TRUCK FIRE – Firefighters knock down a fire in a Ford Explorer truck in Arrowhead Trailer Park in the 1200 block of Sawmill Creek Road Saturday evening. One person received fire-related injuries and was taken to the hospital, Sitka Fire Department Chief Craig Warren said, and the truck was considered a total loss. The cause of the fire is under investigation, Warren said. The fire hall received the call about the fire at 5:33 p.m., and one fire engine with eight firefighters and an ambulance were dispatched, he said. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)

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Daily Sitka Sentinel

New Contracts Inked In City Water Sales

By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
    The Assembly approved two water export contracts Tuesday – one large, one small – that may bring in $100,000 for the city in the next four months.
    The city has been pursuing sales of water in bulk from Blue Lake for the past 20 years. To date, no water has been exported, but the city continues to field offers from water export enterprises, which have paid more than $1.3 million to secure contracts.
    The deal with Arctic Blue Waters Alaska that was approved Tuesday night is for a 20-year contract to export about 2 billion gallons annually. The company must pay $10,000 by Sept. 19 and another $90,000 within 120 days. One owner of Arctic Blue Waters is Fred Paley, who made the first offer to buy Sitka’s Blue Lake water in 1995.
    “I think it’s a good deal,” said Garry White, director of the Gary Paxton Industrial Park. “It’s never been done before, really. This is giving them another opportunity and hopefully it’s successful.”
    Paley spoke to the Assembly about his current plans, which call for bottling water in five-liter kegs-in-a-box, similar to boxes of wine. He said despite the failure of ventures in the past, the companies he’s worked with have moved the effort forward, spending money on contracts, design work, infrastructure and leases.
    He told the Assembly he still has hopes of exporting Blue Lake water.
    “The timing may be right for bulk water export,” Paley said. “After 30 years, we haven’t given up.”
    Steven Eisenbeisz cast the lone vote against approval of the contract, saying he doesn’t see anything in the plan to indicate that this venture will be any more successful than failed plans in the past.
    Bob Potrzuski said if the Assembly approves the contract, the venture has a chance at being successful.
    “If we don’t pass it, there’s no chance that there will be water (exported),” he said.
    The smaller of the two proposals that the Assembly approved was a 20-year contract with Eckert Brothers for purchase of 100 million gallons annually. The Eckerts plan to export water for bottling elsewhere in a high-end product.
    The Eckerts will be required to design and construct a new water loading infrastructure for loading 20-foot containers and 330-gallon containers.
    The contract requires them to purchase and export 75,000 gallons in the first 36 months. They must pay $100 per month minimum, set by the Gary Paxton Industrial Park to offset administrative costs, given the low volumes of water in the purchase.
    “We want to make them successful, and give them the opportunity to move forward,” White said today.
    Using 20-foot containers to export water may open up new opportunities for shipping and offloading the water, White said.
    “I’m not aware of any port in the world with infrastructure to accept 10 to 20 million gallons of water from a tanker, but every port in the world can take a 20-foot container,” he said.
    In other business at Tuesday’s meeting the Assembly:
    – appointed Ken Creamer to an unexpired term on the Port and Harbors Commission.
    – approved spending $270,000 from the Harbor fund to repair the pilings of O’Connell lightering bridge damaged during a June 12 storm. The dock is not being used for cruise ship lightering, but until it was damaged was used to moor large yachts at $1,000 per day. The Assembly approved spending $10,000 for market research on offering the dock for this use at the $3,000 to $5,000 per day that industry representatives say it could realize.
    – approved an ordinance to increase funding for airport improvements from $433,570 to $640,789, using fees paid by passengers. Aaron Bean and Aaron Swanson voted against.
    – approved adjustments to the 2017 budget to reflect the solid waste fund being over budget by $769,543 due to the higher than anticipated contractual costs related to the new solid waste contract; the harbor fund being $142,283 over budget due to the shift of cost of the disposal of solid waste to the municipality; and the Management Information Systems fund being $17,661 over budget due to the shift of cost of telephone charges from individual departments to the MIS fund.
    – passed a resolution in support of Sitka Trail Works’ grant application to the state recreational trails program to repair the Sea Lion Cove trail. The application was for up to $50,000.

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20 YEARS AGO

March 2004

Businesses using the Centennial Hall parking lot testified Tuesday against a proposal to charge them rent in addition to the $200 annual permit fee. City Administrator Hugh Bevan made the proposal in response to the Assembly’s direction to Centennial Hall manager Don Kluting to try to close the $340,000 gap between building revenues and operational costs.


50 YEARS AGO

March 1974

Alaska Native Brotherhood Grand President William S. Paul Sr. will be special guest and speaker at the local ANB, Alaska Native Sisterhood Founders Day program Monday at the ANB Hall.

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