Open Water Challenge
Dear Editor: Thank you to all of the wonderful supporters and sponsors of the 2016 Change Your Latitude Open Water Challenge. At the new course next to the Sitka Sound Science Center and Totem Park, 31 swimmers jumped in among schools of salmon and swam.
The Baranof Barracuda Swim Club and race organizers would specially like to thank Fisherman’s Quay, Russell’s, Xterra Wetsuits, Sea Mart Quality Foods, Weiland Construction, Sitka Northern Sales and Sitka Community Hospital for race support. Quality Processing, Murray Pacific, Sitka Bazaar and New Wave Swim Buoy for prizes for the courageous finishers.
Sitka Sound Seafoods, Seafood Producers Co-Op and Silver Bay Seafoods for donating salmon for our pre-race banquet and the very tasty sample of Sitka Sound’s bounty to our out-of-town swimmers! A huge thank you to Ted Gassman for cooking up that salmon, you have outdone yourself again!
We would like to specially thank the Sitka Fire Department Dive and Rescue and the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary for their support of the swimmers while in the water. Dr. Kimberly Capp and the EMS crew who tended to all of us on land. Without those keen eyes out there on the water and expert help for a cold swimmer or two this event wouldn’t be wise to do. A special thank you to all of our kayak volunteers including those from the Sitka Fine Arts Camp Historic Restoration Crew. Our swimmers were yet again impressed, remarking that they had never attended an event so well covered and thought out.
And to all of the individual volunteers. Too many to call out individually but a huge thank you to you. Sitka High Swimmers, thank you for your time and energy in setting up and breaking down the warming tent and other heavy lifting.
We look forward to next year and even more swimmers in the water.
Kevin Knox, Race Director
Change Your Latitude
57° North Open Water Challenge
City Taxes
Dear Editor: I have only lived in Sitka for three years, so maybe my opinion doesn’t count for much, but I would like to thank the Assembly for having the courage to put forward a property tax increase on the ballot. I fully understand it’s going to raise my own housing costs, since my landlords will likely pass some of it down on to me, but it is worthwhile to know that if I decide to raise a family here, my children and my neighbor’s children will have excellent schools and a functioning municipal government.
I’d like to see more options on the ballot for fiscally sustainable revenue and also more options for making Sitka more affordable, like removing the sales tax on groceries. Is there some way to tax mail-order boxes? Many people are dodging the sales tax by ordering through Amazon and other online retailers. How many hundreds of thousands in lost revenue is that tax-loophole?
As a newcomer, I also hear lots of grumblings about city mismanagement, even corruption, when it comes to things like the Blue Lake Dam. When was the last independent audit of the city? I’d have more confidence in city government if those rumors could be laid to rest or resolved.
Jackson Matthew, Sitka
