Assembly rolls back 3% increase in moorage fees

Annual moorage rates will not increase this year, after the assembly on July 23 passed a resolution reversing a 3% fee increase it approved in April. The higher rates had been scheduled to take effect this month.

The vote to roll back the rate increase was unanimous.

“Realizing that it’s such a poor commercial fishing season, realizing that the tourism industry has struggled a bit this year, we felt we could drop the rate increase this year and come back to it next year,” Borough Manager Mason Villarma said in an interview last week.

The assembly vote to cancel the increase in annual moorage rates does not apply to other harbor fees that went up at the start of the borough fiscal year on July 1, such as the boat haul-out charge and other fees at The Marine Service Center or transient moorage rates.

Wrangell’s harbor fees, along with all of the borough’s enterprise funds such as utilities, tend to increase in small amounts every year to account for inflation.

According to Villarma, in the past, Wrangell’s enterprise funds — such as moorage rates, sewage fees, or electric bills — have been a financial net loss for the borough, but a couple subsequent years in the black provides the borough with the wiggle room to not increase moorage rates this year.

In addition to canceling this year’s increase in reserved moorage fees, the assembly also turned back a change in rates charged to cruise ships that take on water in Wrangell. Because the borough’s fiscal year resets every July 1, cruise ships arriving this summer were not given much advance notice about the rate increase.

Wrangell provides water for cruise ships when the borough’s water supply is sufficient and there is no risk of a shortage in town.

The assembly plans to reevaluate the water fees later this fall so that any change could be in place ahead of next year’s tourism months.

“In an effort to provide advance notice and be accommodating to cruise lines, the borough is proposing to postpone rate increases impacting the visitor industry until the summer tour season has ended,” according to the resolution approved at the July 23 assembly meeting.