Lutak Dock ore ban
In an effort to reduce public strife, assembly member Gabe Thomas plans to introduce a motion for next month’s assembly meeting that would ban ore ships at the Lutak Dock.
There has long been debate over whether the dock might be used as an ore terminal after it is rebuilt. That controversy has bled into design discussions for the stalled rebuild. An ore-ship ban, Thomas said, could help move the project forward.
“We have to get over (the disagreement) and get something built,” Thomas said during assembly comment Tuesday night.
Thomas also advocated potentially opening the dock, after it’s rebuilt, to cruise ships.
“If we shift the community’s worry about it as an ore terminal, why don’t we shift it to a cruise and barge terminal?” Thomas said.
Thomas previously brought up the idea of the ore-ship ban at the beginning of 2024, but the idea never progressed through the assembly. On Tuesday, he said he didn’t know why it never gained traction.
As it stands right now, the idea exists only as a general concept. Though it isn’t yet fully formed, it did gain some preliminary backing from other assembly members.
“I really like that idea because it reinforces the concept that Lutak Dock has to be a multipurpose piece of infrastructure,” assembly member Cheryl Stickler said.
Assembly member Richard Clement also weighed in with support.
“If we had something like (an ore ship ban) back in 2022, it would’ve helped,” Clement said. “We would’ve stated that this is not going to be an ore terminal. We left a little gap for people to throw in that suggestion and it caught a lot of attention.”
Building materials sales tax exemption
Also floated as a future possibility was a change to sales-tax exemptions for building materials. Clement brought up the idea during assembly comment, spurred, he said, by recent seasonal sales tax discussions. An increased overall sales tax rate during the summer building season, Clement said, could be a burden on residents working on personal projects.
As borough code currently stands, building material purchases that exceed $5,000 are exempt from sales tax.
After discussion, Clement said he had misread the line of code, originally thinking that purchases below $5,000 were exempt. But even after the confusion was cleared up, borough officials said changing the dollar amount could still be beneficial.
Stickler and borough chief finance officer Jila Stuart said increasing the dollar amount needed to qualify for the exemption could bring in more revenue for the borough.
Stuart said staff brought that idea to a previous assembly, which rejected it, concerned about residents instead making online purchases to circumvent the tax. But now, online purchases are captured by borough sales tax.
Stickler referenced “informal conversations” with local contractors, suggesting they would not be opposed to the potential change.
Heliski Regulations
The assembly voted unanimously to approve new heliski regulations and to collect GPS data from heliski operators for use in the next heliski map-making process.
One of the major changes in the regulation is to change the fee structure for helicopters used by the industry. Operators may now be approved by the borough manager for a third helicopter, which can be used for a total of 14 days per season. Operators will pay $4,000 to use that third helicopter.
The regulations also change flight hours to between sunrise and sunset. Previously, flight hours were between 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.
As for GPS map data, borough manager Alekka Fullerton said the information could be used to see which areas were actually being used by heliskiers. The current maps are valid for the next five years.