Skagway’s Assembly takes another swing at passing a face-covering requirement inside local businesses and the Borough Manager’s economic stimulus plan comes up to vote for the second time.
About a month ago Skagway’s Assembly voted to pass a resolution to require the use of face-coverings inside all municipally licensed businesses, but not without controversy.
The resolution passed with a 4-2 vote, but at the end of the meeting Assemblyperson, Orion Hanson attempted to rescind his yes vote due to his uncertainty of the language included in the resolution.
The following day the municipality ruled that the attempt to change his vote had failed due to a clerical error and the resolution was adopted. Three days later, the resolution was vetoed by the Mayor. Skagway Mayor Andrew Cremata believed the will of the Assembly, based on Assemblyperson Hanson’s last-second hedge, was to delay the vote and discuss the resolution further.
The Mayor notes that the new resolution up for debate on Thursday night looks familiar.
“It seems very similar to the amended mask resolution that I vetoed. And since the assembly didn’t override that veto at the following meeting, I imagine there’s going to be a robust conversation about this particular resolution,” said Cremata.
There has been significant correspondence addressed to the municipality regarding this issue, and the Mayor says that each letter is taken seriously.
“I give a tremendous amount of weight to all correspondence. Even if you know, I don’t personally agree with it. But I do think in this scenario, we’ve heard from a number of business owners in town that they don’t want to have a mask mandate, and that resonates with me.”
For now, according to Mayor Cremata, face-coverings are required in all municipal buildings and recommended in all businesses that are open to the public. In the event of a COVID-19 outbreak, the EOC could impose further restrictions including mask requirements, regardless of whether the current resolution is adopted.
Also up for discussion at Thursday night’s meeting is the economic stimulus package offered by Borough Manager Brad Ryan, this will be the second and deciding vote on the package.
The roughly $500,000 economic stimulus plan looks to create four full-time year-round municipal jobs with benefits, an additional 12 seasonal full-time jobs without benefits, funding for the local food bank, a positive graffiti mural project, and several projects for local contractors.
“There’s maybe a different philosophical idea that we should be scrimping and saving every penny. But I look at a stimulus program that creates jobs as vital right now. Especially when, you know, some of the larger employers in town had to let people go,” said Cremata.
Mayor Cremata says this package isn’t just a cash bailout, but a way to create recreational infrastructure that will have lasting impacts.
“In my opinion, this is not just a stimulus package. The work that the people will be doing, who were hired for those jobs, is making improvements to the community that will encourage a lot more future independent tourism.”
The meeting is scheduled for Thursday, April 15th at 7 pm in Assembly chambers and can be streamed live at khns.org.
