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FAIRBANKS - A Fairbanks nonprofit says it has designed an extremely efficient "evacuation center" to serve as a bridge for residents of a southwest Alaska village who must move because of erosion.

The village on Newtok, which has about 350 residents, has been steadily losing ground to the Ninglick River. The barge landing and landfill have already been lost, and the rest of the village is being threatened as the river cuts through shoreline at more than 70 feet per year.

Within five years, everyone from Newtok is expected to be nine miles upriver in the newly created village of Mertarvik, which means "getting water from the stream" in Yup'ik. Mertarvik sits higher than Newtok, on a treeless tundra slope on Nelson Island.

Aaron Cooke, an architectural designer for Cold Climate Housing Research Center, said the evacuation center is designed to provide water, waste disposal, electricity and heat during the transition - all without the help of outside infrastructure.

The efficient approach is intended to help villages that don't have enough money to maintain public buildings. When the move is complete, the building could serve as a village community center.

"We wanted to make sure whatever is built in this community is useful to the community and not a burden," Cooke said.

The cost of the building, which will be paid for by the state, is uncertain because the plans are still in the draft stage, Cooke said. Construction isn't expected to start until next summer.

If the evacuation center works for Newtok, it could become a model for other communities dealing with erosion. Plans to relocate the villages of Shishmaref, Kivalina and Kaktovik are being considered.

"They're certainly the canary in the coal mine," Cooke said. "Everyone is watching Newtok very closely because they're the farthest along."