Letnikof offer increased
The offer from American Cruise Lines to pay for a portion of the Letnikof Dock rebuild has grown.
Previously, the cruise company had offered the borough $2 million toward the planned $9 million dock project in exchange for at least 20 years of priority docking rights, with options to extend.
Last month, borough manager Alekka Fullerton said she had told the company the offer “wasn’t going to be enough to help us with the project.” Now, a new letter of interest from American Cruise Lines has doubled the offer, “up to $4 million.”
Borough officials have emphasized they are presenting the deal as an option, and not something they are “necessarily driving,” as Fullerton put it on Tuesday. But they are also emphasizing the difficulty of funding the project should the borough reject the cruise line offer.
As it stands now, there are no funds at all — local, state, federal, or otherwise — dedicated toward the project.
What would make the project possible, harbormaster Henry Pollan said Wednesday, is a state harbor grant that could fund up to half of the project’s full $9 million price tag.
Borough grants administrator Helen Alten this fall called the borough a “shoe-in” if, and when, it applies for the funds.
That’s because the total number of harbors in the state eligible for the grant “would be very small,” Pollan said on Tuesday.
But to apply for the grant — at least with a chance of being accepted, Pollan said — the borough first needs to find $4.5 million to show they have the required matching funds for the grant.
Even if matching funds are found, whether from American Cruise Lines or elsewhere, it’s not a guarantee that the state will allocate funds toward the grant program. There was no money in the state budget for the program this year.
If the borough is able to apply this year, Pollan said, and the state legislature and governor fund the program, the borough’s application would be submitted in October and awarded in April 2027. Construction would likely be scheduled to begin the following construction season, in 2028.
Residents will have an opportunity to weigh in on the project this month at a Letnikof Dock town hall scheduled for Jan. 29 at 5:30 p.m. A location has not yet been finalized.
Dock advisors brought onboard
The Haines Borough is officially hiring engineering firm Moffat & Nichol as owner-advisors on the Lutak Dock project.
The assembly voted unanimously Tuesday to authorize a contract that will pay the firm a maximum of $458,939. That payment will be in addition to the roughly $25 million set aside for the rest of the dock project.
“We don’t think this is going to come from project funds,” Fullerton told assembly members at the meeting. “We are going to expend every single cent of those project funds for the project itself.”
As owner-advisors, the firm will be primarily responsible for working with the borough to develop a concept for the dock design — a process they and borough officials have said will involve “public engagement.” Borough officials have described concept development as focusing on the desired functionality of the facility, not the specifics of the structural engineering.
Once a rough concept for the dock is identified, it will be put out to bid for a contractor to both create a structural design and build the project.
Moffat & Nichol engineer Paul Wallis, participating remotely at Tuesday’s meeting, said the final concept will look like dock ideas that have been discussed in recent years.
The borough has had three different dock concepts approved in federal environmental permitting. Staying within the scope and footprint of those concepts would save time and money, Wallis said, which are both dwindling.
Those three existing concepts, Wallis said, “cover the spectrum of design solutions that are buildable and economically feasible.”
“There are just not a lot of ways to skin this cat that haven’t already been talked about and haven’t already been included in the EA.”
The borough has not yet signed a grant agreement officially securing the $20 million federal RAISE grant that makes up the bulk of the project funding. Should the borough fail to get required permitting approved before a Sept. 2027 deadline, the grant would likely disappear.
Fullerton acknowledged that possibility Tuesday, saying that the work Moffat & Nichol would be doing was valuable even in the event the borough does not receive the RAISE grant.
“I firmly believe this needs to be the next step forward,” Fullerton said. “Even if we lose the RAISE grant, this would still allow us a community vetted plan to go search for more grant funds.”
Cell tower regulation advances
The borough is nearing a possible resolution to a long-running cell tower regulation battle. The legislation has been bouncing up and down through the borough legislative process, pulled in one direction by residents and officials concerned about health and aesthetic impacts of new cell towers, and pulled in the other direction by legal considerations raised in part by the borough’s attorney.
As currently written, the legislation would prevent any new cell towers within 1,500 feet of schools, day cares, and youth centers.
But included is an exception by which tower companies may bypass that 1,500-foot setback if new towers are determined to be addressing gaps in cell coverage.
The 1,500-foot setback would be decreased only until the tower could address the identified coverage gap, down to a hard-minimum setback of 150% of the tower’s above-ground height from any property lines.
The exception could help the legislation comply with a federal law which limits how municipalities can regulate communications equipment. Borough attorney Max Holmquist advised borough officials this fall that a ban on cell towers, or regulating cell towers on the basis of health concerns, would likely violate that federal law.
To determine where the coverage gaps exist, the borough would use a set of maps industry representatives have said are the federal government standard.
The legislation is scheduled for one more public hearing and a final vote at the next assembly meeting on Jan. 27.