The Assembly at tonight’s regular meeting will consider a proposal to accept the offer by a Kodiak company to operate the new city-owned haulout and boatyard at the Gary Paxton Industrial Park.

The industrial park board of directors has recommended approval of the bid by the Kodiak company, Highmark Marine Fabrication LLC

The haulout is under construction, with the city waiting for the arrival of a Marine Travelift mobile boat hoist. The project timeline calls for the haulout to be open for business by the end of April, complete with washdown pad and wastewater treatment.

On March 13 the GPIP board held a work session to further review the Highmark proposal, and compare the company's proposed schedule of charges with the estimated fees if the city ran the facility.

The work session was followed by a meeting at which the board voted 3-2 to recommend the Assembly accept the Highmark offer. Voting in favor were Chairman Scott Wagner, Chad Goeden and Casey Campbell, and Mike Johnson and Lauren Howard voted no.

The vote on recommending Highmark’s bid, is “without including the warehouse space.”

“It was a pretty good discussion at the GPIP level, about the building, so I imagine that will be a point of discussion tonight as well,” Chris Ystad, Assembly liaison to the board, said today.

The minutes of the March 13 meeeting indicate that Highmark insisted that the warehouse is an essential part of its bid and is needed to keep maintenance items common in marine repair.

There also was discussion at the March 13 meeting about how the GPIP enterprise fund could recoup cost of maintenance if the city should run the haulout.

Two board members made a motion to add $3 a linear foot on the haulout charge to generate revenue for the maintenance fund, but the motion failed.

One of the main differences between the Highmark bid and the consultant’s estimate for a city-run facility were that the city-run haulout included depreciation, and Highmark's did not.

The city owns all the equipment at the new haulout, and Highmark would be responsible for operating the haulout and boatyard, and maintaining the land and equipment, but the city would be responsible for specific equipment repairs, replacement, insurance, and Phase I of the environmental assessment, among other costs. The city estimated the cost of its responsibilities would be $110,000 annually.

“The Highmark proposal is still less expensive than a city-run yard and allows us to begin operating this spring,” Wagner said today. “It is a five-year contract so in the future if the community decides it wants it to be city operated there will be an opportunity.”

Another major difference between the city and Highmark options are the higher personnel costs in a city-run facility.

The estimated total cost for hauling a 42-foot boat with a two-day yard stay would be $2,828 including depreciation under a city-run facility, and $1,945 without depreciation. The GPIP packet said Highmark's charges would be $1,490. for the same service.

Jeremy Serka, owner of Pacific Jewel Marine, and one of the main advocates for a locally run haulout and boatyard, plans to be at the meeting tonight, to continue pushing for a city-run operation.

“I’m for a city-run operation,” he said. “The reason we need to do that is so we can be competitive with Wrangell and Hoonah, We need to figure out the whole operation before we decide to just go with a single-source noncompetitive bid. ... We don't know if this will benefit local boatowners and businesses.”

Serka submitted one of the original offers to run the haulout “at a competitive rate,” he said. Serka said he would have appreciated a better "apples-to-apples comparison" between the city-run operation and Highmark operation. More realistic figures for some services, he said, would have brought estimates closer together.

To build the haulout, voters agreed to spend $8.2 million from the city permanent fund, and the Denali Commission gave the city a $1 million grant for the boat hoist. Wagner said work at the site is now the in-ground work for the water treatment and concrete washdown pad.