Chilkat Valley News - Serving Haines and Klukwan, Alaska since 1966

The Haines Borough Assembly voted unanimously Tuesday to schedule a special meeting to discuss the approval of a contract with Turnagain Marine after Lynn Canal Conservation (LCC) and many of its members accused borough staff of promoting a new dock design outside of the public process.

Mayor Douglas Olerud requested that the assembly schedule the special meeting.

“Reading the comments in regard to this item it’s clear that there is considerable confusion in the community about what this resolution does and doesn’t do,” Olerud said. “This will allow more time for staff and our contractor to describe the process and allow community members to have their questions answered.”

LCC sent an alert to its members with a number of claims including that borough staff were attempting to commit Haines “to a project whose primary purpose would be an ore dock for Yukon mines, and the Palmer Project should it be built.”

Borough manager Annette Kreitzer said she thinks the concerns from the public are a misunderstanding based on incorrect information provided to people.

“LCC thought it understood the contract, but did not reach out for explanation from me or anyone associated with the contract for an explanation of the contract,” Kreitzer said. “ I would have happily put the LCC representative in touch with a knowledgeable individual to explain it.”

Borough staff solicited a request for proposals from interested firms in June and Turnagain Marine Construction was one of three contractors that scored highest in an evaluation by borough staff and an engineer.

The design proposed by Turnagain would eliminate the need to demolish the current dock by encapsulating the dock and burying the existing bulkhead. The concept makes the project cheaper and reduces unforeseen environmental impact, according to the company’s proposal.

“The new facility will provide a longer dock face and an overall larger square footage than the existing facility,” the proposal states.

The concept differs from a conceptual design approved by the planning commission and assembly this spring. That phased design concept included an elevated dock platform as an additional access point to vessels and an extra dolphin to allow a second ship to moor at the dock. The design contained fewer acreage than what the currently defunct Lutak dock has available.

LCC executive director Jessica Plachta told LCC members that Turnagain’s design gives Yukon mining interests what they need to ship ore concentrates through Haines, referencing a March meeting where Yukon mining representatives told ports and harbor committee members what they would need at the Lutak dock to facilitate ore transfer.

“The design provides deeper water for heavier cargo barges, many loading points to facilitate efficient dumping of ore concentrates into the holds, an extra-long dock face to accommodate massive international cargo barges, and a tight construction timeline that promises a new ore terminal - I mean ‘bulk cargo handling facility’-  by the time Skagway’s ore dock goes offline,” Plachta wrote to LCC members.

In written public comment to the assembly, Cary Weishahn cited the contract with Turnagain that state’s the borough’s desire for the contractor to “design a facility that maximizes the uses, expands the current footprint, and restores the facility as originally designed.”

She said approving the contract violates borough code that requires the Planning Commission to approve conceptual designs.

In emails circulating days before the assembly meeting between Weishahn, Plachta and the borough assembly, Kreitzer disputed claims that the contract with Turnagain Marine is for an accomplished design.

“The contract with Turnagain is for the concept of a design, which will go to the Planning Commission and the Ports and Harbors Advisory Committee and then on to the borough Assembly,” she wrote.

At Tuesday’s assembly meeting, Kreitzer said much of what she’s seen from the public includes misinformation and misunderstanding. Turnagain’s design needs to be approved by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration (MARAD) because it differs from what was described in the borough’s grant application for the Lutak reconstruction project. The borough is awaiting MARAD’s approval before it sends the new design to the planning commission for review, Kreitzer told the assembly.

“Once we have that permission then we can start that process of taking these ideas, which is what they are, to the planning commission and ports and harbor committee,” she said. “I want to be really clear....nothing has been decided. No one is moving forward with an established path for Lutak Dock until these public meetings have taken place.”

Robynne Thaxton, the borough’s progressive design build consultant for the project, told the assembly that approval of the Turnagain contract does not circumvent the public process.

“We have to have an initial contract with Turnagain in order to have them be able to complete the design far enough to be able to submit it for a public process,” Thaxton said. “It’s sort of a cart before the horse situation. We can’t ask them to do that for free.”

The special assembly meeting to discuss the contract with Turnagain is scheduled for Sept. 22 at 6 p.m. in the assembly chambers.