A plan to bring renewable energy to Skagway’s port to power cruise ships while they’re docked, a deal to finalize the acquisition of state lands near the Chilkoot Trail, and more are on the agenda at Skagway’s borough assembly meeting this week. KHNS’ Mike Swasey sat down with Vice-Mayor Orion Hanson for a preview. 

Swasey – Well, let’s talk about what’s on the agenda for the meeting on Thursday. One of those things is an acquisition of lands over by the Chilkoot Trail, can we talk about that?

Hanson – Sure. So this is actually a land entitlement that the borough of Skagway has been waiting on since 2007. And there are two parcels that we’re still waiting on. One is all of West Creek, including a parcel just before the West Creek Bridge. It’s over 3,000 acres, and it’s, it’s beautiful, it’s wonderful, I think most locals know where that’s at. 

The other parcel is up above sheep camp along the Chilkoot Trail. And my understanding is that this occurred when the city became a first-class borough. And we had a choice of, I think it was nine or 10 parcels to pick from, or I don’t even know if it was picked from I think the state may have just told us that this is what you’re getting. And it’s taken quite a long time nearly 15 years to get that transferred from the state to the municipality of Skagway.

Swasey – So this is just stemming from when Skagway became First Class borough. Part of that borough designation came with land from the state.

Hanson – That is correct. 

Swasey – And so this is just the final acquisition of it. Okay, let’s move on to the MOU with Yukon energy. Tell me what’s happening here, that sounds exciting.

Hanson – Yeah, we met in Whitehorse with Yukon Energy about a month ago. And they have some very large infrastructure projects. They’re looking at both hydro and solar projects to generate more power for the Yukon. One of them’s called Moon Lake and I think that’s roughly in the Tutshi area. And the other project is in Atlin. And both of these are in proximity to Skagway. 

And they have effectively a business model that they say is profitable for them to bring power to the Canadian border at the summit at White Pass. So we’re very interested in the possibility of electrification of our port, particularly with tying cruise ships in. To be able to plug in even a small cruise ship, I think it’s around seven-plus megawatts. And we don’t have that capacity, even with three hydro plants in Skagway. 

Many of us have probably seen that on a busy Wednesday when they’re four ships in port, the amount of smog that that occurs because of the ship’s of that idle while they’re here. So it’s exciting. It’s a long way off. But this MOU is to try to pursue that long-term goal.

Swasey – What’s happening with shuttle service this winter?

Hanson – So we’ve got a proposal for the shuttle service through Klondike Tours, they provided shuttle service throughout the summer. It’s, I think, a good service but it is not an inexpensive cost for the city. I think it’ll be around $6,000 a month. Which you know, and according to their terms, is about what they need to do to break even with very few people, you know, who will be cash-paying customers. But people come in from the airport from the ferry terminal, people don’t have a car, they need food delivered, they need a ride to the clinic, what have you. Skagway doesn’t have taxis. And that’s something we’re gonna discuss at finance and then we’ll have that also for discussion on Thursday’s meeting of the assembly.

Swasey – And then finally looks like the municipality’s applying for more ARPA funds, is that what’s happening?

Hanson – Yes, it’s somewhat housekeeping so that we have a resolution in hand that we can show that we have crossed all our T’s and dotted all our I’s so that we’re eligible for lost revenue replacement.

Swasey – That’s not the lost revenue replacement that already happened. This is a new version of that? 

Hanson – This is new. This is an additional program. It’s money that’s coming from the federal government and then distributed through the Alaska Department of Community and Commerce Economic Development. And we have a pretty clear revenue loss that’s not hard to tie that to the pandemic at all. It was 96% of our economy more or less, last year was better, but almost nothing in 2020. So I think that’s a pretty easy case to make.

Swasey – All right Vice Mayor Hanson, thank you so much for taking the time. I appreciate it. We’ll see you on Thursday.

 You can listen to the meeting live starting at 7 p.m. Thursday night at khns.org.