Skagway Fire Chief Joe Rau
Skagway’s lead firefighter Joe Rau is leaving town after a two-year stint as chief. He told KHNS he wants to be closer to reliable travel options to visit his growing extended family.
“I’ve been in the fire service for over 36 years. We’re going to have our sixth grandchild here coming up this next month. By me being able to step away and pass on the responsibility, I can be in an area where I can actually go down to visit grandkids and actually be a grandpa,” said Rau.
The outgoing fire chief said he’s proud of the progress the department has made during his tenure, from working with a smaller than normal volunteer staff due to the lack of seasonal workers in Skagway to furthering emergency response certifications for year-round staff.
Rau will stay on through the upcoming August audit of the fire department which was funded by the assembly earlier this month. There is no word yet on his replacement.
His resignation isn’t the only one the municipality received this week. Skagway’s clinic is losing one of its three providers. The Dahl Memorial Clinic has seen about three-quarters of its staff turnover this year. This week the clinic entered into an agreement with a staffing agency to bring in a replacement provider, but it’s going to cost the municipality about $25,000/ month.
Skagway Mayor Andrew Cremata says the stress from the global pandemic has been hardest on Skagway’s healthcare workers.
“This has been an extremely difficult year and a half for everybody because of the pandemic. But nobody more so than the people who work at the clinic, especially the providers,” said Cremata.
The municipality is currently exploring a partnership with the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium, or SEARHC, which runs clinics across the region, including in Haines. Civic leaders are working toward two separate agreements with the tribal health organization. One, a short-term management agreement, and the other an agreement to discuss a long-term partnership.
Cremata says the town of under 1,000 residents is losing too many quality people that are leaving in search of better opportunities.
“I believe we’re going to lose 20-25% of our population before next summer starts. That’s our crisis. The real crisis is maintaining our population and not losing all of our professionals and quality people. Because then it becomes really hard to maintain the 18th most visited cruise ship port in the world,” said Cremata.
The first large cruise ship is scheduled to arrive later this month, however passenger numbers will be only a fraction of what they were before the pandemic. And that will mean the lean summer will bring more challenges for Skagwegians trying to stick it out for the winter.
But some help could be on the way. The assembly this week earmarked $450,000 out of the Norwegian Cruise lines $2 million donation for unemployment benefits during the upcoming winter months. Previously the assembly had resolved to fund the food bank, the Skagway Traditional Council, and a utility assistance program from the donated funds. The assembly has yet to decide how to distribute the remaining balance.
The programs will be welcomed relief for a community that typically sees unemployment rates skyrocket into the 20% range during the winter season.
