FIFTH OPENING – The Sitka seine boats Hukilau and Rose Lee pump herring aboard this afternoon at the end of Deep Inlet during the fifth opening in the Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery. The opening was being held in two locations beginning at 11 a.m. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
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Sentinel Staff Writer
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Sitka police received the following calls by 8 a.m. today:
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At 7:48 a.m. a calle [ ... ]
Vietnam-Era Vets
Invited to Lunch,
Commemoration
American Legion Post 13 will host a luncheon 1-3 p.m. [ ... ]
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Sentinel Staff Writer
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Daily Sitka Sentinel
Single-Use Bag Fees Pass Assembly Hurdle
By Sentinel Staff
After hearing testimony from a score of citizens concerned about plastic in the environment, the Assembly voted 4-2 Tuesday night in favor of a fee on single use plastic and paper bags provided to customers at local businesses.
The measure was brought to the Assembly after years of effort by local environmental groups. It calls for merchants to collect 15 cents for each plastic bag and 10 cents for a paper bag, with the proceeds to go into the city’s general fund.
It calls for the new fees to go into effect on April 1, 2019, and to be increased to 25 cents for plastic and 15 cents for paper after one year.
In the public testimony the reasons voiced for discouraging use of plastic bags included wildlife entanglement in loose bags, the biological hazards to human and animal life from plastic microparticles in the environment and the effect on global warming from the hydrocarbons used in bag manufacture. The inclusion of paper bags was justified in the general interest of preventing waste.
Public testimony was uniformly in favor of the ordinance, with differences arising only on the proposed use of the revenue, but the measure ran into objections from two of the six Assembly members present, Steve Eisenbeisz and Aaron Bean.
Bean said he would vote for an outright ban on plastic bags, but saw the bag fee as another burden on low-income residents, while having a negligible effect on protecting the environment.
Eisenbeisz objected to the ordinance as an “unfunded mandate,” since accounting for the bag proceeds will increase the bookkeeping costs of local businesses. He made a motion to have the bag fees split 50-50 between the merchant and the city, but it failed for lack of a second.
The ordinance as presented was passed on first reading with Mayor Matt Hunter, Ben Miyasato, Richard Wein and Kevin Knox in favor and Bean and Eisenbeisz opposed. Bob Portzuski, a co-sponsor of the ordinance along with Knox and Wein, attended the first part of the meeting by phone but had signed off by the time the vote was taken.
Proponents of the bag fees said Sitka’s grocery store managers had told them that they go through 2 million plastic bags a year, at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars. The speakers also said Anchorage, Cordova and Bethel, as well as the entire state of Hawaii, have enacted similar fees to curb use of plastic bags. One of the last to speak, Brinnen Carter, said that he discovered on a recent visit that Puerto Rico has a 10-cent fee on one-time use plastic bags.
Carter said that plastic microparticles have been found in ocean waters around the world, but if there is any good news it is that the Sitka area has levels far below those in other areas of Alaska.
Eisenbeisz, who has a downtown clothing and recreational goods store, was the only retail merchant who spoke on the issue.
At the start of the Assembly discussion he said he had been assured by the city attorney that he does not have a conflict of interest in taking part in the decision since the issue affects a broad class, and not him as an individual.
Inclusion of paper bags in the ordinance raised questions from Keith Nytray, manager of the Sitka Food Co-op. He said the co-op does not use plastic bags. He said he supports the ordinance, though he was ambivalent about inclusion of paper bags.
Although Assembly members did not take any action to change the provision that would place the bag fee money in the general fund, they heard suggestions from the public for placing the money in the electric fund low-income subsidy fund, the solid waste fund, a fund for environmental education, or for low-cost reusable bags for the public.
The ordinance will be up for public hearing and a final vote at the next Assembly meeting.
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20 YEARS AGO
March 2004
Matthew C. Hunter of Sitka recently returned from Cuba as part of a St. Olaf College International and Off-Campus Studies program. Hunter, a junior physics major at St. Olaf College, is the son of Robert and Kim Hunter of Sitka.
50 YEARS AGO
March 1974
Eighth graders have returned from a visit to Juneau to see the Legislature. They had worked for it since Christmas vacation ... Clarice Johnson’s idea of a “White Elephant” sales was chosen as the best money-maker; Joe Roth won the political cartoon assignment; highest government test scorers were Ken Armstrong, Joanna Hearn, Linda Montgomery, Lisa Henry, Calvin Taylor and David Licari .....