Nome, AK — The new Richard Foster building, which will house Nome’s museum and library, is set to open ahead of schedule. But the budget for the building’s utilities was based on the older, much smaller building, which means the city is now stuck with a very large bill.
From the outside, the Richard Foster Building looks nearly complete, and apparently, the inside is looking that way as well. That’s good news for Nome, as it gears up for Iditarod, the city’s busiest time of year.
But whether the lights will be on by the time the first dog team arrives is another question.
Nome’s Utility Manager John Handeland is hard at work tallying the bill for the city, which he says will be nearly three times what the city estimated.
Handeland says the new building covers around 17,000 square feet. That’s more than eight times the size of the old building. The new one is far more energy efficient, but the cost of utilities is still more expensive simply because it’s bigger.
Nome City Manager Tom Moran didn’t plan to pay for utilities until the next fiscal year. He said there are two reasons for the city’s oversight.
“So when we built the [fiscal year 2016] budget, we weren’t entirely sure this building would be done and the library would be in there in [fiscal year 2016],” Moran explained. “And,” he admitted, “it was something that just never really occurred to anyone.”
The lack of planning is, in a way, good for the city. To further complicate the financial fumble, the city had expected to move into the new building in January. So they’re actually saving on a month’s worth of utilities.
“We are now at a point where substantial completion has happened, which means that the owner is on the hook for the utility bills,” Moran said, adding, “no longer is it in the contractor’s name.”
The Nome City Council is now left scrambling. So far, the Richard Foster Building has been funded entirely by grant money. The council has long been adamant that they won’t let the city dip into general funds for construction costs. But with a looming utility bill, that is where the money will come from. During their most recent meeting, the council held an executive session on the museum’s budget, but came to no consensus.
Nome City Finance Director Julie Liew said the city’s budget was always meant to be amended halfway through the fiscal year to include the higher utility bills. The amended budget was presented to the City Council on January 25.
The agenda for the council’s next meeting is still in the works.
This article was updated on February 15.
