After 30 years, the city is renegotiating its airport lease with the state of Alaska, and some of the state’s proposed terms are giving assembly members pause. Among them: new parking fees, and a cut of airport concessions like restaurant and gift sales. All at a time when a multi-million dollar federal grant for airport expansion is in the balance.

The state owns Sitka’s airport but the city owns the terminal building. When the assembly met on October 24, it heard a presentation from Troy LaRue, the state’s operations manager for aviation. LaRue told the assembly that before Sitka’s terminal expansion project can proceed, the Federal Aviation Administration requires some updates to the new lease agreement between the city and state, like collecting concessions on airport sales. Additionally, the state wants to regulate parking and charge fees. 

LaRue said the parking situation is currently chaotic and unsustainable. Assembly member Thor Christianson disagreed.  

“If you started charging for parking, I would use some of that money to buy a bulletproof vest, because people will be pissed. And I disagree with you that it’s chaotic,” Christianson said. “I use the seven day parking. If it’s full, I arrange for my wife to come get my vehicle from me,” he added. “I don’t think it is that chaotic.”

City administrator John Leach, who’d met with LaRue in negotiations earlier in the day, said he could see both sides of the parking lot issue. 

“It may not seem chaotic, but there are little things with vehicles that are left there overnight, and then the worst case scenarios, vehicles that get abandoned there,” Leach said. “I mean, was it Bethel? I think they had trees growing through some cars that were that were abandoned at the airport parking lot. So it’s not necessarily unique to Sitka,” he added. “It does take management.”

The potential parking fees and other lease details are just now coming forward when, after months of work, Sitka is in line to secure a $34 million dollar federal grant for construction of a much-needed terminal expansion. LaRue threw the assembly another curve when he said that the state would be taking a bigger share of the grant funding than initially expected due to FAA requirements- around 7% of the project funds for administration.

“We kind of thought we were going to drop off a sack of cash on your doorstep, you were going to receive the grant. And we were just going to help…that was our intention,” LaRue said. “As it turns out, as we approached the FAA and said, How do we accomplish this? They said, ‘No, you can’t do that,'” he added. “So it was kind of a surprise to John Leach, when I said, ‘Oh, by the way, we’re taking 7% of your project so that we can help administer it.’ It wasn’t very popular.” LaRue added that he believed the money could be reimbursed through another grant down the line.

Assembly members and LaRue discussed what may also be included in the new lease agreement, like added security and staffing, and shoring up management responsibilities, like who provides snow plowing for certain areas. But with a big airport expansion project on the horizon with the next federal funding deadline weeks away, assembly member Chris Ystad wasn’t happy to be discussing lease terms. 

“I’m going to fully admit I don’t like the timing. We’re renegotiating leases with a massive grant hanging over our head, and I feel like it’s unfair leverage,” Ystad said. “But it is what it is, and let’s just deal with the situation. Some of these things I don’t like, but it’s the FAA, you know, what are we going to do?”

With the target date for federal funding at the beginning of December, the assembly has one month to finalize a lease with the state Department of Transportation. While negotiations are ongoing, city administrator Leach said he hoped to bring a lease before the assembly for approval at its next meeting.