Decisions loom in Skagway about how to spend the remaining $1.2 million left from the Norwegian Cruise Lines gift and whether to put an opinion question on October’s municipal election ballot. The answers to that question would gauge community interest in an agreement between the local clinic and a regional health consortium. KHNS’ Mike Swasey previews this Thursday’s Borough Assembly meeting with Mayor Andrew Cremata.

Swasey – Starting with the resolution brought by assemblyperson Bass to spend the remaining $1.2 million of the NCL donation, it looks like he’s suggesting a grant system based on gross sales. So if your company had gross sales that equal ten percent of all the sales in Skagway for companies that grossed under $6 million, your company would get 10% of the remaining NCL money.

Cremata – That’s the way I interpret it. You know, and I think there’s already a couple of letters in the packet from, you know, businesses that are open this year that have, you know, tried to start up in 2020, who would obviously not benefit from a scenario like that. 

They’re open, they’re trying to do business. But it seems like a lot of certain restaurants in town would potentially benefit greatly from this particular resolution. And we heard from some of the restaurant owners that they don’t really need the money, I don’t know that that’s true of all of them. But I know that we heard that at the assembly table.

Swasey – And it seems like the Potter resolution just says, hey, let’s kick this to finance between finance and the SDC, they’ll come up with a plan that we can get behind.

Cremata – That seems to be how I interpreted as well. And I said this at the last assembly meeting, we ran a really good program for business owners in town that distributed the money fairly and the SDC was kind enough to operate that. I think it needs to be transparent. This was a donation for the community. So you know, my opinion on it is, I want to know how the money is spent as a resident, first and foremost.

Swasey – Yeah. So will an agreement between SEARHC and the municipality to take over the clinic be on the ballot in October?

Cremata – Well, I guess we’re gonna find out the answer that question at this meeting. Or maybe it even gets kicked down the road a little bit further. Personally, I would rather not rush it. I think that you know, I understand Assemblyman Hansen’s point that the turnout for special elections that don’t fall in October, typically don’t have the turnout that October elections do. 

However, our situation is a lot different right now. And this is a situation that involves the entire community. And my guess is that when we’re talking about our future health care, that we’re going to have an excellent turnout whether the election is done in October or January.

Swasey – Has SEARHC delivered their proposal yet?

Cremata – I think the clinic board has to approve this nondisclosure agreement before anything can move forward. And I’ve heard that maybe they haven’t been very receptive to that. You know as of a couple days ago, that seemed to be the case, but I don’t know that they fully met to discuss that. So I’m curious to see how they respond.

Swasey – That was the nondisclosure agreement that the assembly voted in last meeting, correct? 

Cremata – Indeed. 

Swasey – So even though the assembly said yes, move ahead with it, the board had the veto power?

Cremata – I don’t know if veto power is the right word. I’m a little confused about this as well. And I get a little bit concerned when the assembly makes decisions by vote that, you know, non-elected board members can override. I think that there’s a way forward here, whether it involves SEARHC or doesn’t. We should all try and get on the same page. 

Swasey – Why do we have a borough clerk vacancy? 

Cremata – Because our borough clerk, our fabulous borough clerk, Emily Deach has taken the assistant manager/grant administrator position that was recently put together. She’ll be moving into that role, she has tendered her resignation, which means we’re going to be going through the hiring process for a clerk here in the very near future.

Thursday night’s meeting can be streamed live at khns.org at 7 p.m.