Many Bristol Bay residents came out in opposition to the University of Alaska Fairbanks’s intention to sell one of two buildings at its Bristol Bay Campus, at two town hall meetings last month.
The University of Alaska announced on Dec. 8th that it intends to sell the Bristol Bay campus's Applied Science building, located across the street from the main campus in downtown Dillingham.
Just over a week later, roughly 80 people joined two town halls, both in person and online, to discuss the sale and hear from the university.
The building, once the old NAPA facility, opened in 2014, and now houses the campus's nursing program. Marylin Rosene, a longtime Dillingham resident and former educator, was one of many to speak against the sale during one of the town halls.
“I am amazed at the success we've had here,” said Rosene. “Just specifically in our nursing program from some local people who stuck with it here. They lived here, they had their families here, and they completed the whole course here.”
The building also supports Alaska Sea Grant's Marine Advisory Program, which is a partnership between UAF and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
It also hosts welding, outboard motor mechanics and netmaking classes and serves as a training site for a regional technical education and certification program for high school students.
On the second floor are three apartments, two that are rented to long term tenants and one that is left vacant for visiting UAF staff.
The building was purchased through community and corporate donations, UAF funds and grants. According to the chancellor's original project plan from 2010, the building cost roughly $750 thousand with an additional $2.5 million spent on renovations. Roughly $100 thousand dollars of that money came from local donations, according to the university.
Bryan Uher is UAF’s Interim Vice Chancellor for Rural, Community, and Native Education. He attended the meeting via zoom, and said the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation, a state and federally funded housing organization, approached the university about buying the building with the goal of developing affordable community housing.
“They have already purchased some properties from the university and they have been working towards that initiative,” Uher said. “They have done that in Bethel, Nome, Kotzebue and now they have identified this facility as interest for them due to the apartment complex that is already up top there.”
Uher says the university is also considering the sale because of operating costs, deferred maintenance, and the risks associated with being a landlord to the public.
Wanda Wahl, the campus director, walked through the building's finances, including an estimated roughly 10 thousand dollar deficit this year. She says that number likely overstates the cost of the facility. It was calculated by dividing total campus expenses by square footage of both buildings, but the applied science building is more energy efficient, and many maintenance costs are fixed whether or not there's one building or two.
“If you get rid of the applied science building you are still going to be sending someone out here from Fairbanks to do the annual fire inspection of the sprinklers and you're still going to be sending someone out here to do the annual inspection of the air handling system,” Wahl said. “So it's hard to parse out how much savings there would be by not having that second building.”
Wahl also said that another roughly half a million dollars of deferred maintenance is budgeted for long-term improvements and code compliances, including upgrading the parking lot and eventually replacing the heating system, not urgent repairs.
Uher told attendees that if the building were to be sold, its programs, including the nursing program and Alaska Sea Grant operations, would move into the main campus. He said the money that would have gone towards the building would instead be used to build up existing programs at the campus, staffing, and maintenance.
Uher also said being a public landlord is a liability for the university and that the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation is better equipped to take on the responsibility of rentals.
“We are not necessarily equipped to handle public housing and the things that come along with that,” Uher said. “Such as if a renter was to damage the apartment then now we are responsible for going in and renovating that out of our fund one cost that might not have been anticipated for.”
The Alaska Housing Finance Corp. received a $4 million appropriation from the state Legislature earlier this year to address housing shortages across the state. Added with federal money, the organization has bought a UAF parking garage in Fairbanks and 600 acres of undeveloped land across the state to construct housing.
Alaska's Speaker of the house, Bryce Edgmon, is Bristol Bay’s representative and a life-long Dillingham resident, and was in attendance at the meeting.
He said the legislation to appropriate the $4 million came across his desk when he was a co-chair of the house finance committee. He told the room he was ashamed to admit that he signed off on it.
“Had I known for an instant that this would lead to the cannibalization of a key facility in my home town, that damn money would have never gotten into the budget,” Edgmon said.
Edgmon said the legislature's budget going into the upcoming year will be tight, and once the building is gone, it likely won't come back. He also said selling the facility seemed counter intuitive to building campus programs.
“And I really question, if this building gets sold, I question whether that money that goes into the university system ever comes back into the Bristol Bay campus,” Edgmon said. “I have seen too many times rural campuses get short changed, get the short end of the shrift.”
Uher, with UAF, said that while Alaska Housing Finance Corporation was the first to express interest in the building, they are not the only ones eligible to buy it. He said the listing price of the building isn’t final but its appraisal value was $870 thousand.
The public comment period for the sale was extended until Jan. 23. The University of Alaska president and chancellor will make the final decision.
The University of Alaska Board of Regents will visit Dillingham next week to meet with the community and visit the campus.
A Bristol Bay Campus Advisory Meeting will be held at the Bristol Bay campus in Dillingham Jan. 6 at noon. The agenda includes discussing the building and meeting the new interim director of the campus.
