The City of Seward is about to be in some hot water. Well, really warm water anyway. The city council voted unanimously this week to accept a $725,000 grant from the State of Alaska to design and construct a heat pump to draw warmth from Resurrection Bay and heat four city buildings. A similar project has heated the Alaska Sea Life Center there for a number of years.
Interim City Manager Jeff Bridges described the next steps to the council.
“Thank you mister Mayor, council. This is a really exciting project. I’m pleased to bring this grant to you this evening. This has been the topic of conversation for quite awhile, is my understanding. And we do have the consultant onboard and he’s been in town working on various studies to get this done.”
The resolution also appropriated $157,497 as the city’s match, though Bridges said that amount would be the most the city would have to expend.
“That may not be what we fully spend. We will use unkind contributions to offset some of those actual cash requirements. But we would like to get this project moving, and the first step, officially, is to accept the grant.”
Councilwoman Kelly Lane agreed that the project was exciting.
“Like if this was my personal money and I was going to get this much in exchange? Just put in this amount and get all this money and try something new, something that people have been pressing for a long time, some kind of alternative. So I like it. I think it sounds great. I looked through it and it seems really exciting. And it’s been really good for the Sea Life Center, so let’s try it.”
Mayor David Squires added that if the project works out for the four city buildings it will be tried it, more can be included in the future.
