Enstar wants to start gasline

• Official outlines first steps of the process
By Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune
Enstar has agreed to build and install a pressure-reducing station in the first phase of a Homer gasline project, set to begin construction Sept. 1.
Rep. Paul Seaton and Charlie Pierce, Enstar’s southern division manager, spoke to the Homer City Council on Monday to clarify this beginning stage of a long-awaited natural gasline. The city will be spending its legislative appropriation of $525,000 on the pressure reducing station and the 3,260 feet of 8-inch pipe from North Fork Road to Chapman Elementary School.
The pipe costs $225,000, while the pressure-reducing station runs $300,000.
The next steps for the city include obtaining the grant from the legislature and completing a new scope-of-work agreement.
“In the meantime, we need to agree on a contract,” City Manager Walt Wrede explained about the process that is already underway.
For its part, Enstar is purchasing land at North Fork for the station, and will build a structure around the facility at a cost estimate of $300,000, Pierce said.
And while that gets Anchor Point started on the gasline, another 15 miles of pipe would need to be laid across the Anchor River and down the old Sterling Highway in order to connect to Homer. Pierce said he doesn’t yet have an estimate on that cost.
“We had to modify the plan,” he explained. “We put together a rough estimate, but didn’t design or engineer anything. We think we’re close, but we don’t have an exact cost at this time.”
Rep. Seaton wanted to clarify that the transmission line is being publicly funded, but the distribution lines to individual homes and businesses will be up to private owners.
“This grant isn’t to put gas in houses, it’s to build a transmission line,” Seaton explained. “If people want to be customers, they have to put in the distribution lines.”  
The criteria when Enstar completed its engineering work was to target schools as key points, Pierce said. Chapman Elementary to Homer High School, with points in between to include West Homer and Homer Middle School, would be a start.
Seaton assured the council that he and Sen. Gary Stevens are committed to fighting for funding to get the line finished into Homer.
Pierce said Enstar can make a winter construction project of the building around the pressure station — as well as laying the line. The advantage is to wait for winter to freeze the boggy wetland terrain, he said. The project should create jobs if Enstar contracts out construction on either the Anchor Point portion or the Ninilchik segment.
Kenai Peninsula Borough Assemblyman Bill Smith completed a cost analysis to quantify the savings between natural gas, propane and heating fuel. He found that Homer High School stands to save $100,000 a year on its fuel bill for heating the school.
That’s important, because the money to pay for utilities comes from the school’s operating budget.
“That’s money that could be used for teachers or adding programs,” Smith said.
In these planning stages, Seaton cautioned the city against creating Local Improvement Districts on the current city water-sewer model, which is expensive for property owners and is not self-sustaining.
“You might want to gasify the entire place at one time, instead of subdivisions taking a vote,” Seaton said. “For years and years, Homer has hollered for gas. You don’t want to have the situation like with water and sewer, where some are on it and some are not. There are low-interest loans available to help with that, but it is up to you.”