After months of negotiation, the borough is ready to approve a short-term lease with Juneau-based scrap metal recycling company Channel Construction for a portion of the 6-Mile mill site. At its Jan. 24 meeting, the assembly authorized Borough Manager Jeff Good to finalize the lease, which has been in progress since last September.
At its Sept 1. meeting, the port commission unanimously voted down a motion to recommend leasing a portion of the property to company owner William “Shorty” Tonsgard Jr. Commissioners wanted more information about the borough’s overall plan for the mill site, since some potential uses could be incompatible with industrial development.
On Oct. 10, the port commission approved a proposal to lease two acres of the 39-acre property to the company for three months. At the end of the term, the lease would be on a month-to-month basis. Commissioner Chris Buness called the agreement “a good compromise,” according to the meeting minutes.
Tonsgard initially requested six acres, but the commission suggested decreasing the parcel’s size to free up the rest of the property for other development uses. Under its short-term lease, the company does not plan to install permanent facilities at the site, according to the borough documents.
Channel Construction has used the site in the past to collect scrap metal, hauling loads by barge to an out-of-state recycler. Channel collects scrap metal throughout Southeast.
“We don’t know what the property is going to be yet,” Good said. “We could make it industrial, we could make it light industrial, we could make it tourism. Before we do anything and really commit to a long-term lease for industrial activity, we want to understand what the public wants for that property.”
At a community forum Dec. 15, residents, business owners and borough officials met to explore options for the site’s development. Many proposed uses were industrial — attendees suggested establishing a centralized waste facility, installing a plasma burner for hazardous waste, or expanding the scrap metal recycling operations that Channel Construction already has in place. Other suggestions included mariculture, a vocational school and expanded marine services.
Attendees expressed some interest in tourism expansion, but not at the expense of Wrangell’s “small-town charm,” as one brainstorming group wrote on their idea list. The clash between prospective tourism opportunities and scrap metal recycling was one reason the port commission cited for its initial disapproval of the Channel Construction lease.
The borough purchased the mill property for $2.5 million last summer and hopes to use the site for economic development.
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