Landslide Issues
Dear Editor: The city report about the Kramer Avenue landslide may present the biggest problem Sitka has ever faced. The engineer that authored the study told the chamber that no homes or roads should be built in the Benchlands because of the risk posed from landslides.
They also reported the entire Benchlands area should be closed to development and warned future landslides could even take out homes on Sand Dollar Drive and along that section of HPR.
If the homes in that area of town are at risk it’s possible most of the homes in the Gavin Subdivision, the Hillside Subdivision, Cascade Street, Wortman Loop, and many of the homes along Jamestown Bay may be in danger of being destroyed by landslides because they seem to be located under the same type of steep mountainsides.
If these areas are determined to be unsafe hundreds of homes may have to be abandoned. I hope the Assembly will take actions soon to insure the safety of hundreds of its residents.
Clyde Bright, Sitka
Business Sales Tax
Dear Editor: I was puzzled to read a letter from Mr. Marx in Friday’s newspaper in which he stated that businesses in Sitka do not have to pay sales tax. Either Mr. Marx is mistaken or I have been paying a bundle of money I don’t have to be paying.
I am a local business owner, and I have been paying local sales tax for my business purchases since my business began. We also collect sales tax from other businesses that make purchases from us, which are paid to the City of Sitka monthly along with all the sales tax we collect from our customers.
Perhaps Mr. Marx is thinking of a re-sale exemption, which only applies when a local business is purchasing items locally for re-sale, and only if those items are on their re-sale exemption card. When a business buys an item for re-sale, they then collect sales tax when they sell the item or the finished product that their item has gone into, to the final customer. This is handled this way so that by exempting a taxed item that will be re-sold, the final customer pays sales tax only once.
If, as Mr. Marx suggests, as a local business I am erroneously paying sales tax, by all means let me know immediately! I could use the money for things like health care insurance or employee benefits for my partner and myself.
Karen Parker, Alaska Computer
and Office Supply Center
