The assembly voted to move forward with leasing 30,000 square feet of tidelands at the south end of the 6-Mile industrial area to Tideline Construction, which wants to install three mooring dolphins for barges and tugs.

A 120-foot-long floating dock and electrical service could be added later.

Tideline Construction bases its Southeast scrap metal hauling and construction business out of Wrangell.

In its lease application to the borough, Tideline estimated the cost of the improvements at $500,000.

The assembly on Sept. 8 voted unanimously to direct the borough manager to negotiate a lease with the company for the approximately two-thirds-acre waterfront site.

Assembly members amended the motion to require that Wrangell’s economic development board review the lease proposal before the manager negotiates final terms. The planning and zoning commission and port commission already have recommended approval of the lease.

The lease fee would be $3,000 a year, according to the material presented to the assembly.

Mooring dolphins would be more secure than the current setup, William Tonsgard, Tideline Construction president, said in an interview on Sept. 8. The company has been anchoring barges to a couple of buoys, with lines to the beach, but Shoemaker Bay can get windy and the current runs strong in the area, he said.

The company is looking to install the dolphins possibly next year, Tonsgard said.

Tideline Construction took ownership of the uplands at the south end of the former mill property in 2024 in a trade with the borough to clear and clean up the entire 40 acres in exchange for several acres for its operations. The borough purchased the land in 2022 from the former mill owner.

The Tideline barge operation is separate from the larger barge ramp and uplands freight yard that Alaska Marine Lines proposes to build at the north end of the 6-Mile property for use by the weekly general freight barges that call on Wrangell.

The lease area requested by Tideline is south of where the borough is promoting construction of a major shipbuilding and repair yard, focused on federal work, such as the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard. The municipality is going after state and federal funding for the project, working with JAG Marine Group, the operator of a shipyard in Ketchikan.

Assembly Member Bob Dalrymple said he would like to see the Tideline lease include a provision that would allow access by other users to the mooring dolphins, particularly if the borough holds a timber sale on the island and the buyer needs a way to load the logs for shipping.