably be building energy projects at double the pace, or triple the pace that we are now," he said.
In 2003 the commission completed construction on 27 energy-related projects, had 31 energy projects under construction and 17 others in design phase. They are, for the most part, power generation plants and transmission lines.
Ewing said they are hoping for some additional cash for rural electrification projects in the national energy bill being debated in Washington, but they are not counting on it.
"We think the odds of that coming through this year are very slim," he said.
Even without the bill passing, more than $92 million will be spent by the commission on energy projects this year. That includes $750,000 for planning a transmission line to link Fire Island in Cook Inlet to the mainland "to tie into a potential wind farm and also supply navigation aids for the airport," Ewing said.
Construction of bulk storage facilities for diesel fuel needs in rural communities consumes approximately one-fourth of the commission's allocations.
Last year 43 fuel facilities were completed, 13 were under construction, 11 were in final design and 42 others were in the early design phase.
Ewing said a new program is under way this year in partnership with the Alaska Village Electric Cooperative to bring new fuel facilities to several small communities in Western Alaska.
"If we can steer the smaller villages into a program like this, it takes care of the economies of scale," he said.
The Denali Commission also has been active since it began partnering with the state labor department in promoting job training programs, commission deputy chief of staff Krag Johnsen said during a recent workforce development conference in Anchorage.
A crucial component in the process is to provide training not just for construction of infrastructure, but for long-term operations and maintenance, he said.
"It's pretty simple that you wouldn't train for training's sake," he said. "We actually ask for a commitment on the other end, and ask where that job is going to be with the employer," Johnsen said.
In the past three years the state has received over $8 million for the Denali Training Fund and its training partners. Those funds have been used to train 3,658 resident participants seeking construction and operations and maintenance careers.
Improving health care for rural Alaskans is another part of the commission's mission.
About 22 percent of commission allocations to date have gone into building rural clinics. So far, 11 large community clinics have been opened, seven are under construction and 20 are being designed.
Two more large clinics will be needed in the near future, but the demand for small clinics is great, Ewing said.
As of last year, 22 small clinics have been established with 64 more either being built or designed. But there is an "unmet need" for 202 additional small facilities, he said.
The commission is limited to spending a maximum of 5 percent of its budget on overhead - administrative and operating costs - but the staff has kept the bar lower, allowing discretionary use of the remaining funds for miscellaneous projects, Ewing said.
"Over the past five years, we've kept it at about 2 percent," he said. "We built a new bridge down on the Alaska Peninsula and a number of other projects with that pot of money."
And keeping track of the budget while holding down overall costs are top priorities at the commission, Ewing asserted.
"We want to be as transparent as possible," he said. "You can see where every dollar comes from and where it goes."
