The Wrangell Port Commission met last Thursday, Feb. 6, to continue their ongoing discussion of changing the city's rates for visiting cruise ships.
Harbor Master Greg Meissner explained that the commission needs to consider increasing the fees Wrangell collects from cruise ships for a variety of reasons. For one thing, the cruise industry is continuing to grow. With more ships potentially visiting in the near future, he said they would need money to renovate and improve City Dock. Another reason they should consider a rate increase is that, compared to other cities in the area Wrangell does not have many fees. Lastly, he said that with fees as they currently are they are only barely scraping by. Some extra money in the bank would be a good thing.
"Our port, in general ... barely squeaks into the black," Meissner said. "When I say barely I mean by probably $8 to $10,000 in the black. It's not near enough."
Wrangell charges four main fees for visiting cruise ships: a dockage fee, a port development fee, a lightening fee, and a $25 an hour security rate. As Meissner said in the meeting, there were a hundred different ways to skin this cat, the commission just needed to decide on what they want to do.
One idea that was proposed was an introduction of a passenger wharfage fee. This is essentially a head tax on passengers the cruise ship is carrying. According to a spreadsheet Meissner provided at the meeting, the cities of Ketchikan and Juneau both charge passenger wharfage, $7 a head and $5 a head respectively. Meissner also provided another spreadsheet looking at the number of cruise ship stops expected in Wrangell this coming season. With the total costs of fees divided up per passenger, Meissner
said that it costs an average of $6.51 a head for a cruise ship to visit Wrangell. This cost drops to $5.96 a head when a smaller cruise ship, the Safari Quest, is removed from the equation.
The discussion continued for some time about whether or not increasing rates could scare away cruise ships and how the state's Commercial Passenger Vessel funds that Wrangell received could be used. Eventually, the commission agreed to hold a work session prior to their next meeting to decide on their course of action.
During their meeting, the commission also approved a request by Tyler Thompson, to increase the size of his leased lot in The Marine Service Center by 640 square feet.
The commission also reviewed a letter by Meissner stating his intentions to retire from the harbor master position this coming summer.
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