The price has rung up for the costs of transporting the capital city’s recently purchased gondola from Galsterberg Ski Area in Austria to its new home at the City and Borough of Juneau’s municipal-owned EagleCrest Ski Area — and it’s come up more than initially anticipated.<\/p>\n
Though the estimated freight cost for transporting the gondola was expected to be around $845,00, after all fees and fuel surcharges were applied, the transportation of the Eaglecrest Gondola came in to cost around $1.1 million — nearly $262,000 over budget, according to a memo<\/a> sent to the city by Dave Scanlan, Eaglecrest general manager.<\/p>\n “It’s unfortunate but also understandable,” said Rorie Watt, City and Borough of Juneau city manager.<\/p>\n The news was made public at the CBJ Public Works and Facilities Committee meeting Monday afternoon before the Committee of the Whole workshop in which the committee advanced an ordinance which if passed, would authorize a city revenue sharing agreement with Goldbelt, Inc. for a $10 million investment on the corporation’s behalf to go toward funding the gondola project.<\/p>\n “It could have been a lot worse,” said Wade Bryson, chair of the Public Works and Facilities Committee, about the cost overrun for shipping. “The fact that it’s only $200,000 or so above — it could have been substantially more, and for us to have a 20% increase at a very volatile time, I feel we got the best results in the environment that we are in.”<\/p>\n As recently in May, shipping costs were estimated to come in more than twice as much as estimated.<\/p>\n To make up for the over-budget expenses, Scanlan requested Eaglecrest have the authority to transfer $221,000 of its funds from its deferred maintenance account — which pays for things like general maintenance and updating infrastructure — to go toward the gondola capital improvement project. The request passed the committee and will be decided on by the Assembly in the coming weeks, according to Watt.<\/p>\n “We were not able to anticipate the steep increase in fuel prices in the spring or the global port congestion that would impact this project,” Scanlan stated in the memo.<\/p>\n Scanlan explained if the agreement with Goldbelt is made the remaining shipping costs associated with the project are effectuated, and the account would be paid back and made whole again.<\/p>\n