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PETROLEUM DIRECTORY: Helping rural communities develop their infrastructure Arctic Pacific Enterprises guides communities through the complexities of planning, funding and managing construction projects Alan Bailey PNA Contributing Writer
Rural communities in Alaska face many challenges when they want to develop village infrastructure such as power systems, schools and community centers. The challenges include the logistics of transporting materials, ensuring adequate project management and obtaining funding.
Since 2000 Alaska Pacific Enterprises LLC has filled a unique business niche by assisting rural communities over the various hurdles involved in infrastructure development. Grant applications Percy Frisby, owner of Alaska Pacific Enterprises, told Petroleum News Alaska that he originally founded the company to help communities apply for grants. As director of the Alaska Division of Energy for seven years, Frisby had become aware of the difficulties that communities faced in obtaining funding for construction projects.
"I was working for Energy and I realized that there was a huge gap in rural Alaska in terms of communities being able to access funds to build projects," Frisby said.
Frisby had also wanted to find ways of increasing local hire — he had become aware that construction contractors tended not to hire people from the local communities.
"Contracts came in fully staffed to do a job from start to finish," Frisby said. A wide variety of projects In its short history, Arctic Pacific Enterprises has facilitated a wide variety of projects across the state. Projects include community centers for Marshall and Unalakleet, conceptual design work for Old Harbor's new boat harbor and tank farm projects in Upper and Lower Kalskag.
In a completely new venture, the company has started doing government contracting.
"We presently are working for Hensel Phelps Construction Co. as a prime contractor in painting the Pentagon," Frisby said. Arctic Pacific Enterprises is subcontracting the painting work to a firm called Robinson and Preziosoh Inc., he said.
"It's really interesting because of the way that the big companies do business," Frisby said. "It's going to be a good opportunity for someone as small as we are."
Arctic Pacific Enterprises currently employs six people.
Working with the communities Rural communities in Alaska have eagerly sought assistance.
"We've been pretty fortunate," Frisby said. "Most of the communities who work with us come and ask us to help them."
Following a request for help, the company usually starts by meeting with people from the community to refine their development plans.
"They generally have a capital construction list," Frisby said. "We try to figure out which projects fit what funding agencies. Then we sit down and identify a site, the size of a project and ... we start putting together what we call a conceptual document."
When assembling the conceptual document, Arctic Pacific Enterprises' experts estimate the project costs, including the cost of initial startup and the full cost to completion.
Then the company helps the community to apply to the appropriate agencies for funds.
Applying for grants Navigating through the grant application process requires considerable expertise — securing grants often turns out to be the most challenging part of a project.
It's also very paper intensive.
"There's a huge amount of correspondence and coordination," Frisby said.
Arctic Pacific Enterprises knows which federal and state agencies provide construction grants and the company maintains an awareness of what types of project each agency currently favors. Each agency sets different priorities.
"Every year there's an emphasis placed on different types of infrastructure," Frisby said. "So it's just understanding where you're going and what they're looking for, what kind of projects they would like to fund, how they would like to match other programs."
Funding of a project from multiple agencies complicates the grant application process.
"I don't think, in all honesty, that there's an agency today that funds 100 percent of any one project," Frisby said.
So, part of the jigsaw puzzle of obtaining funds involves working out how much to apply for from each agency and then coordinating all the various grant applications.
"The coordination is important," Frisby said, "because each agency needs to know what you're doing, so they can start to communicate with other agencies."
Construction management Although Frisby originally founded Arctic Pacific Enterprises to help communities apply for grants, he soon saw an opportunity to help with construction management. He and his staff enjoyed extensive experience of projects in rural Alaska and could help with planning, designing, contracting and overseeing the construction work.
"I have individuals on staff who ran major projects for the state and my engineer was one of the lead engineers in building the Bradley hydro system and built hydro systems in various parts of Alaska," Frisby said. "I have an individual who's been all over the state of Alaska, working with the coordination of community development and construction projects — I myself built projects in various parts of Alaska."
Furthermore, the company's involvement in construction management has enabled Frisby and his colleagues to pursue their objectives of encouraging local hire in the rural communities.
"One of the things that we've been seeing ... since we've been doing construction management is we're going to ensure that people in the communities are hired and that they're qualified (to do the work)," Frisby said.
Design and build
Once a community has secured the funds for a project, construction management can commence with the detailed design.
"We work with a local engineering firm, Coffman Engineers, here in Anchorage," Frisby said. "They do the bulk of the design work for us."
After completion of the design, Alaska Pacific Engineering works with the engineering company and the community to draw up an RFP and select a contractor. Then, Arctic Pacific Enterprises makes sure that the selected contractor does the construction within the project scope and budget.
"When that's done we turn the keys over to the community," Frisby said.
Logistics During the construction phase, the logistics of shipping materials and equipment to the work site becomes a major issue. Goods coming from a variety of sources all need to arrive on site at the correct time.
"Once we get the contractor on board, then we work with the contractor on the logistics of getting the hardware and the materials out to the site," Frisby said.
With years of experience and an extensive network of contacts, the Arctic Pacific Enterprises team can help piece together a logistics plan.
"We have a pretty good network for working with companies that are experts in moving hardware and materials," Frisby said, "... first of all planning is being able to identify all the materials we need and then we sit down and figure out how to get it from A to B."
A lot of material comes from Seattle by barge, either direct to the community or via Anchorage. Some items originate in Anchorage or Fairbanks and ship to the work location by barge or aircraft. All of the transportation arrangements need to synchronize with shippers' schedules.
Depth of experience Depth of experience in dealing with all aspects of rural construction makes Arctic Pacific Enterprises' staff the company's main asset. And the staff's experience of working for government agencies enables the company to understand all the issues involved in processing grants.
"The asset that we have is that we've all been there — we've all been on the other side," Frisby said.
It all adds up to a novel business that provides an invaluable service to its customers.
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