Plastic bags — should we keep them or ban them? On Tuesday, September 17, Raven Radio invited listeners to join the conversation in the first election forum of the season.

Proposition 1 would ban single-use plastic bags in Sitka, put a minimum $0.10 fee in place for single-use paper bags, and fine retailers for not following the new law if it goes into effect.

View the full ordinance here, and a sample ballot here

KCAW’s Katherine Rose spoke with Michelle Putz, an organizer who petitioned to put Prop. 1 on the ballot. The two discussed the arguments for and against plastic bag bans and took listener questions and comments.

Want to learn more about what a plastic bag ban could mean for Sitka? Listen to the hour long special here:

Election Day is Tuesday, October 1. Precincts 1 and 2 voters will cast ballots at Harrigan Centennial Hall. Polls will be open on Tuesday, October 1st from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Advanced (in-person) voting will be available weekdays from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on the third floor of City Hall from September 17 until September 30.

Voters in Sitka will see a plastic bag ban on the municipal ballot this fall. If passed, the measure would ban single-use plastic bags at local retailers and require businesses charge a fee for paper bags.

“I take it as a woman holding the world up but drowning in plastic or trying to keep her head above water as she tries not to drown in plastic,” says Pat Kehoe, standing in the lobby at AC Lakeside. She points to a painting by Libby Stortz, as she installs several pieces for the “Ugly Side of Plastic” art show. It’s been traveling from store to store for the past couple of months, raising awareness about the amount of single use plastic humans introduce into the environment each year. 

Works of poetry and photography hang on the walls alongside several collages and paintings. Kehoe points to a sculpture by Pamela Ash of a bird skeleton. Two brown dirt clods with blue and white plastic bits woven throughout sit next to it. 

“They’re actual bird pellets with plastic in them,” Kehoe says. “It’s really horrid.”

Kehoe is part of a citizen action group called “Bags for Change.” Former Sitka Assembly member Michelle Putz leads the group. Her husband, Perry, also serves on the KCAW board.    

“Since 2016, there’s been a group of us working towards using less plastic in general and encouraging some sort of change,” says Putz. “Moving people towards using reusable bags. Essentially putting a whole lot of carrots out there and also having a stick, potentially.” 

Putz’s “stick” has gone through a couple of iterations. Organizers last year brought a plastic bag fee to the Sitka Assembly but it fizzled on second reading  when some Sitkans pushed back. So Putz and friends went back to the drawing board and drafted a ballot proposition. Now a plastic bag ban will go before voters this October. 

“We’ve never wanted to be political,” Putz says. “We’ve always wanted to be educational and just share the problems that are associated with plastics getting into the ocean, getting into the air, getting into our bodies.” 

There are three components to the ballot proposition: First an all-out ban on single-use plastic bags. Second, a requirement that retailers charge a fee for paper bag use. And third, a fine to retailers who fail to follow the policy. 

Single-use plastic bags rose in popularity in the 1980s. But in just a few decades, we’ve used a lot of them. In 2018, National Geographic Magazine reported that American shoppers use one bag a day on average. Putz says her group worked with local grocers, showing them the drafts of their petition before they began collecting signatures.

“They estimate that between the two of them we give away over two million plastic bags a year in Sitka,” she says. “And that’s just at the two grocery stores. So add in all the other stores, I have to guess it’s around 3 million.”

Greg Dahl, the branch manager at AC Lakeside, says that number is right. 
“We go through 500 cases a year,” he says. Dahl confirms Putz’s numbers are spot on. And the bags cost the grocery store just over $29,000 a year.

Even though he recognizes the intention is good — cutting down on waste in Sitka — Dahl says that it’s hard for Lakeside to take an official position, since they stand to benefit financially if the ban passes.

“I don’t think it’s fair for us to have an official stance to sway any voters either way,” he says. “It’s completely up to them.”

And some Sitkans may not be swayed. Although no one has stood in the roundabout with a pro-plastic sign, threads and polls on social media have generated considerable debate. Putz says she doesn’t fully understand the opposition. 

“It’s hard for me to say why there are such strong feelings about plastic, plastic bags and other things in general,” she says. “A lot of it is that, people think that there’s larger problems out there to fix.”

Putz says the group recognizes all the plastic out there: the plastic water bottles, the plastic packaging. “We want to get rid of that too,” she says. “But we’re just starting with one at a time.” 

But overall, it seems people’s attitudes are changing. Bags for Change polled 250 grocery shoppers last year and found the majority would support a ban or fee. A similar poll on the Facebook group Sitka Chatters saw around half in favor and half opposed. Putz says some local business owners report more customers refusing single use bags, bringing their own reusable alternatives or carry things out in their arms. 

Putz says that’s the trick — changing one little behavior at a time. 

“It is one tiny behavior that can change a lot in our community,” she says. “If I didn’t see plastic bags lining the ditches in the spring, boy would I love that.” 

Back at AC Lakeside, Kehoe shows me the piece she painted.

“This is a plastic world, but there’s a little mushroom that the mycelium actually break down plastic,” she says. “So my thought is that even though we’re littered with plastic, there is hope.” 

And the group is hopeful, too, that Sitkans won’t depend on mushrooms to clean things up. Rather, they hope Sitkans will clean up at the polls this fall.

While other communities in Alaska are approve plastic bag bans, an effort to impose a local plastic bag fee failed to pass muster with the Sitka Assembly. On Tuesday night (09-28-18), they indefinitely postponed the ordinance and encouraged new plastic bag legislation to come to the table within the year. (Photo courtesy of Naomi Bargmann)

Sitka will not be placing restrictions on plastic bag use. By a vote of 6-0, the Sitka Assembly indefinitely postponed voting on a single-use carryout bag fee on Tuesday night (09-25-18). The measure was intended to disincentive use of plastic bag and change shopping habits locally. The Sitka Assembly also approved issuing state revenue bonds to finance renovations at Crescent Harbor and the Rocky Gutierrez Airport. 

Downloadable audio.

The idea for the ordinance (Motion and Ord 2018-47) was pretty straight forward: charge Sitkans a flat fee for single-use bags–15-cents for plastic bags and 10-cents per paper bag– at check-out. The money collected would go into the general fund.

The ordinance passed muster with the Sitka Assembly on first reading two weeks ago (09-11-18) by a vote of 4-2, with Steven Eisenbeisz and Aaron Bean voting against. But this time around, the winds had changed.

During their regular meeting Tuesday night (09-25-28), Assembly member Kevin Knox made a motion to indefinitely postpone the ordinance. It was unanimously approved by the Assembly, by a vote of 6-0. Assembly member Steven Eisenbeisz was absent. Assembly members Knox and Wein expressed verbal interest in developing another version of a plastics ordinance within the year. 

So what changed in the last two weeks? The Assembly member’s inboxes and phone lines were flooded by Sitkans who opposed the legislation outright. Some came to the meeting in person to say so. Dave Lamb said, point blank, “It’s a poorly conceived ordinance. This should be killed.”

Comments like that gave even the sponsors pause. 

Kevin Knox: You always think you might be able to gauge the amount of correspondence we might get on any particular issue. This one I was way off on.

Richard Wein: I was thinking, ‘Fifteen cents a bag. That may not be so bad.’ But as it turns out, people thought it was very bad.

Bob Potrzuski: This is not the correct bill for Sitka. And when [Knox] suggested postponement, I immediately went to, “We can do better.”

All on the Assembly supported plastics reduction in some fashion, recognizing the disastrous impact plastic pollution has on the marine environment. But Assembly member Ben Miyasato worried about how a fee would further harm the lowest income Sitkans. “Fifteen cents doesn’t sound like a whole lot to some of you. But to others, that’s the difference between whether or not they’re going to be able to get more food or starve,” he said.

Mayor Matthew Hunter worried about the accounting work a fee creates for small business. Other communities in Alaska, including Anchorage and many cities in Western Alaska, are banning plastics altogether. Several on the Assembly wondered aloud if Sitka should follow suit – pursuing a plastics ban instead of a plastics fee.

Supporters of plastics legislation implored the Assembly to do something and do something soon. “Palmer is starting on this road. Kodiak,” noted Chohla Moll. “We’re not breaking trail here. We’re coming up behind and this is our subsistence foods.”Naomi Bargmann told the Sitka Assembly, “I just want something to be done, where I’m not paddle boarding out at Herring Cove and I turn the corner and there’s a plastic bag sticking in the branches.”

With the Assembly’s postponement, nothing about plastics will change anytime soon. The postponement kills the ordinance, but the spirit of the idea was still alive at the table. Assembly members said they hoped the legislation could be re-crafted — made more palatable to a great number of Sitkans — and brought forward again at a future date.

Mayor Matthew Hunter asked for a commitment from Knox and Wein to develop a new version of the legislation within the next year. They verbally agreed. “I am encouraged to hear that Dr. Wein that you are willing to continue to work on it. I’ll work on it with you as well,” Knox said.

The citizens group, Bags for Change, has been marshaling support for plastic bag reduction for over two years, handing out reusable bags and coordinating with local businesses. They approached the Assembly with the notion of a plastic bag fee in February. 

After the Assembly’s decision to postpone, I called organizer Michelle Putz. She said her disappointment has a silver lining. “I’m sad that it hasn’t moved forward. But in a way, by it not moving forward, people are learning and maybe even changing what they’re doing because of it,” Putz said.

Meaning a change in plastic-use behavior. Moving forward, Putz said she would support the Assembly in any legislation they introduce. “I think [Bags for Change] would be happy to see a plastic bag ban in Sitka. It will probably have to include a fee on paper. But, seeing as people were really concerned about the city collecting it, I would be happy to see that [money] go to the businesses to offset the costs,” Putz said.

Any plastics legislation, however, depends on the will of the future Assembly. The municipal election is Tuesday, October 2nd. Two seats on the Assembly and the Mayoral seat are up for election. On October 9th, the election results will be certified and the new Assembly members sworn in, with Hunter passing the gavel to the new mayor.

The Sitka Assembly also approved issuing state revenue bonds for capital projects. By a vote of 4-2, with Richard Wein and Aaron Bean voting against, Sitka will pursue two bonds from the Alaska Municipal Bond Bank.

The first, not to exceed $8.6 million dollars, will finance part of Crescent Harbor’s reconstruction (Floats 1 – 4) and be paid back through fees collected among harbor users. Moorage rates were raised by 6% at their September 11th meeting. Mayor Matthew Hunter said that rate is sufficient to finance the bond. “We have a rate currently that can handle this debt. What the rate currently can’t do is handle [electrical upgrades to] Eliason Harbor.”

To meet the capital needs for Sitka’s harbor system into the future, the Harbor Master Plan suggests a 300% increase to moorage rates over the next several decades. Hunter continued, “If we stopped raising rates, harbors would be fine until a decade from now…when it is time to replace Eliason Harbor.”

To bolster the Crescent Harbor project, the state has offered Sitka a $5 million matching grant. The entire project costs an estimated $13 million.

Wein and Bean called for other funding strategies for Sitka’s harbor system, such as the local sales tax or the city loaning money to itself. “I would like the funding source to change and bring the millions of dollars of interest that will be going out of Sitka back into our own coffers,” Wein said. “My only disagreement here is in the method of financing, not necessarily the concept of doing something good.”

The second bond, not to exceed $4.5 million dollars, would go towards renovating Sitka’s Rocky Gutierrez Airport. The city plans to pay back the bond through passenger facility charges (PFCs), which amount to $4.50 per enplaned passenger. The project seeks to expand the passenger holding and baggage handling areas.

Over the phone, David Thompson, the City and Borough of Sitka’s Bond Counsel, answered technical questions.

In other business, the Sitka Assembly:

–Approved selling Lot 23 at the Gary Paxton Industrial Park by an invitation to bid process. The lot houses the former administrative building of the Alaska Pulp Corporation and was damaged by a landslide in 2015. GPIP Executive Director Gary White said, “It’s a non-performing city asset and a liability.” He estimated it cost GPIP $30,000 to $50,000 to maintain and hoped another business could find a use for the lot.
–Directed City Administrator Keith Brady to transfer a general fund balance of $679,320 into the Public Infrastructure Sinking Fund. In a memo, Brady said he recommends no money be transferred due to “unforseen expenses relating to the hospital sale and the potential reinstatement of the senior tax exemption.”
–Received a reminder from City Administrator Keith Brady that the sales tax will be 5% and utility rates at 12-cents per kilowatt hour beginning October 1st. The new director of Sitka Public Library will also begin October 1st.
–Designated November 23rd and 24th as sales-tax free holidays. They also approved including alcoholic beverages, tobacco, and marijuana products on the list of items not eligible for sales-tax exemption on those holidays
–Approved adjustments to the port and tariff schedule for the multi-purpose dock at the Gary Paxton Industrial park
–Approved supporting Sitka Trail Works in submitting a state grant application (maximum $75,000) for repairs to the Sea Lion Cove Trail
–Appointed Charlie Woodcock to an unexpired term on the Health Needs and Human Services Commission and appointed Vaughn Morrison to a two-year term on the Gary Paxton Industrial Park Board
–Entered executive session at the end of the meeting around 9:35 p.m. to hear a report from city staff on their month-to-month contract with the Greater Sitka Chamber of Commerce to manage visitors services. When the Assembly reconvened around 10:10 p.m., no motion was made and the Assembly adjourned. Earlier in the meeting, Chamber Executive Director Rachel Roy announced that Sitka will host the 2019 Southeast Conference.

In a previous version of this article, we incorrectly stated that Richard Wein and Aaron Bean voted against the plastic bag ordinance on first reading. The “no” votes were Steven Eisenbeisz and Aaron Bean. 

The Sitka Assembly meets at 6 p.m. in Harrigan Centennial Hall. Raven News will broadcast the meeting live. (KCAW Photo)

When the Sitka Assembly meets tonight (09-11-18), they’ll consider purchasing a bond from the Alaska Municipal Bond Bank to fund renovations of critical infrastructure. Moorage rates may also be raised tonight by 6% across all Sitka Harbors.

See the full agenda here: 180911_AssemblyAgenda

The first bond, not to exceed $8.6 million dollars, would finance part of Crescent Harbor’s reconstruction — reconstructing floats one through four and the head walk. The second bond, not to exceed $4.5 million dollars, would go towards renovating Sitka’s Rocky Gutierrez Airport.

The Assembly gave the city the go-ahead to apply for these bonds in July. They’ll decide whether or not to issue the bonds on first reading at their regular meeting tonight.

Moorage rates may also be raised tonight across all Sitka Harbors. Approved by the Port and Harbors Commission, the 6% rate increase would apply to both permanent and temporary moorage. The city wants to raise these rates to pay for capital improvements to the harbors, also funded through a combination of state grants and bonds. The city has estimated Sitka’s harbors will need $22 million dollars worth of work in the next five years.

In new business, the Assembly will have its first look at a proposal (Motion and Ord 2018-47) to limit the use of plastic bags in Sitka. The ordinance would require vendors to charge a fee for plastic and paper bags. The money would go into the general fund. Last month, the city of Anchorage banned plastic bags at retail stores altogether.

Echoes of Sitka’s 2015 landslides will be on the agenda. The Assembly will hear a proposal from the Gary Paxton Industrial Park to sell Lot 23, which houses an administrative building once owned by the Alaska Pulp Corporation. The building was a hit by a landslide, one of several on August 18th, 2015. The appraiser determined the damage so severe, that the lot would be better served in the hands of a private industry.

The Assembly will also discuss a mitigation proposal for South Kramer Avenue, which saw a deadly landslide and extensive damage to a subdivision in 2015. An outside engineer has concluded the area would be safer if a diversion structure were put in place (4349-16 Preliminary Landslide Report). The Assembly may go into executive session to discuss these matters behind closed doors.

Raven News will broadcast the meeting live at 6 p.m., immediately following Alaska News Nightly.

In a previous version of this story, we incorrectly reported that the plastic bag fee would be optional. The ordinance would make it mandatory. 

Downloadable audio.

Michelle Putz is part of Bags for Change, a community group interested in reducing the use of disposable plastic bags in Sitka. Putz talks about the health problems associated with plastic bags and efforts by her group to provide reusable bags across town.  The group has distributed collection boxes around town for citizens to donate clean, reusable bags. Those bags will then be distributed those needing them.  The boxes are currently at City Hall, the Sitka Public Library, Sitka Community Hospital, Hames Center, Chamber of Commerce, Spenard Builder’s Supply, and various churches.

The Bags for Change group is meeting tonight, February 27th, at 7 p.m. at St. Peter’s See House. For more information, call 747-2708.

Downloadable audio.

Michelle Putz, with the Sitka Global Warming Group, will be leading a community discussion on Thursday, Sept. 22 at 7 p.m. at the See House (behind St. Peter’s By the Sea Episcopal church). Called “Bag it for Change,” the group will will discuss their idea to put a fee on plastic and paper bags at grocery stores. Collected fees would go towards school funding residential electric rate stabilization, etc.

Putz will also be hosting a Climate Change Lobby at their house next Tuesday, September 27th.