Less than seven hours after postponing the Small Boat Harbor expansion project, Haines Borough Manager Bill Seward retracted the directive and gave the project the green light to continue.

A bit before 9 a.m. Wednesday, Seward sent an email to public facilities director Brad Ryan directing him to postpone the project and inform stakeholders of the decision.

Seward said he wanted to investigate whether the $19.5 million the borough received in general obligation bond money ($15 million) and legislative appropriations ($4.5 million) could be transferred to the Lutak Dock project. Several million dollars have already been spent on the project design.

“It’s kind of a no-brainer,” Seward said. “I’ve got to make Lutak No. 1 on our priority list because if Lutak becomes unusable, how are we going to get our groceries and how are we going to get our fuel?”

After learning from the state grant administrator that the $15 million in bonds couldn’t be redirected, and that asking the legislature to move the roughly $2 million remaining from the appropriations could be risky in the current fiscal climate, Seward lifted the postponement and said the harbor project would move ahead.

“I think we’re locked in,” Seward said. “We have to do the harbor, but I am going to do (both the harbor and Lutak projects) concurrently.”

Seward said his seemingly abrupt interest in the Lutak Dock stemmed from a recent site visit with state Rep. Sam Kito, D-Juneau, and a thorough reading of PND Engineers’ October 2014 structural analysis that determined the dock was “near the edge” and “living on borrowed time.” “It is a matter of time before it crumbles,” he said.

Seward said he is going to look into using some of the harbor money to hire a project manager, so facilities director Ryan could work full time on the Lutak project.

When asked why he didn’t wait to find out about whether it was feasible to move the money before sending out the email, Seward said he didn’t want the borough making any unnecessary expenditures.

“I didn’t want us to get too far down the rabbit hole. I wanted to catch it fast and look at all of our options before proceeding,” he said.

After reading PND’s structural analysis, Seward said he was “shocked” by the report’s contents and puzzled that everyone just seemed to ignore it.

“It is kind of shocking – being the new guy here – that when that report came out in 2014 that no one tackled Lutak,” Seward said.

Within hours after sending his email, Seward said he spoke to about a dozen people reacting to the postponement.

“The email did exactly what I wanted it to do,” he said. “It got everyone’s attention and returned focus to the Lutak Dock.”

The project’s postponement, though short-lived, generated outrage and celebration among harbor supporters and opponents.

Former House Rep. Bill Thomas, who helped secure the $4.5 million in legislative appropriations for the harbor project, said Seward didn’t have the authority to make a unilateral decision to postpone.

“He is an administrator, not a borough assembly member,” Thomas said. “The assembly passed a motion to go forward with this and his job is to go forward with it.”

Thomas was also frustrated with Seward’s confusion about the money and how it could be used, as Thomas has repeatedly said the majority of the money can’t be moved.

Assembly member Margaret Friedenauer said she was “shocked” when she received the email and questioned Seward’s authority to postpone the project.

“The shocking part is there was no indication that this was an option he was considering. That’s the shocking part, to me. This wasn’t an option anyone was considering in response to Lutak, because they are separate projects,” she said.

Other assembly members weren’t as concerned with the subversion of protocol and process.

“He is a very pragmatic person, so he sees that we actually have a dire crisis on our hands with the Lutak Dock,” assembly member Tresham Gregg said. “The harbor is really just a desire of some people.”

Gregg said Seward “gets excited” easily and “gets kind of carried away with his own enthusiasm,” though he agreed with the sentiment behind Seward’s move.

“I hope that (the assembly) doesn’t take him to task over his lack of protocol,” Gregg said.

The borough currently has its Army Corps 404 and 408 permits for the project in hand, and PND Engineers is preparing bid documents. 

Author