The September 8 City Council meeting saw updates on a few projects in Nome—including local construction and work on the Richard Foster building.
But before those discussions, City Manager Josie Bahnke began with some positive news on city finances.
“Good news coming from finance department—we’re just in the final throws of closing out [fiscal year 2014] and it looks like we will be breaking even, just about. There might be about a $2,000 difference to the good,” said Bahnke.
She said those are just preliminary numbers, and though she initially thought the city would have to dip into fund balance, with the budget amendment and an increase in revenue, she anticipates the city will break even.
Work on the Richard Foster building is progressing, with construction for sewer and water nearing completion. The museum and library commission is continuing to discuss what stories will be featured in the new exhibits.
Meanwhile, Nome Joint Utility System General Manager John Handeland said during construction on the port lighting project, some contaminated soil was found at the small boat harbor.
“Unfortunately, we did find a bit of dirty dirt there and did work with the city’s public works and DEC to establish a holding cell for that dirt pending the long-term mitigation of it,” said Handeland.
He said managing the area of contamination won’t have a major impact on timing of the project.
As for construction in town, Handeland says with work almost completed on 5th avenue, they’ll move on to 6th avenue by the beginning of next week, or earlier, to work on a water line between N and K streets.
