(This essay contains material included in my letter-to-the editor on Lutak Dock published in July 8 CVN.)
At the Haines Borough’s July 24 open house meeting on rebuilding the Lutak Dock, the public heard a lot of grandiose statements by the Haines Chamber of Commerce, Southeast Conference and others about how important the dock was to the town, state, and even to the federal government. “Critical infrastructure,” many people said.
What the public didn’t hear was any of those other entities offering even one penny of support to pay for a rebuilt dock.
Why not? Doesn’t it stand to reason that if the Lutak Dock truly were critical to anyone that any of those folks might be willing to pitch in to rebuild it? Why aren’t they? Why did state Sen. Bert Stedman of Sitka, R-Sitka, who harpooned a $7 million Haines Borough request for state money for Lutak, say that such docks are expected to pay for themselves in revenues?
Further, borough taxpayers might consider whether Lutak Dock is truly a municipal obligation or a piece of freight industry infrastructure they’ve been subsidizing for more than 40 years.
Consider that all or nearly all Southeast towns and cities in Southeast don’t own a freight dock. Juneau doesn’t. Ketchikan doesn’t. Petersburg doesn’t. Even Skagway, with its proximity to Whitehorse, Y.T. and potential to serve as a “regional freight hub,” chooses not to own a freight dock.
Skagway owns cruise ship docks, which make money, but even the White Pass railroad doesn’t use the former “railroad docks” to move freight. It ships its new locomotives into town across AML’s freight dock.
In Southeast Alaska, freight docks are owned by the companies that ship freight to or through those communities. All over Southeast, a dock is a business expense for a shipper.
Consider that the U.S. Army – not the town of Haines – built the Lutak Dock in 1953 in order to erect 13 giant fuel tanks for a former Cold War storage and pipeline facility at 3 Mile Lutak Road. The Army gave the dock to the City of Haines in the late 1970s when the pipeline became defunct and dock maintenance bills were coming due.
The dock these days generates roughly $500,000 in revenues. The Chamber of Commerce says if Haines becomes a regional freight center, dock revenues might triple. Even at that rate, the borough would need 20 years to pay off a loan-financed $30 million dock, and that’s not including costs of interest, maintenance or replacement.
Even potential industrial users of a rebuilt dock – including the company logging the Baby Brown timber sale and the folks at opentug.com – have said they can use AML’s freight ramp for their purposes.
Much of the testimony at the borough’s recent “open house” meeting about the dock focused on the dock’s wharf function, not its dock function. There’s an important difference. A wharf is a section of dock (or land) adjacent to a dock for storing materials about to be shipped.
Harbormaster Sean Bell said rebuilding the dock might be needed for the shipping of biofuels (wood pellets) and other resources out of Haines. But was that statement accurate?
The Baby Brown timber sale owner planned to use land near the golf course at 1 Mile to store logs before shipping. There’s also private property north of Lutak Dock that could be developed for storage of materials to be shipped. The former Lutak Army tank farm property, near the dock, also has been discussed as a staging area for materials to be shipped from the dock.
The borough makes some money (called wharfage) for storing materials on the dock, but again, not enough to pay for a new dock, maintenance or replacement. So why should Haines taxpayers foot the bill for wharf space for shippers?
Borough officials like to say that “taxpayer money” won’t be spent on improving the dock, that outside grants will pay for it, but that’s not the full story. If the harbormaster is spending hours investigating or applying for grants, that’s taxpayer money being spent.
Also, for general-purpose capital projects grants (like those that come from the Alaska Legislature) any grant we get for the harbors competes with – and reduces the likelihood of being awarded – grants for other borough needs.
There’s a considerable public cost just for studying and planning for a $30 million replacement dock at Lutak.
In short, the numbers don’t add up for the kind of Lutak Dock the Haines Borough is planning.
Further, it’s highly questionable whether the borough should own a dock at all.