Bad cell phone service, increased family leave, ocean floor mapping and environmental contaminants were all discussed at Skagway’s last assembly meeting. The session was brief but the topics were diverse.

 

The June 20 Skagway Assembly meeting started with a warning from resident Andrew Nadon about the dangers of unreliable cell service when tourist numbers are high.

“I just want to bring up something that happened the other day when I was dining at the Fish Company,” Nadon says. “I went in for lunch a couple days ago. And there was a young man from the cruise ships that passed out at his table. And I tried to call 911 on my cell phone and I was not able to get through to our emergency services. So, I know that this is a known issue. I just wanted to bring it up. It’s, you know — it’s one thing to not be able to call our friends and family during the day and use our internet services on our phone. But to not be able to have care when something important could happen … Fortunately, we were able to get to a landline and get him, hopefully, the care that he needed.”

The assembly then discussed and updated the family leave benefits policy. Municipal employees that qualify for time off under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act can now qualify for up to six paid weeks off. The previous benefit allowed for two weeks. This brings the municipality in line with benefits offered by the cities of Juneau and Anchorage.

In harbor news, the body voted to spend roughly $60,000 to have the company eTrac Inc. perform a port hydrographic survey. Assembly member Orion Hanson explains what the survey is.

“This is just the basic come in and map out the basin of the seafloor,” Hanson says. “And I think as we move forward, this is something we will monitor. It will be a part of the port budget going forward. But it’s something we have to do to be able to make it navigable for boats to come into our docks.”

Hanson noted that recently, a ship captain felt uncomfortable berthing at Broadway Dock during low tide and instead chose to tender.

During discussion items, Assembly member Kate Kolodi mentioned concerns about herbicides White Pass and Yukon Route Railway planned to use.

It was brought to my attention there was an ad in the newspaper from White Pass listing a bunch of chemicals that they plan to spray,” Kolodi says. “I also found out that some of those are against code. So, I just wanted to bring it to the assembly’s attention if they didn’t notice, and then also urge our staff to reach out to them before that happens. To encourage them to come into compliance with what our code is.”

Deputy Manager Emily Deach, who was filling in for the borough manager, said the municipality already has a letter drafted to White Pass to address the issue.

The ad can be found in the June 14 edition of The Skagway News.

Finally, according to the deputy manager’s update, a portion of the new community garden shows signs of contamination. Cox Environmental found soil contamination and groundwater with quote, “visible sheen” on their fourth test pit. Digging was suspended until the Department of Environmental Conservation can be contacted. Soil samples will be sent out for testing.