Whitcomb Heights
Dear Editor: What a grand opportunity Sitkans have to be a part of the new neighborhood in north Sitka! After a tortuous history, the Benchlands, also called Whitcomb Heights, are on a move. A new Sitka-owned company, Sound Development LLC, has bought about nine acres off Kramer Avenue. Two minor subdivisions, four lots on either side of the Cross Trail, with magnificent views, begin the process of developing a whole new area of Sitka.
Go take a look. Drive down Halibut Point Road just past Sandy Beach, turn right on Kramer Avenue, go up to the red gate and park across from the well signed Cross Trail, where the new elegant extension of this now famous trail connects all the way to Indian River. Case up the eight lots there.
If those properties look a bit larger than you and your family need at this point of your lives, walk past the red gate and check out the streets called Emmonds and Cushing. Note the new water tower up the hill. And think about a new neighborhood right there. Diverse, interesting, healthy, fun, friendly. Maybe a covered bus stop on Kramer to get residents to work, to school, to health centers? A neighborhood park? A place for kids, parents, grandparents, other relatives, friends, and caregivers to meet, play and visit. A drug free area? What might happen up there along Kramer Avenue?
Well, folks, I don’t know what is planned. I didn’t go to the two public meetings held so far by the Planning Commission to discuss the concept plat for the two minor subdivisions. I’ve been too mad that yet another minor subdivision (seven so far this year!) is skipping along through the process of approval – fast, and kinda secret.
But I am attending the last, the third public hearing and consideration of a final plat for Parcel A and Parcel B, South Benchland. Tomorrow, Tuesday, Dec. 17 at 7 p.m. at Centennial Hall.
I’m curious: whatzagoing on? My first home was an itty bitty, old 12-foot trailer with a small wanagon in Brown’s Trailer Court on the Old Seward Highway across from what is now Dimond Center in South Anchorage. In 1961. It was cozy, safe, and the neighbors, friendly and helpful when the pipes froze, or the sewer plugged up.
After braving (and appreciating) an informative meeting about meth and addictions at Hames on Sunday, I guess I can brave a planning commission meeting at the Centennial. Dec. 17, 7 p.m. Maps will be available. Maybe the public can meet the developers personally and think with them on how their land and their responsibilities are linked to just about everything else in Sitka.
Nancy Yaw Davis, Sitka
Sitka’s Economy
Dear Editor: You can’t have it both ways, Sitka.
Unless you are entirely unconscious, a local merchant like me can’t help but notice the steady decline of local business and of the general economy of our community which is clearly evident even without the front page article about the Colliver and Cropley business closings.
Local business is under assault on a number of fronts, most especially from on-line giants. Best Buy, Amazon and other local-business killers offer cheap prices, free shipping, 24-hour shopping, AND no local sales tax. Yes, even if a local retailer finds quality wholesale prices and keeps profit margins minimal every item has a 5 percent or 6 percent local sales tax which serves as an “instant penalty” to the retailer. So, the on-line e-tailers “say” to local merchants, “Let’s compete but you have to spot me $50 per $1,000.”
In addition, while the giants maintain huge countrywide warehouses with costs cut to the bone and receive beneficial tax breaks just for moving into a community, we local ‘‘bricks and sticks’’ retailers have to pay for leases, mortgages, electricity and other utilities, local property taxes, advertising, and don’t forget local contributions to non-profits and other charities who will largely spend their donation money on-line.
Deck sound a little stacked? Mega stacked! Colliver and Cropley are just the tip of the iceberg – in this community there are many other businesses that are gone without the exposure on the front page of the Sentinel. I am sorry for Mary Lou and Sonny and Jo and for others in Sitka who, in spite of their best efforts, have had to close. It is a real loss to the community not just in tax revenue for the city, but most especially in jobs lost and in revenues generated by those businesses and circulated through the community that are gone and are not coming back.
Is this letter a “feel sorry for me” letter? No it is a fair representation of the facts as I know them. And the facts lead me to conclude that each of us has a decision to make about what is important to us about Sitka. If we continue to take the wealth of Sitka and spend it “off island” with no return to the community, we will inevitably continue the economic downturn and a grim future for a very special community. I think it is imperative that our local and state governments do everything possible to keep our money in Sitka and that local businesses’ make business decisions that keep money in Sitka, and that each of us as individuals do all that we can to keep the money in Sitka.
We can’t have it both ways; I am finding ways to keep the money in Sitka. I invite you to do the same for the sake of us all.
Rob Parker,
Alaska Computer Center
