On the surface, the agenda for Thursday night’s Skagway Assembly meeting looks fairly straightforward. There’s some capital funding business to take care of, a few liquor licenses to renew, approval of an easement, you know, government stuff.

Digging just a little deeper, however, leads to topics like a proposal for a hydroelectric fueled ferry to run between Haines and Skagway, a potential multi-million dollar donation from Norwegian Cruise Lines Holdings to the municipality, and a Mayoral Proclamation to turn each second Saturday of the month during the summer into a street festival. Skagway’s Mayor Andrew Cremata explains the concept of “Second Saturdays.”

“The idea here is to have different functions going on, on a routine basis to try and bring in more regional traffic. People come to Skagway for one of these events, maybe from Haines or Juneau or Sitka or wherever, and they say ‘Oh there’s another one, they are doing this every month.’ So perhaps that generates return visitors over the course of the summer,” said Cremata.

Via a Mayoral Proclamation, the measure would allow businesses to set up tables or displays outside for a street shopping scene. There may be a street closure to allow for pedestrian-only traffic and musical entertainment on those dates is being planned. 

The mayor also recently sent a letter to U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski urging consideration of an electric ferry, charged by hydroelectric power, that could shuttle between Skagway and Haines.

“When I had my conversation with Senator Murkowski, she said that electric ferries were something that she’s really interested in because she wanted to see the Alaska marine highway system, modernize, you know, more along lines of maybe what you see in Norway, and I told her, ‘You know we’ve actually done a little legwork on this,” said Cremata.

An ad hoc committee assembled by the mayor developed the plans for this electric ferry. That group has consulted with Elliot Bay Design Group to form the conceptual design. According to the letter to Murkowski, that ferry would cost $8 million to build and half a million to design. It would be able to transport 100 passengers and up to 15 vehicles between Upper Lynn Canal communities.

There’s also buzz about a windfall of cruise industry cash. This week N-C-L Holdings, the parent company of Norwegian Cruise Lines and others, said it would be dispersing $10 million to six coastal Alaska communities whose tourism economies are hardest hit by the COVID pandemic. Skagway is on that list, and according to Cremata since the agenda is set a week before the Assembly meets, nothing could be added to it regarding the money. But it’s sure to come up.

“You know, really, there’s nothing to add quite yet because nothing’s been formalized. But once we have a formalization, then the assembly will approve taking in the funds and hopefully approve of how they’re going to be spent. You know, that might take a little bit more debate,” said Cremata.

Additionally, Skagway’s municipality is looking to prioritize building a kitchen at the school, passing an easement request for Alaska Power and Telephone to move their main power line to Smuggler’s Cove and give final approval to its Tourism Best Management Practices plan. The mayor also hinted at an announcement regarding the cleanup of the contaminated ore basin to be made within the next couple of days. 

“I don’t anticipate it being a marathon-style meeting. But you know, you never know,” said Cremata.

The meeting starts at 7 p.m. Thursday and can be live-streamed at khns.org.