Tourism issues top
assembly discussion
By Jessica Edwards
The Haines Borough Assembly voted 4-2 Tuesday to urge the
state legislature to relax wastewater standards for cruise ships passed by voters in a
2006 initiative, and heard that the borough spends more per visitor than six other
communities of similar size.
The assembly also voted 4-2, with members Norm Smith and
Steve Vick opposed, to approve Mayor Jan Hill’s appointment of former borough manager
Robert Venables to the planning commission.
Venables was the only applicant for filling out the
remainder of departing commissioner Dawne Thomsen’s term, which expires in November.
Smith said he couldn’t approve Venables’
appointment because, as borough manager, Venables was “never real supportive of the
decisions of the planning commission.”
Smith said there would be “battles between
(commission chair) Lee Heinmiller and Venables, who thinks he will run the show.”
Smith and Steve Vick also opposed a resolution for
relaxed state wastewater standards for cruise ships.
The cruise industry has said ships cannot meet wastewater
discharge standards set in the statewide initiative for ammonia, copper, zinc, and nickel
by the state’s 2010 deadline because technology does not exist.
Current law requires measuring effluents “at the
pipe,” or at the point of discharge, rather than allowing the mixing zones permitted
for other commercial and municipal dischargers.
Assemblyman Doug Olerud defended the resolution and the
proposed legislation to change initiative standards. “I think it’s unfair to ask
one user group to meet these standards and not others.”
State ferries, municipalities, and other dischargers
faced less stringent standards, he said. “If it is that important to our natural
resources, we should be pushing (all dischargers)…to meet the same requirements.”
Smith said he couldn’t support the resolution
because the state legislature was likely to reconsider language in the current house bill
about allowing mixing zones and extending the time frame for compliance with initiative
standards.
“It would be a step backwards to allow mixing zones
in the Inside Passage.”
He said passing a resolution wouldn’t make a
difference to bringing ships to Haines, and said Skagway, a pro-tourism community, will
lose two ships in 2010. “We are not responsible for the redeployment of ships.
If we want more ships in Haines, we should be …courting
Holland America,” a company that had shown interest in and had connections to Haines.
Vick said he wouldn’t oppose the will of voters.
Borough manager Tom Bolen presented a comparison of
municipal tourism budgets he’d compiled for eight towns, estimating levels of
visitation per dollar spent.
Bolen said he’d concluded communities with large
numbers of visitors were the ones visited regularly by cruise ships, and said the
comparison revealed little correlation between dollars spent by municipalities to attract
tourists and actual visitation.
According to Bolen’s figures, only Wrangell spent
more than Haines per visitor in promotion. Sitka, Ketchikan, Homer, Skagway, Petersburg
and Seward spent less.
Bolen said he interviewed two of 10 applicants for
harbormaster, including ones from Whittier and Juneau. He said he’s also considering
applications from former harbormaster Bob Wentworth and resident Christian Racich.
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