By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
City funding to help the Alaska Trollers Association in legal expenses, and authorization of a $4 million loan to rehabilitate the Green Lake hydro plant, are on the Assembly’s regular meeting agenda Tuesday.
Other items are liquor license renewals, appointments to committees and additional funds to cover supplies and other costs for the year in the new Parks and Rec program.
The meeting is 6 p.m. at Harrigan Centennial Hall.
The Assembly has another meeting this week: a government to government meeting with Sitka Tribe of Alaska tribal council, 5:30 p.m. tonight.
The government to government meetings are held twice a year for discussion of issues of mutual interest to the city and STA. It is STA’s turn to host the Tuesday meeting, which will be held in the new STA headquarters building on Siginaka Way.
Regular Assembly Meeting
An ordinance up for second reading Tuesday would allocate $25,000 in city funds to help Alaska Trollers Association’s legal expenses in fighting a lawsuit that threatens the Southeast king salmon troll fisheries.
The ordinance passed unanimously on first reading at the Assembly’s January 24 meeting. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court by the Wild Fish Conservancy against the federal National Marine Fisheries Service. ATA and the state of Alaska are intervenors on behalf of NMFS.
The Wild Fish Conservancy filed the lawsuit in 2020 aimed at protecting southern resident killer whales, which historically have spent part of the year in Puget Sound. Federal magistrate judge Michelle Peterson issued a Report and Recommendation finding that the analysis governing the Columbia River prey increase program was flawed under federal law, and that the Incidental Take Statement governing the Southeast troll fishery, which is managed by the state of Alaska, was therefore also legally deficient.
Judge Richard Jones will make the decision in case, which is pending in the federal court in Seattle. A ruling in favor of WFC threatens the Chinook troll fishery in Southeast Alaska, which is based on migrating king salmon stocks originating in the Pacific Northwest and Canada.
“Without the ITS, the Endangered Species Act is violated, and fishing is prohibited,” said ATA attorney Douglas Steding.
ATA is accepting donations to its legal expenses from businesses, municipalities and individuals around Southeast, and “developing broader public support for keeping that fishery open.”
Steding said ATA has spent $96,000 in legal expenses and $100,000 more is needed. Other governments in Southeast have donated in the current fund drive, and ATA president Matt Donohoe said today that the Wrangell city council will be considering a $7,000 contribution to ATA.
Green Lake Loan
The Assembly will consider accepting a $4 million loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the Green Lake hydro rehabilitation project. The interest rate has been fluctuating since the time the Assembly initially voted acceptance of the loan in 2020, when the interest rate was 1.9 percent.
With all the paperwork finished on both the city and federal side, the loan is ready to be executed. But with interest currently at 3.54 percent, city staff is asking the Assembly to weigh in on whether the loan should go ahead.
“It’s still lower than what we would get through bonding (through the Alaska municipal bond bank),” said city Finance Director Melissa Haley. The 30-year interest expense would have been $1.3 million at the 1.9 per cent rate, but it would be $2.5 million at the 3.54 per cent rate.
City staff has listed pros and cons of going forward. The loan would cover the cost of Phase I of the project, which has already been paid from the electrical department capital fund. With the loan funding, the electric department capital funds would be freed for projects such as Phase II of the hydro rehab project, city staff said.
The city has been looking for federal infrastructure program funding for Phases II and III but the appropriation did not make the final list approved by Congress.
Parks and Rec Funding
Also up for final reading is a budget ordinance appropriating $92,615 from the general fund for the new city Parks and Rec program.
The initial $209,000 budget passed by the Assembly last spring paid the cost of two employees hired to restart the program, which was formerly run by the Sitka School District and later by other entities.
The additional money would cover supplies, equipment and contract services (for referees and instructors), office set-up and temporary wages, through the end of fiscal year 2023. The staff memo says some $21,000 has been collected so far (from participation and class registration fees, facility rentals, open gym fees) in the initial months of the program.
“We conservatively estimate that at least $40,000 will be collected by the end of the fiscal years,” said the memo from Barb Morse, temporary Parks and Rec coordinator. The bottom-line impact will be $52,615, considering the fees collected, the memo said.
