Water Purchase Offer Rejected by Assembly
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- Created on Wednesday, 12 March 2025 15:42
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SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
It took the Assembly about an hour to wrap up business at Tuesday night's regular meeting, rejecting a water purchase offer from Global Hydration LLC, and approving a work plan for the Sitka Sustainability Commission in the coming year.
During the meeting there were a few announcements related to cruise ships, including a schedule change prompted by the agreement between the city and the Sitka Dock Company.
All seven Assembly members were present at the meeting.
Cruise Ships
In his staff report at the end of the meeting, City Administrator John Leach told the Assembly about a cruise ship schedule change related to the memorandum of understanding between the city and the Sitka Dock Company that the Assembly approved in November.
“When we put the MOU together with the Sitka Dock Company, we knew there were challenges with bookings happening for 2025 and ‘26,” Leach said, referring to the fact that cruise lines set itineraries as much as 18 to 20 months in advance. “Working with the lines, they’ve done a really good job trying to be flexible where they can.”
He met with Norwegian Cruise Lines to discuss four dates when a visit by the company’s 1,250-passenger Riviera would result in more visitors in town than the 7,000 target limit in the MOU. Norwegian canceled a May 28 Sitka port call and rescheduled a call planned for Sept. 2 to August 30.
Leach gave Norwegian an exemption for two other days to allow the number of visitors to exceed the target 7,000.
“I reiterated in a letter I wrote back to him, that our desire is to keep that under 7,000 and now they’ve had ample time to plan for 2027 and beyond, that hopefully we can continue that collaboration,” Leach said.
Under Special Reports, City Clerk Sara Peterson told the Assembly, about an upcoming deadline in the initiative petition process now underway.
“We received those completed petition booklets and we’re currently reviewing those signatures to determine that the petitioner requirements have been met, and our deadline on that is on Friday,” Peterson said.
The completed petition booklets were submitted on Feb. 28, and under the law the clerk’s office has 10 business days after that date to review signatures and determine whether the petition meets sufficiency requirements for an election, particularly that there are at least 613 signatures of registered voters in Sitka.
Water Purchase Proposal
The Assembly rejected a proposal by Global Hydration LLC to purchase raw water from the city. No one attended on the company’s behalf at the last two Assembly meetings the proposal was on the table.
This turned out to be a determining factor in the Assembly’s rejection of the company’s offer.
“At this point I don’t feel like we have a partnership, and that’s what I’m really looking for here,” Mayor Steven Eisenbeisz said.
The company also didn’t attend the January Assembly meeting when the item was on the agenda. The Assembly at the time voted to delay action until the March 11 meeting.
Global Hydration asked for rights to export 2 billion gallons annually, but no information was provided on whether they had secured markets or clients, or on their general plans. The agreement required the company to purchase a minimum of 50 million gallons within the first five years, at a price of 3/1,000 cents per gallon, going up to half-cent after nine months.
The Gary Paxton Industrial Park board had recommended approval of the agreement, which came with an upfront $10,000 payment by Global.
Before the vote Assembly members said they didn’t like companies tying up water rights, with no plans beyond that.
The vote was 0-7 on the motion to approve the agreement.
The city currently has one water purchase contract, with a company called Arctic Blue Waters. This contract gives the company the first right of refusal on future water allocations.
Arctic Blue planned to exercise that right to keep the city from selling water to Global Hydration, but GPIP director Garry White said Arctic Blue did not meet the Feb, 27 deadline to pay the required $100,000 to the city. A letter to the Assembly on Tuesday from Arctic Blue CEO Fred Paley asked for more time to make the payment, and said his company is working on a plan for a water loading dock in Silver Bay at an estimated cost of $10 million.
White said plans for loading water had to be changed because the industrial park now has a haulout facility and a busy multiuse dock, both owned by the city.
In other business at Tuesday's meeting, the Assembly heard presentations from the city Human Resources, Clerk and the IT departments, and approved the sustainability commission’s goals and work plan (story in a future edition of the Sentinel).
The Assembly reappointed Crystal Duncan to the Health Needs and Human Services Commission, and Barbara Teepe to the Tree and Landscape Commission. Michelle Kavouras was appointed to the Police and Fire Commission.