View of Skagway’s waterfront from Railroad Dock. (Mike Swasey photo)

Skagway’s largest employer and current waterfront leaseholder White Pass and Yukon Route says half of its busiest cruise ship dock will likely remain closed for the rest of the summer season. White Pass also issued a list of items it plans to remove from the town’s other two docks before its 55-year lease expires next March. The municipality says it wouldn’t be able to replace those items before next season, effectively making the docks unusable in 2023. KHNS’ Mike Swasey spoke with Skagway Mayor Andrew Cremata about what these developments could mean for Skagway moving forward.

Swasey – Skagway Mayor Andrew Cremata, thank you for joining us. Let’s talk about the potential rock slide problems at the Railroad Dock first. White Pass issued a statement on Thursday saying that the dock will likely be closed for the rest of the season in the forward position, there will still be the potential for a ship to berth at the aft position and either tender or continue to use their tunnels that they constructed out of shipping containers. What does this potentially long-term closure mean for Skagway?

Cremata – Well, it’s difficult to answer that question because the letter is a little bit vague. But it would mean, including this week, a loss of around 28 ships. But we don’t know which ships, or the size of those ships beyond this week. Nor do we know the occupancy. I think everyone would agree it’s not ideal. But I was encouraged, at least, to see in the letter that they’re asking their engineers to work with the municipality on our effort to actually mitigate the problem. So that was good to see.

Swasey – They claimed that they’ve done a lot of work from eco barriers to scaling on the mountainside, hydro scaling they call it, to bring some smaller debris down. They’ve installed sensors and they’ve had geotechnical engineers there for a long time. Why is this a big deal now?

Cremata – Well, I think some of the information that would have been useful for the municipality had been either mischaracterized or withheld. I don’t know the motives behind it. But you know, now that that information has been shared, and we have our own engineers working on it, it seems like there’s a spirit of cooperation there. There’s no doubt White Pass has put a lot of energy and effort into mitigation efforts on what we’re calling the north slide area. But as we all know, the bigger picture there is there’s a lot of other issues with that mountainside.

Swasey – Well, we’re going to stay on the waterfront and move over to the Ore and Broadway docks. The municipality takes control of those docks in March of 2023. Any equipment left on those docks will become the property of the municipality. And White Pass has submitted a list of items they plan to take away from those two docks. What are those items?

Cremata – Well, the list includes, you know, some of the things we expected them to take, which are, you know, bumpers, things that can be easily replaced. But then the list also has some items on it that we did not expect, which would be detrimental to us being able to berth cruise ships there in 2023, possibly even into 2024. That includes pilings, spin dolphins, catwalks.

Swasey – If they take all of those materials, you’re saying Skagway may not be able to have a cruise ship at either the Ore Dock or the Broadway Dock in 2023? 

Cremata – Well exactly. And I’m not saying may, I’m saying we will not be able to because it takes a while to get permitting to replace things like spin dolphins and pilings. So we wouldn’t have time to get the permitting for that. The manager has been asking White Pass for about a year and a half to provide a list of the items they would be removing from the docks. And we just got that two weeks ago. So it’s a bit frustrating. It’s also frustrating that there’s been no number attached to those items. So we’re kind of left in this limbo, waiting for White Pass to show their intent, and why they would wait until the absolute last minute to tell us that they want to dismantle our docks and destroy our economy.

Swasey – This sounds like something that would go immediately into a court of law with injunctions filed. Has the municipality begun a lawsuit to sue White Pass to stop them from removing the equipment? 

Cremata – Well, any action like that is premature. I still hope, and I know that the assembly does, and the manager hopes, that we can have an amicable relationship with White Pass. It’s in the best interest of everybody in Skagway that the municipality and our largest tour operator get along. We have not gone to any attorneys, we’re not going to seek litigation against them. But if they were to attempt to follow through with this, then that is something we would need to consider for sure.

Swasey – Skagway Mayor Andrew Cremata, thank you for helping us figure out what’s happening at our docks I appreciate it.

Cremata – My pleasure.

White Pass representatives did not respond to a request for comment regarding the items they plan to remove from Skagway’s Ore and Broadway docks. The list of items can be found here.