Homer City Council during its Nov. 25 meeting passed two resolutions related to public boat harbor support and funding statewide in order to suitably maintain port and harbor infrastructure.

The first, Resolution 24-120, urges the governor and state legislators to fully fund the State of Alaska Municipal Harbor Facility Grant program. This year, the communities that received that grant were Unalaska, Sitka and Juneau. Homer Port Director Bryan Hawkins said that with the municipal grant program the state provides half the funding and community provides a match fund.

The second, Resolution 24-121, supports raising the maximum available municipal harbor grant from $5 million to $7.5 million.Hawkins says the purpose of the increase is to account for inflation.

Homer did not receive state funding this year but will apply when the time period opens again. Homer applied for the federal Port Infrastructure Development Program funding but did not receive it.

In addition to reviewing these two resolutions from the city, Hawkins provided some updates on the Homer harbor expansion. He said the general investigation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is moving forward. Last month the Corps conducted user group interviews to determine details of fleet identity in the harbor. Hawkins said this was a necessary step in order to determine how many vessels will potentially use the harbor and how much water they draft.

Vessel owners interviewed were from various locations in the state that might be using the Central Gulf district for various purposes: commercial or recreational. The names of the vessels and owners included in the survey came from the Homer harbor records. Hawkins said he did not take part in the interviews in order for people to speak frankly to the interviewees. Hawkins said he’s not sure when results from the interviews will be fully compiled.

Hawkins said the harbor and city are expecting to hear results from the summer 2024 geophysical work conducted by the HDR contract soon.

Another recently completed harbor project was a depth survey to determine sedimentation buildup now compared to harbor depths when it was constructed.

“We know we have sedimentation in areas and locations where the harbor is shallow. The purpose of this survey was to determine how much material would have to be removed to get the harbor back to design depth. This is an important step for planning purposes going forward,” Hawkins said.

Finally, Hawkins noted that the harbor ice plant finished for the season and moved into the winter maintenance mode.