Local news state that the Unalaska City Council last week voted to transfer $1 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to the city of Akutan, The grant was originally awarded in 2009, and facing a use-it-or-lose-it deadline, the city decided to give the money to a neighboring community, rather than see it fade back into the overall federal budget. The DOE agreed with the grant swap, in a deal formally termed a “novation agreement” between the three entities, the two cities and the United States of America. Novation means substitution in legal terminology, in this case substituting Akutan for Unalaska.
The rationale behind this transfer is to avoid a lapse in the grant money from the DOE and to better utilize the funds into an active area for geothermal projects such as the Mount Akutan area. “At this point the grant will lapse if we don’t agree with the novation agreement enclosed,” Unalaska city manager Chris Hladick said in an Aug. 5 memo for the Unalaska City Council.
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Source: The Bristol Bay Times Website
