Photo KCAW/Woolsey
Sitka’s new boatyard is getting another wave of funding. Tuesday night (6-10-25) the Sitka Assembly approved a $715,000 appropriation that is expected to wrap up the first phase of construction for the city-owned haulout.
In 2022, 80 percent of Sitka voters approved an initiative to build a marine haulout using over $8 million dollars from the sale of the Sitka Community Hospital building. While that was several million shy of what was necessary for the first wave of construction, the project progressed with a bit of grant funding and a bare bones plan.
The appropriation, the majority of which will come from the city’s working capital fund ($495,250), and the Southeast Alaska Economic Development Fund ($150,000) , will cover a list of investments, including a heated washdown pad, pier safety improvements, a mechanism to provide shore power for boats in the yard, and a year of operating expenses ($70,000), which will come from the GPIP working capital fund. Municipal Administrator John Leach said that would make the haulout operable.
“If we are able to build this out, that will get an operable shipyard that the contractor can come into, and it’s turnkey and ready to go, get it off the ground a little bit early,” Leach said. “We’re trying to do as much in-kind work as we can to keep the cost as low as possible, and we were also operating with essentially a shoestring budget, we were able to afford what we were able to afford to get the infrastructure we have in place now.”
Earlier this year, the assembly approved a bid from Highmark Marine to operate the facility. The Kodiak-based company and the city are now negotiating the final terms of the contract, which has included the city’s funding the new additions to the project.
“Since this is a city owned yard, and we are going to have to own and depreciate that equipment, it probably made most sense for us to to purchase that on our own, to get the yard in an operational status and hopefully bring down the overall haul rates,” Leach said.
Assembly member Thor Christianson agreed that the additions are necessary, and funding them could mean lower haul rates.
“I mean, we have to be careful [when] we talk, because they’re still technically negotiating,” Christianson said. “But I think if we approve this, we’re going to be there’s going to be a lot of happier fishermen, because the haulout rates will be much more competitive.”
Still, the additional wave of funding in the eleventh hour was frustrating for some assembly members.
“It’s an uncomfortable position to get kind of backed into it, into this, and said, “Now we have to do this, because this is really important,” when it wasn’t part of the original scope,” Pike said, but added that he was still supportive of the additions. “As everyone has already basically said, in order to run a yard, you need these things, but it would have been better if we had said that when we started, and then we could have planned for it in advance.”
Ultimately the appropriation passed 5-1. Assembly member Scott Saline did not disclose a reason for his vote against the appropriation.
“This will put us over $12 million,” assembly member JJ Carlson said, tallying up what the city has spent so far on the project, including the latest appropriation. “So I hope our community sees that and sees how much we care and invest in our fishing fleet.”
The item will come before the assembly again for a final reading at its next regular meeting in late June.
