There’s a new twist in the saga of Skagway’s much-discussed municipal RV park: now the company that was recently awarded a year-long management contract says it can’t sign the deal. That’s on tap for this week’s Skagway Borough Assembly Meeting, where municipal officials are also set to discuss grant opportunities and port improvements. KHNS’ Mike Swasey talked with Skagway Mayor Andrew Cremata for a preview of Thursday’s meeting.

Swasey – Let’s talk about what’s coming up at Thursday’s assembly meeting. I guess we could start with the Garden City RV park. It seems that the people that were originally awarded the contract aren’t going to be fulfilling that contract. What happened?

Cremata – Well, I guess perhaps there was, you know, maybe a misunderstanding of what those responsibilities were. I’m not exactly certain of those details, but fortunately enough people put their hat into the ring, so to speak, so that there’s a backup plan for management of the RV park, if that’s the direction the assembly wants to go.

Swasey – And what’s that backup plan?

Cremata – There’s, potentially, a couple of different backup plans. One could be that the municipality runs it via the tourism department. But other people made bids on it, so I think the next highest bid would potentially be up to take over that contract. So I think that’s the direction that we might be going in. But I’m always curious to see how the table responds to these questions.

Swasey – So it’ll go to the table. Typically it’s the next highest bid, and that next highest bid would be Hager construction. 

Cremata – Correct.

Swasey – So that’s going to be debated at the table on Thursday night, and will a contract be offered to them on Thursday night? Is that a possibility if they decide to do that?

Cremata – Absolutely. So and, you know, reading the manager’s memo, I believe that’s the direction they’re going in. But again, I always like to hear the assembly has to say.

Swasey – Also on the agenda, the Ore Peninsula Dock Alternatives Analysis, can you kind of tell us what that is?

Cremata – Yes. So when KPPF was hired to put together an idea for our dock extensions, and changes to the Ore Dock, that was then brought to the Ports and Harbors committee, and also to planning and zoning. That happened last week. And both of those bodies made recommendations to the assembly. 

This is exciting, because this is Skagway his future. And this dock, when it’s completed, it’s going to be the nicest, most modern dock in all of Southeast Alaska with components that will allow industry to operate through there, the fuel barge, and also bring in quantum class boats into Skagway harbor so that we have financial security here for the next series of decades. So this is a really exciting time for Skagway. And I’m sure that the assembly is going to be extremely eager to keep this project moving forward swiftly so that we remain competitive in this region.

Swasey – Let’s talk about the federal grant application assistance program. What’s happening with federal grants?

Cremata – Well, so, not only are there a number of federal grants that are potentially available, from infrastructure money, but there’s also state grants. So I got a call from the governor’s office just a few days ago, and they were telling me about a meeting that’s going to be held up in Anchorage, it’s going to be discussing a lot of these potential grants. So our deputy manager Emily Deach, is going to be traveling there so that she can wrap her head around this information. 

But in my lengthy conversation with this representative from the governor’s office, Skagway has the potential to look into federal and state grant money for development of our new dock, for taking water and sewer over the bridge to the north of Skagway. So there’s a lot of grant options out there and we want to apply for as many as possible so that we can help defer some of those costs. So we were super excited to see that the cost of this dock extension was coming in way lower than a lot of people predicted. But that doesn’t mean we can’t go out there and try to help get it paid.

Swasey – Mr. Mayor, thank you so much for the meeting preview. I appreciate it.

Cremata – Hey, my pleasure. Have a great day.

That was a conversation with Skagway Mayor Andrew Cremata about this week’s borough assembly meeting. The meeting can be streamed live at 7 p.m. Thursday night at khns.org.