Sitka has a permit to export more than 9 billion gallons of water per year from Blue Lake. Whether it’s flow rate or faulty infrastructure, local officials aren’t publicly saying why they’re holding off on signing a contract with Greengold Distributors of Cape Town, South Africa, and spending $100,000 to “investigate enhancing” the bulk water export delivery system. (Flickr photo/thedamian)

The City of Sitka is spending $100,000 to fix an unspecified problem with its bulk water delivery system.

The Sitka Assembly at its last meeting (4-25-18) approved the transfer from the Raw Water Sales Fund to the Electric Department “to investigate enhancing the raw water delivery infrastructure to support bulk export.”

The board of the Gary Paxton Industrial Park recommended transferring the $100,000 at its regular meeting on March 29. At the time, the term “enhancement” was not in play. Park board member — and former Sitka public works director — Hugh Bevan used another term, in this exchange with park director Garry White and board chair Scott Wagner.

Bevan — Is the bulk water pipeline operational?
White — I’ve been told to direct all questions to the city administrator or the city attorney.
Bevan — So nobody knows?
Wagner — I think nobody’s willing to say outside of executive session.
Bevan — Whether the thing is even operational or not? Wow.

The City of Sitka currently has one active bulk water contract, with Eckert Fine Beverages. The Gary Paxton Industrial Park Board earlier this spring recommended a second contract, with Greengold Distributors of Cape Town, South Africa. The approval of that contract was put on hold after the unspecified problem in the bulk water delivery system emerged.

All discussions of the matter since the March 29 Gary Paxton board meeting have taken place behind closed doors. At the April 25 assembly meeting, member Richard Wein said he was unhappy with the secrecy.

“This is an interesting problem. And hopefully with the expenditure of these funds we may get at least an answer one way or another to solve this. As a secondary note, I don’t like the veil.”

The city’s Raw Water Sales fund has over $1 million available, most earned on selling bulk water rights which to date have never been utilized.

Assembly postpones landslide study for Keet, Sitka High

The assembly last week (4-25-18) deferred a decision to spend $75,000 to assess the landslide risk for Keet Gooshi Heen Elementary School and Sitka High School.

Several assembly members were reluctant to spend additional money on just the schools, when geotechnical studies had been completed — or were needed — for the entire downslope area of Gavan Hill.

The consulting engineers Shannon & Wilson, however, notified Sitka last year that some of their preliminary modeling indicated that Keet Gooshi Heen was at risk.

Municipal attorney Brian Hanson said that this was precisely the reason that the city needed to study the schools specifically.

“We have indicators that the area above Keet Gooshi Heen could be moderate risk. But we need to know more about that. Now that we know that information and we don’t do anything about it, I think that increases our risk and our potential liability if something does happen.”

Assembly member Aaron Bean said that the risk at Keet Gooshi Heen was inherent, like the risk from tsunamis. He was concerned that a separate engineering study would begin a discussion about relocating the school, and he “didn’t want to go down that rabbit hole.”

Member Bob Potrzuski countered that Sitka’s children were irreplaceable, and that he didn’t object to going down that “rabbit hole” if necessary.

Members decided to postpone action on the $75,000 award until they could learn more about it from public works director Michael Harmon and municipal engineer Dan Tadic, neither of whom were present during the discussion.

Sitka PD to get rifle armor

And finally, the Sitka Assembly last week approved spending $28,000 on rifle armor and helmets for the Sitka Police Department, along with rifle scopes. Police chief Jeff Ankerfeldt said the equipment was needed to protect officers during active shooter scenarios. He told the assembly “It’s the world we live in.”