By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
The Gary Paxton Industrial Park board at its meeting Thursday recommended accepting the proposal by Sitka Community Boatyard LLC to build a haulout and boatyard at the industrial park.
The motion was approved by a 5-0 vote, and included approval of the boatyard group’s proposal for a phased approach for leasing properties, as well as performance benchmarks. The recommendation now goes to the Assembly, which will make the decision on accepting the proposal, which was the only one received in response to a Request for Proposals.
The SCB proposal calls for installing a marine travel lift pier, a retaining wall and staging dock, and the purchase of a travel lift of 100-ton to 300-ton capacity. The next phases of the project call for installation of a washdown pad and water treatment system. The industrial park board recommended that no city funds be used on the project, although the city is in the process of applying for federal funds for the improvements.
In other business at Thursday’s meeting the board approved an agreement with Roy Uber for use of the GPIP dock to buy fish.
GPIP Director Garry White said this is a similar to the agreement previously approved for Sitka Salmon Shares.
White said he had no problem with the request for this season, but the board will need to consider how much of this type of activity to allow in the future. He said he’s concerned about congestion among user groups at the dock, and wants everyone to have equal access to the public facility.
‘‘The board needs to address this in the future,” White said Friday. “This was never intended to be a permanent fish buying station.”
The dock use agreement was approved 5-0, and does not need to go to the Assembly since it’s a month-to-month agreement.
Attending the meeting were Chairman Scott Wagner, Vaughn Morrison, Mike Johnson, Lauren Mitchell and Chris Ystad.
