Daily Sitka Sentinel

Senator Gets Look At Sitka’s Sites, Priorities

By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer

U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan’s stop here Tuesday included a tour with city officials of sites where Sitka is asking for federal help, and a visit with fishermen.

The city’s top legislative priorities are a haulout at the Gary Paxton Industrial Park ($8 million), the Green Lake hydro rehabilitation ($13 million) and rebuilding the seawall at the Marine Services Center ($8.3 million).

Sullivan also spoke to a group of business owners after the tour (see related story), and with fishermen at the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association office.

Sullivan and his wife, Julie, were here with Dana Herndon, delegation representative from Juneau, and Michael Soukup, digital marketing director, who took photos of the visit. 

City officials who accompanied the senator to the Gary Paxton Industrial Park and marine services center were Mayor Steven Eisenbeisz, City Administrator John Leach and Communications and Government Relations Director Melissa Henshaw.

“It was a great visit and we were very happy to host the senator and showcase our great community,” Leach said today. “We had the opportunity to show him the proposed site for a marine haulout and he offered to put his support behind our grant application to make that happen as our top priority.”

Leach said the senator was pleased to hear that Sitka’s electric utility is “100 percent clean hydropower,” with diesels used only as backup.

“Overall the visit went extremely well,” Leach said.

At the industrial park, Director Garry White pointed out the proposed location for the new haulout and boatyard. He also provided background and history of the site, the former Alaska Pulp Corp. plant. He also talked about a floating dock that’s being heavily used by the commercial fishing fleet and about future prospects related to the haulout and boatyard.

White commented today, “This haulout could potentially help us with other priorities for making Sitka ‘ground zero’ for turning diesel-powered boats to electric boats. Sitka could be the center for innovation and research for making that a reality.”

Although Sitka wasn’t selected last year for a federal BUILD grant, Henshaw said city officials participated in a “debrief” after the process, and received advice on how Sitka could fare better this time around, under the new RAISE grant process.

“We got parameters on where we need to focus our energies,” Henshaw said.

BUILD (Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development) and RAISE (Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity) are discretionary grants intended to “modernize and create infrastructure.”

Mayor Steven Eisenbeisz also said the visit went well.

“I think it was a great visit to show some of the perspectives of Sitka,” he said. “(Sullivan) was extremely interested in the haulout. He offered a letter of support for our application - that puts us in a really strong spot there.”

Eisenbeisz came away with a sense that Sullivan is interested in Southeast issues.

“I don’t think he’s simply a Railbelt senator,” the mayor said. Sullivan is working on legislation to strengthen fisheries-related infrastructure, which will help on both the haulout and seawall project, Eisenbeisz added.

Henshaw said the stop at the marine services center offered officials a chance to point out the site for the future seaplane base on Japonski Island, which is visible from the town side of the channel. That project is currently in the “environmental assessment phase.”

White said he and the officials made it clear the need for the haulout for “a place like Sitka, which has one of the largest harbor systems in the state.”

“We told him that a lot of people have to go to other ports, including Puget Sound, for their boat work, and we’d like to keep our fleet in Sitka,” White said. “Overall, it was about the overall importance of a haulout in a community like Sitka.”

One of Sullivan’s other stops in town was a meeting with fishermen at the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association office on Baranof Street.

Meeting with Fishermen

Fisherman Jeff Farvour, ALFA board vice president, said the topics included the effects of climate change on fisheries, the importance of intact habitat for healthy stocks, “the unacceptable amount of bycatch in trawl fisheries” in all of Alaska; and the inadequacy of observer coverage in monitoring bycatch of the trawl fleet in the Gulf of Alaska.

Farvour said ALFA thanked the senator for his help resolving the interruption of VHF coverage and ensuring the VHF sites are fixed and maintained, “which is a massive safety issue for everyone,” he said.

ALFA also thanked Sullivan for his effort to allow Automatic Information System marking on longline fishing gear.

“It’s a sensible and cost-effective way to avoid gear conflicts,” Farvour said. “We’re not allowed to use AIS but are working on getting approval for its use as it’s sensible and time-tested.”

Other thanks went to Sullivan for supporting the Young Fishermen’s Development Act; and USDA tariff relief. The group also talked about the importance of the haulout and boatyard, and their role in preserving a working waterfront for the community, in the face of competing other private uses (residential, tourism).

“It was a good meeting,” Farvour said.

“We completely appreciate his support for ocean acidification research, and commitment to climate action,” agreed Linda Behnken, ALFA executive director. “It was a very good meeting with Senator Sullivan and fishermen.”