The Haines Assembly agenda for Tuesday’s meeting was well-packed. To cover all items, the assembly continued its meeting on Wednesday, and still went on late into the evening. The Lutak dock figured prominently in the discussion.
Haines Mayor Tom Morphet instituted new rules when he took office earlier this fall. Assembly members are now allowed to add items to the agenda for discussion. This led to a long meeting lasting about seven hours over two days. Assembly members took the opportunity to request discussion of the borough attorney contract, the borough lobbyist contract, and updates about the Borough’s agreement with the Four Winds Community Center.
A large part of the meeting was dedicated to the Lutak dock. The dock is past its useful life, but the rebuilding plans have become controversial. Newly elected representatives have expressed an interest in considering a different design for the dock. The discussion centered around the status of the contract, and what the process of considering a smaller design might look like.
Residents sent many letters asking the borough to pause all work related to the dock.
Assembly member Debra Schnabel urged caution
Schnabel: ‘The risks involved in acting rashly or without full information on anything that has to do with the Lutak dock right now might be very detrimental. I think it’s important for us to do as much digging as we can to find out what is our status relative to our contractual obligation, our grant obligations.”
Also at the meeting, Morphet gave a report about his conversations with U.S. Senator Murkowski’s staff.
Morphet: “There was some concern by the chief of staff that we would be giving the money back, or we would somehow turn down this offer of $20M for that dock, we assured that that wasn’t the case, that we have a new assembly and a new mayor, and there is interest in a different design. And he seemed genuinely relieved to hear that.”
Morphet said the chief of staff connected him with someone who can assist the borough in coming up with a different design. Morphet said he also reached out to the Maritime Administration, the government entity that is issuing the grant that will pay for the dock. He wanted to talk about recent allegations by a local environmental group that the borough has deviated from the rule set by the agency. He said the agency offered to set up a conference call with him and assembly members.
Morphet says he also reached out to Jason Davis, the president of Turnagain Marine, the company the borough contracted to rebuild the dock. Morphet told him there is interest in pausing the project and reconsidering the design. He said Davis expressed openness to pausing the project for a couple of weeks. But reconsidering the design is another matter.
Morphet: “Mr Davis expressed that he wasn’t interested in any other design, that a stop order would cost us well over a couple million dollars, he said he had a huge amount of material being prepared, and if we suspend the project, if you put a stop order on the project, there will be damages, that you will have to cover.”
Assembly member Natalie Dawson said this shows a need for the assembly to get a better understanding of the situation.
Dawson: “I don’t know what’s going on, the assembly has not really given direction on this, and yet action keeps moving forward. So I feel like a pause is necessary.”
Assembly members agreed having conversations with MARAD, the granting agency, is the next step. The tentative date for the meeting is the 20th or 21st of December, Morphet says the meeting will be open to the public.
