Last Thursday, the port commission unanimously voted down a motion that would have recommended the borough lease a portion of the 6-Mile mill property to Channel Construction.
Commissioners said they need more information before forwarding a recommendation.
Juneau-based Channel Construction, which is owned by William “Shorty” Tonsgard Jr., requested to lease a parcel of waterfront property at the former sawmill site for scrap metal recycling. According to its application, the company seeks to establish a “prominent recycling yard” at the location, which would process scrap metal from Wrangell and areas around Southeast.
The requested parcel would comprise six acres of the 39-acre property.
The borough bought the property for $2.5 million this summer, and is hoping to sell or lease the land to generate jobs in the community.
Tonsgard has been working in waste reduction and recycling around Southeast since the 1970s, when he took over Channel Construction from his father, William R. Tonsgard. The company has used the former mill site for scrap metal collection in the past, under the property’s former ownership.
The port commission was not wholly opposed to Tonsgard’s plan, and they requested more information on how long the lease would last and how the project would fit into the borough’s overall vision for the property before they would make a recommendation.
“If we had a more specific business plan pertaining to this property, that would be beneficial,” said commissioner John Yeager. He suggested negotiating a short-term lease with Tonsgard that would allow Channel Construction to use the parcel while the borough continued to explore development options for the site as a whole.
Yeager also suggested decreasing the amount of waterfront in the parcel by giving Tonsgard access to a barge ramp. The rest of the recycling work, he explained, could potentially be done away from the water.
Commissioner Chris Buness said she would have given the plan a “wholehearted yes” if she could be certain that any additional infrastructure added to the recycling yard by Channel Construction would be compatible with the borough’s future development goals.
Along with the rest of the commission, she was concerned that providing a long-term lease for the recycling yard could limit future tourism development on the site.
“If we want to have cruise ship action, we’ll need to think about the impact of those acreages,” said Buness. “I don’t know what the bigger vision is.”
Commissioner Frank Roppel also took the site’s tourism potential into consideration when he voted against the motion. “That’s a community-wide decision because that would be a place where you could put a cruise facility,” he said. “The water is deep enough.”
The commission discussed the major tourism investments being made around Southeast by Huna Totem and Norwegian Cruise Lines and the impact that these developments might have on Wrangell. “The community needs to look around at what else is going on around Southeast,” said Roppel. “It’s stunning to me to see the amount of huge investment going into cruise passenger facilities.”
The port commission requested a more detailed business plan from Tonsgard and the borough that would address the length of the property lease, the amount of waterfront, and the specific infrastructure that Channel Construction would install at the site.
They will resume their discussion of the issue at the next commission meeting on Oct. 6.
Reader Comments(0)