SEDA Projects Response
Dear Editor: This letter is response to Chris McGraw’s Dec. 23 letter regarding possible projects at Sawmill Cove Industrial Park.
In his letter, Mr. McGraw likens Halibut Point Marine Services (HPMS) to the marine service facility in Wrangell. While I am grateful that Sitka has a boat haul out facility, that is in fact, all it is. A boat haul out. Halibut Point Marine Services offers nothing beyond boat haul out, pressure washer rental and limited storage and to compare it to the facility in Wrangell simply isn’t accurate. Since Mr. McGraw has taken ownership of HPMS, the boat haul out portion of his business has only gotten smaller. One look at the facility reveals that tourism is the focus of the company, not facilitating boat maintenance.
I am a commercial fisherman owning and operating my own vessel, and a welder/fabricator who performs maintenance and improvements on our vast commercial, charter and recreational fleets here in Sitka. It is my opinion that Sitka is in dire need of a marine services center. This would consist of a large boat haulout facility capable of hauling large vessels, with covered work areas for large boats, welding shops, hydraulic shops, fiberglass shops, shipwright shops, machine shops, marine electrical shops, sandblasting, painting, gear storage and many other things needed to maintain a vessel, none of which are provided at HPMS.
With the size of fishing vessels growing, especially seiners and longliners, the percentage of boats that will not be able to haul out at HPMS will only increase. These are, generally speaking, the bigger, more successful fishing businesses and therefore have large crew and usually spend significant amounts of money on improvements and maintenance. Denying these boats the ability to haul here will result in the loss of business, and possibly residents that we need to support our local economy.
Mr. McGraw implies that the question to ask when evaluating the need for a city run marine services center is “how many vessels there are in Sitka that cannot be hauled at HPMS”, and estimates that HPMS is capable of hauling “95 percent of the vessels that are home ported in Sitka.” This is likely accurate for the existing fleet in Sitka. However, this only serves to highlight the limitations of HPMS.
It is a business focused on providing a bare minimum of utility to an existing fleet. When Wrangell built their marine services center it was not to simply meet existing local demand but to attempt to meet a regional need and expand the economic opportunities for existing and future local service providers. In other words, to provide a platform to support entrepreneurship. Unlike Wrangell, Sitka is the center of several commercial fisheries and sees a large annual influx of out-of-town vessels. We already have the demand. Sitka is a natural location for a facility capable of providing advanced services for a wide variety of vessels.
Mr. McGraw states that, “a marine haulout at Sawmill Cove would do nothing but compete with existing locally owned businesses.” While it is true that a marine services facility would likely compete on some level with HPMS, the focus of such a facility would be on providing services HPMS does not currently offer and seems unlikely and unable to offer in the future. The businesses that do currently provide these services would see increased opportunities with the creation of a marine services center, and it seems likely that such a facility would provide opportunity for the creation of new businesses as demand increased.
After noting that the Kodiak yard has operated at a loss in 2011 and 2012, Mr. McGraw poses the question, “Can the City and Borough of Sitka Harbor Department afford to operate a haulout facility at a loss?” While the answer to this rhetorical question is clearly ‘‘no,’’ what Mr. McGraw fails to point out is that the city-owned yard in Wrangell is operating profitably. The Wrangell marine services center seems like the most likely model for a possible future facility in Sitka, and in that light a converse question could be posed: Can the City and Borough of Sitka, as well as our existing marine oriented businesses afford not to at least further investigate a marine services center?
I don’t know exactly how a marine services center should come to be. I don’t know where it should be. I don’t know who should own or operate it. I do know that a marine services center would do nothing but promote the largest economic driver in Sitka – commercial fishing. It would also promote all of the businesses that provide services to the commercial, charter and recreation fleets, and would draw in business from surrounding communities.
Mr. McGraw points out that there are 644 commercial fishing vessels registered to owners in Sitka. If the City of Sitka aids in the start up of a business that would compete with one locally owned business to support at least 644 others, I say, so be it.
Ben Lawrie, Sitka
