About $11 million is coming to Alaska through the federal Secure Rural Schools program.
Those payments were reauthorized in a recent omnibus appropriations bill approved by Congress, according to an announcement Friday from Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s office.
According to a list provided with the announcement, the Ketchikan Gateway Borough will receive a little more than $1 million. That’s one of the largest amounts in the state.
The only area to receive more is the “unorganized” part of the state – communities not in a borough. Those communities are in the Tongass and Chugach National Forests combined.
The Forest Service controls 22 million acres of land in Alaska. That includes 17 million acres in Southeast.
How much a community receives is based in part on how much federal land is located within its boundaries. The Tongass National Forest makes up about 97 percent of the Ketchikan Gateway Borough.
The borough has designated all of its Secure Rural School funds for education.
