Sitka’s fixed-route transit system, the RIDE, is restoring its third bus route after cuts during the COVID-19 pandemic. Gerry Hope and John Hansen joined KCAW’s Erin Fulton to discuss updates on the service and their search for additional drivers. Listen to the full interview below:

The RIDE operates Monday through Friday, 6:30 a.m. to 7;30 p.m. Schedules and maps are available at www.ridesitka.com. You can call 907-747-7103 with other questions.

The Sitka Assembly contributed funding to public transportation, but otherwise conducted little public business at a special budget meeting on Wednesday (5/22/19).

The meeting was billed as a penultimate opportunity for changes to the 2020 municipal budget. Assembly member Kevin Mosher brought the sole motion of the evening to the table: To include funding for Sitka’s public transportation service, the Community Ride.

“They emailed the assembly about an hour ago, something that I think they had sent a couple of weeks or months ago,  a request for the 25,000,” Mosher said, and continued that he thought the omission of the funds in the FY2020 budget may have been an oversight.

The Ride is operated by the Center For Community in partnership with Sitka Tribe of Alaska. Assembly member Richard Wein said that $25,000 was a bargain for Sitkans, considering to the service The Ride provides.

“Sitka can in no way support the services that are being rendered to Sitkans,” he said. “That’s 218 rides a day, there are 50,000 plus rides a year. I think that it’s a wonderful partnership that we need to support.”

The motion passed 4-0.

Wein said there were a number of things he wanted to discuss, but with only four assembly members present, he postponed any further amendments to the budget. But he did float one idea: More funding for a “planting program” paid for with cruise ship head tax funds.

“I would like to see either some CPET funds or visitor enhancement funds within the six figure range where we can develop a planting program to help hire but also plant a core portion of the city to enhance visitor experience when they come down here,” he said.

“Do we not have a beautification committee?” Mayor Gary Paxton asked.

“There is but the question is money,” Wein said.

Sitka has a long-established Tree & Landscape Committee. But Wein said he would bring his idea to the table for consideration again at a future meeting.

The assembly then went into executive session to discuss the current status of union negotiations between Alaska State Employees Association and the Public Safety Employees Association. City administrator Keith Brady said negotiations with the IBEW, which represents electrical workers, would begin in June. The assembly was in executive session for one hour and adjourned with no further action.

The assembly will review the FY2020 budget on second reading at its next regular meeting on May 28.

The Assembly has balanced the FY17 budget by drawing from savings, increasing rates, and making cuts. But the solutions for closing the deficit may not be possible next year. (Flickr Creative Commons)

Times are tight in Sitka, but the Assembly has managed to balance the budget. The deficit was as high as $700,000 in March, but shrunk like a candle over the subsequent months to zero. How? Through combination of cuts, rate hikes, and money in reserve that may not be around next year. KCAW’s Emily Kwong has more on this year’s budget balancing act and why next year will be even trickier.

Downloadable audio.

(Sound of cash drawer being opened)

You are now inside the cash register of the City of Sitka and I’m going to take you on a little tour.

(Sound of change being counted)

The Assembly has been noodling around in here for nearly two months, holding four special meetings and building off six months of work by the Citizens’ Task Force to close the FY17 budget gap. The good news? They’ve done it!

But, as Assemblyman Matthew Hunter said at their May 3rd meeting, it’s not without some casualties. “We’ve cut 3 positions this year. We’ve cut some services. And it’s been emotionally hard for me, which kind of surprised me. I like to think I’m logical, but it hurts to make those cuts and see jobs disappear. Even if they’re vacant, those are jobs in Sitka. Those are futures, people living here, making money and raising families,” Hunter said.

Now by cut, what the city really did was consolidate. The positions of Parks and Recreation Manager and Buildings and Facilities Manager, previously held by Lynne Brandon and Chris Wilbur, were merged. Sitkan Michael Colliver is the new hire. The Assembly won’t hire a new Assistant Fire Chief in Al Stevens stead. And one police officer is being reassigned as a detective, going down to half time.

The draft budget also reduces non-profit support by $89,000, snow removal, janitorial, and other public works operations by $250,000, and zeroes out funding for the Ride (which faced a major shortfall last year).

Connie Sipe is with the Center for Community, which oversees the largely grant-funded public transit system. Right now, the Ride runs buses from 6:30 in the morning until 7:30 at night, but those hours may be cut down. “We may have to half hour in the morning or a half hour at night. That’s the first thing we’ll do, is not eliminate the service, but figure out how we can shave a little bit,” she said.

A few special requests did make it on to the till, however. That includes $65,000 for the assessing department to hire a temporary employee. Assessor Wendy Lawrence estimates that Sitka is missing out $1 million a year from undervalued property. Until the city can afford new software, she needs another set of hands to help bring taxes in line with market value.

Speaking the backlog of undervalued properties, Lawrence told the Assembly, “What we have now is a car without an engine. I have a system where I can put things into, but it’s all done manually and I’m the engine.”

The Assembly also voted “yes” on $40,000 to rebuild the community playground in Crescent Harbor, reasoning it was a deferred maintenance issue, and $40,000 for rewriting Sitka’s comprehensive plan.

The Assembly voted “no” on a new phone system. Assemblyman Steven Eisenbeisz, who runs the outfitting store Russell’s, said, “At my business, I wish I had phones that were 13 years old. Mine were made in 1992.”

Electric rates will increase by 5% and both water and wastewater fees by 1%. But it was a citizen, Matt Donohoe, who waited over two and a half hours for persons to be heard, who turned the tide on a proposed 6.2% increase in harbor rates.

Mayor Mim McConnell: Any public comment? Thanks for waiting Matt.

Donohoe: Thank you guys for your service. This is excruciating. I think that in the next five years you’re going to see a very different fishing fleet here in Sitka. It’s going to be vastly changed. It’s going to be because of the actions like this, the 6.2% increase.

It will take an ordinance, but the Assembly voted to curtail the rate increase to 5%. They also approved a recommendation by the Citizens’ Task Force to transfer $100,000 from the city’s share of the raw fish tax to the harbor fund.

The city won’t be imposing any furloughs. That proposal didn’t gain traction in union negotiations.

Over the phone with KCAW, City Administrator Mark Gorman said that local government will definitely have a smaller footprint on July 1st. “I hope when individuals encounter those diminished services they will have an understanding of why they’re no longer there,” he said. The biggest reason for this, of course, it’s the state’s fiscal crisis. Sitka will receive 35% less state funding than last year.

But the second reason is simple math: Sitka cannot afford the cost of its infrastructure. To close the FY17 budget gap this year, some significant transfers took place: $1.6 million from the general fund to the electric fund to stabilize rates, $1.3 million from previous years appropriations for capital projects, and $1.1 million from the public infrastructure sinking fund for public works. That’s a lot of money for patching holes — money that won’t be there next year.

Due to this, Gorman said FY18 deficit will be even more difficult to overcome.  “If the tealeaves are correct as we read them in City Hall, next year is going to be twice as tough. So, we can’t really stop right now and take a deep breath and say, ‘We’re done.’ The heavy lifting is about to begin.

But, Gorman added, while walking down the street last week (the sun was out after all) he was pleased to see Lincoln Street bustling and stores open. “We’ve got a great community. We’ve got tremendous assets here and we’ve got a can-do attitude. So, we’ll get through this. But there’s going to be a couple rough years,” he said.

Mayor Mim McConnell said that, although the Assembly has made several budget decisions already through these special meetings – in years past, all this discussion happened during the regular meetings – the public is still welcome to weigh in. She said, “Just because we’ve made these decisions, doesn’t mean we can’t change our minds.”

She added, “I definitely expect people to speak up because, after all, it’s their city.”

The Assembly will have their first reading of the FY17 budget tonight at 6 p.m. at the Sealing Cove Business Center. Assemblymen Matthew Hunter and Bob Potrzuski will be absent.

The fixed bus routes, also known as the RIDE, celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2012. (Photo courtesy of the Center for Community website)

Downloadable audio.

Connie Sipe, the Executive Director of the Center for Community, is part of the effort to draft Sitka’s coordinated transit plan, which is open for public comment through Monday, June 15.

This draft plan, called the 2015-19 Sitka Public Transit-Human Services Transportation Coordinated Plan, is updated every five years and used by various agencies in Sitka when they apply for transportation-related grants. Sipe discusses the purpose of the plan, funding picture, and her hopes for public and paratransit in Sitka.

A copy of the prepublication draft of the coordinated plan can be picked up at the Center for Community office, 700 Katlian St., Suite B, or at the Sitka Tribe of Alaska main office, 456 Katlian St. (upstairs). The draft plan also is posted on the Center for Community website at http://www.cfc.org/our-services-2/the-ride.

Public comments can be emailed to Center for Community Transit Project Assistant Charles Bingham at cbingham@cfc.org by Monday, June 15. A summary of comments then will be presented to Sitka Tribe of Alaska, which will hear a resolution approving the draft plan at its regular tribal council meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 17, at the Sheet’ká Kwáan Naa Kahídi. The tribal council meeting is open to the public and will include a time for public comment on the plan.

Downloadable audio

Assembly members gave final approval to measures doubling the tobacco tax and raising the sales tax cap from $1500 to $3000, effective October.

They also approved about $370,000 worth of cuts to city services; and voted to pull about $300,000 more than originally budgeted from the city’s permanent fund.

You can find a full list of proposed cuts here.

Altogether, that package fulfills the assembly’s commitment to find an additional million dollars for the Sitka School District this year. And the increased tobacco tax will bring in an estimated about $256,000 for Sitka Community Hospital, which is still struggling after its financial crisis this winter.

City administrator Mark Gorman submitted the list of proposed cuts, and assembly members accepted them all – except an option to nix $100,000 in grants to local nonprofits. Instead, the assembly voted to reduce that fund by a quarter, leaving $75,000 still available.

Mayor Mim McConnell and members Tristan Guevin and Michelle Putz  had to recuse themselves from the vote because they work or serve on the board of local non-profits.

Speaking during public comment, Randy Hughey, of the Sitka Community Development Corporation, said that was telling.

“It’s pretty indicative that when you take this vote, three assembly people have to stand up and leave,” he said. “And that has to do with the…size and the consequence of the nonprofit economy in Sitka. It’s very big here, it does a lot to benefit Sitkans, in terms of quality of life and economically. It’s a big economic engine.”

The cuts that were approved include a half-time “multi-purpose officer” at the Sitka Police Department. Chief Sheldon Schmitt said that likely means the city will lose its only parking enforcement officer. The assembly also voted to eliminate a half-time position at Centennial Hall, while the building is under construction. And Kettleson Memorial Library will cut eight hours a week– that’s down from a proposal to shut the library one full day each week.

Among other cuts, the city will save $90,000 by putting off improvements at the Fire Hall, including a new carpet and refinished floors. Another $83,000 comes from postponing a new roof for the animal shelter. The city anticipates $30,000 in savings from scaling back its snow-ploughing efforts in winter. Another $40,000 will come out of the employee training and travel budget. And the city will save $12,000 by eliminating an employee wellness program and ending its contribution to the annual employee holiday party.

And then there’s the $1500 saved by no longer providing snacks for the assembly during meetings.

Members voted down a proposal to cut funding for The Ride, Sitka’s bus system. A proposal to strip out $25,000 promised to The Ride in the 2016 budget failed, 3 to 3. Members Matt Hunter, Aaron Swanson and Steven Eisenbeisz voting to cut the funding. Ben Miyasato recused himself because he sits on the Sitka Tribal Council. The Sitka Tribe runs The Ride, in partnership with the Center for Community.

Meanwhile, the tobacco tax almost proved a sticking point. It would add about $1.25 to the cost of a pack of cigarettes, which already hovers around $9. Assembly members debated whether the point of the tax was to decrease smoking or to prop up Sitka Community Hospital. In the end, Michelle Putz said she was fine with both reasons.

“I am not against killing two birds with one stone,” she said. “I think that it’s great that it can potentially do good things for health…and I think it’s great that it’s filling a hole in the budget that we are having a lot of difficulty filling.”

The tobacco tax passed 5-2, with Tristan Guevin and Steven Eisenbeisz voting no.

Meanwhile, the assembly postponed, again, a proposal to put a measure on the October ballot to increase property taxes. That proposal would dedicate any new revenue to Sitka schools. But having relieved the immediate pressure to fund the school district this coming year, assembly members said they’d like to see a longer, community-wide process to overhaul the tax code.

***

In other business, the assembly voted to award the nearly $13-million contract for renovating Harrigan Centennial Hall to MCG Constructors and Dawson Construction.

And a proposal to restructure the board of Sitka Community Hospital was postponed.

You can find more coverage of the Sitka Assembly here.

At a special meeting Thursday evening (4-23-15), the assembly passed two separate electric rate increases, on first reading. One would raise rates all at once, while the other would likely spread the increase over several years.  Assembly members will decide which goes forward — if either — at a special meeting on Monday, May 4.

The city is raising rates to meet bond obligations stemming from the Blue Lake dam expansion.

The first proposal is an increase of about 23% — or about $28 per month — for an average Sitka household. That assumes the household uses about 1,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity each month.

That measure passed 4-2, with Tristan Guevin and Steven Eisenbeisz voting against. Mayor Mim McConnell was absent.

The second proposal would raise rates by about 6%, or $8 a month for that same household. But the city would likely have to raise rates annually for the next few years.

That measure also passed 4-2, this time with Eisenbeisz and Aaron Swanson voting no.

Deputy Mayor Matt Hunter was in the majority on both votes. He said he wanted both measures to advance to second reading, when McConnell will be back and the full Assembly can consider them together.

The smaller rate increase is possible only with an in-house financial maneuver. The city’s Southeast Alaska Economic Development fund is currently used for loans to local businesses or municipal projects. The assembly voted Thursday night to allow transfers from the fund, rather than only loans.

That would allow the assembly to move about $2.5-million into the Electric Fund, making the smaller rate hike possible.

***

After the meeting, the assembly held a work session on the budget. Assembly members discussed options for funding the School District, but made no decisions.

The assembly also heard from representatives of The Ride, Sitka’s bus system. The Ride had previously asked the city for $100,000 to cover a shortfall in federal transit grants. But Connie Sipe, of the Center for Community — which runs The Ride — said the system will likely be able to tap state funding for a year longer than expected.

“I’ve been able to pull a last rabbit out of a last hat,” Sipe told KCAW.

The Ride is now asking for about $25,000 as a local match to access that state money.

UPDATED 5/1/15: An earlier version of this article stated that the Southeast Alaska Economic Development fund was set up to provide loans to local businesses. In fact, it provides loans to both the city and local businesses, even before the proposed change. 

Unless the city steps in, The Ride may have to cut hours or even a full bus line, the Assembly was told. (KCAW photo/Rachel Waldholz)

Sitka’s bus system, The Ride, is facing a major shortfall.

Representatives of The Ride told the Sitka Assembly last night (Tuesday 3-10-15) that without city support, the system will likely have to cut hours — or even a full bus line.

The Ride is run as a partnership between the Center for Community, the Sitka Tribe of Alaska (STA) and Southeast Senior Services, and funded by a combination of state and federal grants. Historically, the city has played no part in funding the bus system, although last year, the Assembly agreed to a one-time grant of $25,000.

This year, The Ride is requesting $100,000.

Connie Sipe, of the Center for Community, told the Assembly The Ride is a good investment.

“We know money is tight,” she said. “But we also know that transit – through the three partner agencies, Center for Community, Sitka Tribe, and Southeast Senior Services — brings nearly a million dollars a year, every year, year after year, into this community. It’s spent here on mechanics’ fees, salaries, wages, benefits, and gas. It’s all spent here.”

The shortfall comes as a result of policy changes in Washington, D.C.

Since 2007, STA has received federal grants to fund the Green Line, which runs back and forth from downtown to Japonski Island, with stops at SEARHC and the University of Alaska, Southeast.

In previous years, STA received an average of $240,000 to run that line. This year, that amount was cut to $150,000. In the next two years, it will drop still more, bottoming out at $80,000.

That’s because Congress has changed the funding formula for tribal transit grants. STA Transportation Director Gerry Hope said those changes mean many Alaska tribes are ending up with less money.

In 2014, The Ride provided an average of 230 rides a day.  Hope said if the city wants to see that kind of service continue, it will have to step up — and that it’s hard to ask for more money from federal agencies when the city isn’t pitching in.

When funders have come on site visits, Hope said, “In both cases, they asked, ‘What is the city’s role in public transit?’ And we had to say, for fixed route, there’s no role, there’s absolutely no buy-in. And their jaws dropped to the floor. It’s unheard of for the city government to have no role at all in public transit.”

“Somehow we’ve stood apart,” Hope said. “And the burden has been on a nonprofit and the tribal government to provide this service.”

Assembly member Ben Miyasato, who had requested the discussion, recused himself because he sits on the Sitka Tribal Council and is chair of the Tribe’s transportation subcommittee. He spoke from the audience in favor of the funding. Mayor Mim McConnell and Assembly Members Michelle Putz and Tristan Guevin also expressed support.

But Deputy Mayor Matt Hunter said that in a tough budget year, he wasn’t sure the city could afford it.

“We have the Sitka School District, which is facing a much larger gap, in excess of $2-million, likely,” Hunter said. “They’re going to be looking at staff reductions. And I’m having some real difficulty looking at essentially expanding the scope of what the city supports, in terms of services, when we are looking at having to pull back on services we currently operate due to our budget.”

In the end, the Assembly voted 4 – 2 to include a $25,000 placeholder for The Ride in the 2016 budget. Hunter and Assembly Member Steven Eisenbeisz voted against that placeholder.

The exact amount will be subject to revision once the Assembly takes up the full budget, next month.

KCAW summer reporter Greta Mart (r.) listens in as Artchange intern Iolanda Depizzol develops her “Ask a Local” audio tour. (Artchange photo)

A local Sitka non-profit called Artchange expanded its reach this summer, thanks to the addition of three Yale University interns. Artchange is a project of a local filmmaker, who asked each student to put a lens on a different aspect of the community — tourism, transportation and food. But they all shared a common goal: To get to know the people and places of Southeast Alaska.

Iris? Iris this is Iolanda, Hi Iolanda, Hi Iris, Are you willing to go on a tour? I’m ready to go on a tour.

Iolanda Depizzol came to Sitka from Brazil, via a one-year exchange program at Yale University. She is one of three summer interns with Artchange, a non-profit spearheaded by local independent filmmaker Ellen Frankenstein. Over a two-month span, Depizzol created the first installments of Ask A Local, an audio story tour. It’s designed to guide tourists along Lincoln and Katlian Streets while listening to personal stories narrated by locals.

…When I came to Pioneer home…we got married on Castle Hill…Lincoln Street was the main drag…I first moved here in 2000…one day he took his boat into town….

“Most of the time, the tours happen in an impersonal way. It’s more historical and informational data. We wanted to try to bring the tourists closer to the people who live here, because the people is who make the city happen. Especially here in Sitka where the community is so important.”

Depizzol spent her time interviewing dozens of Sitkans, asking personal questions and weaving their memories into a narrative aimed to capture Sitka’s soul.

“Mostly we are interested in knowing their backgrounds. So if they didn’t grow up here, where they are from, how did they end up coming here…try to ask about Sitka, how did they feel about Sitka when they got here, what do they miss when they leave, what are their memories walking down the streets come to mind…we are trying to gather different kind of stories, getting a love story, something more political, something funny…and just trying to make this whole thing compelling for the tourist.”

Alina Aksiyoten Benardete hails from Mexico City, the daughter of a New Yorker mother and a Turkish father. Her project was wholly focused on the Ride, Sitka’s transit system, a joint project of the Sitka Tribe and the Center for Community.

Her project was to make a series of videos on the Ride and…

“…to really reach as many people as possible, interview a lot of people about what the Ride means to them, why it’s important to them, and kind of go a little further as to why public transportation is important and why it’s important to have things for the community that the people can use and depend on.”

Benardete said she was initially skeptical that her summer project – in a town she’s never heard of – wouldn’t make a difference in the world.

“I think coming here and doing the project and immersing myself in the lives of different people. It makes the thing you thought was small really important and really big. I think it’s special working here in Sitka because what you do matters.”

Lucy Wang had just completed her freshman year at Yale when she applied for a summer internship in Sitka. Wang’s main project is called What Sitka Eats, in partnership with the Sitka Local Foods Network. She made a Tumblr site documenting local dietary staples and Sitkans’ relationship with their food. In doing so, she said she learned new skills for her own diet.

“I’ve been able to live off the land a little bit, I went and harvested some seaweed and then I ate it and it was really good.”

Like Benardete, Wang had never heard of Sitka before arriving here. For students, this community — and the state — have the right combination of allure and interest to make a worthwhile summer.

“I had never been to Alaska before, in fact I’ve never been west of Chicago. I’m really excited to be here and do some soul searching in Alaska.”

The number of internships offered in Sitka keeps growing. State representative Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins began the Bulldogs on Baranof program while he was still a student at Yale. Dozens of students — and post grads — from other universities are now involved in a variety of programs.

“It’s really snowballed and over the last four years, counting this year, there’ve been gosh 140 college students who have come to Sitka. And it’s spread beyond Yale, which is where I went, to other colleges around the country. So Sitka’s getting this huge influx of young people who are really excited to be here and dedicate their time and energy to projects in Sitka every summer.”

In addition to the Bulldogs on Baranof, Kreiss-Tomkins has helped launch three other student programs in Sitka: The Sitka Fellows, which takes six applicants for seven weeks and provides them room, board, and studio space to develop an original project; the Sitka Service Fellows, which places post-grads in non-profit organizations around the community for up to nine months; and the Historical Restoration Internship. This summer, 26 undergraduates from around the country worked to restore a building on the historic Sheldon Jackson Campus.