Construction of Sitka’s new marine haul out is underway, but questions remain over how it will be run.
The city issued a Request for Qualifications earlier this fall, as a precursor to the bid process, and only two firms responded. Of those two, only Highmark Marine Fabrication of Kodiak was considered qualified.
This has prompted a lot of concern from Sitka’s local marine services industry. At a standing-room only meeting of the Gary Paxton Industrial Park Board on December 17, many local tradespeople and boat owners voiced doubts about having the haul out operated by a competing vendor.
Paul Rioux, a marine mechanic for 25 years, was among them.
“I think that every effort should be made to find a local operator, if possible,” said Rioux. “And what’s more than that is I definitely feel concerns about bringing in somebody who’s also a vendor. I mean, if we’re going to award a contract to operate the lift and haul boats, is one thing. If we’re also offering space or some kind of preferential treatment to compete with local tradesmen, it seems like that’s a slippery slope.”
Rioux felt that there would be an inherent competitive advantage for any vendor who also was in charge of scheduling and hauling out boats.
Blake LaPerriere, also a mechanic, believed that an operator/vendor like Highmark would put a strain on Sitka’s pool of skilled labor.
“I think that bringing in a new a new outfit that’s looking for new workers might steal workers from businesses are already around,” said LaPerriere. “And then I also just think that it’s important to keep funds in our city and not bring in external vendors and move funds that are already scarce out of our town.”
Many others spoke on the same theme, and also expressed concerns about a private vendor driving up the costs of hauling out boats, at a facility that was built with public funds. The city also recently bought back the Northline Seafoods (now Sayak Seafoods) building at a cost of $1.3 million, and several in the audience objected to the vendor having preferential access to it.
Gary Paxton Industrial Park director Garry White tried to allay fears, saying that so far they had only qualified Highmark based on a “scope of services.” The actual details of insurance, pricing – and possible use of the former Northline building – would all be hammered out in a separate document called a “scope of work.”
He did not see a downside to sending out the scope of work solely to Highmark.
“I kind of thought about, let’s just kill two birds with one stone,” he said. “Let’s get it up. Let’s get it to them. Let’s get the prices back. Let’s hash this out and see if it’s going to work or not.”
Before the meeting adjourned, Sitka Assembly member Scott Saline spoke as a member of the public and suggested an alternative: He told the board that it might be possible for the assembly to bypass the industrial park board’s screening process, and qualify a local operator to run the haul out.
The timeline for opening the haul out remains the spring of 2025.
