When the Sitka Assembly meets tonight (10-13-20) the 2020 municipal election results will be certified, then mayor-elect Steven Eisenbeisz, and new assembly members Crystal Duncan and Rebecca Himschoot will be sworn in.
The assembly will recognize outgoing mayor Gary Paxton and member Richard Wein for their service. Paxton ran a close race against Eisenbeisz for the mayor’s chair. Wein did not seek re-election this year.
Then the new group will get right down to business to discuss the future of a marine haulout in Sitka.
The city has been scrambling to get a haulout built ever since Halibut Point Marine announced it would be closing its marine haulout by summer 2021. City staff were pinning their hopes on a federal BUILD grant to fund the project, and while they waited, the assembly rejected two bids for private development.
In a memo, city administrator John Leach recommends that the assembly move forward with one of three strategies: issue a “request for proposal” for a private sector haulout, or an RFP for partial private sector development. Or it could elect to move forward with a plan for CBS to develop a public haulout, even though funding for a city project hasn’t been identified.
In other business, the assembly will finally approve the city seal, on first reading. And it will consider several committee and commission appointments- there are currently 17 vacancies on eight committees.
The Sitka Assembly meets tonight at 6:00 p.m.- Raven News will broadcast the meeting live following Alaska News Nightly.
