Sitkans may get to weigh in on another ballot proposition in this fall’s municipal election.
When the Sitka Assembly meets tonight (7-12-22), it will consider putting the following question out to the voters: whether to use the money earned from the sale of the Sitka Community Hospital site toward constructing a marine haulout at the Gary Paxton Industrial Park.
In the last municipal election, 67 percent of voters supported selling the city-owned hospital property to the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium for just over $8 million dollars. At the time, SEARHC was leasing the building to house its long-term care unit, part of the consortium’s initial agreement with the city, when it purchased the hospital business in 2019.
Just over $8 million dollars from the sale was transferred to the Sitka Permanent Fund, and this proposition would take that money out to fund construction of a haulout. Sitka is currently without a working large-scale haulout, following the closure of the facility that served most of Sitka’s fishing fleet at Halibut Point Marine.
The assembly already approved one ballot prop for the municipal election this fall- voters will decide whether to establish a consumers sales tax for cannabis. Read more about that ballot prop here.
The Sitka Assembly meets tonight at 6 p.m. Raven News will broadcast the meeting live, following Alaska News Nightly.
