Tony Guggenbickler has owned seven boats and spent time in harbors from Seward on Alaska's Prince William Sound to Puerto Vallarta on Mexico's west coast over the past 60 years. He retired from commercial fishing earlier this year and said he now has time to serve on the port commission.
He is not completely out of the water. He has a small boat for sportfishing. "That is going to help out with the crab salad and help keep the smokehouse going," he quipped.
Almost as long as he fished for salmon, halibut, black cod, ling cod and shrimp, Guggenbickler served 50 years on the Wrangell advisory committee to the state boards of fisheries and game.
He is one of four candidates for the port commission in the Oct. 1 municipal election. The top two vote-getters will each win a three-year term.
His fishing career started as a young man on his father's boat, working up to owning his own, including the 59-foot Toni Marie, his third boat, which he built over the course of seven winters almost a half-century ago. Named for his daughter, it was a troller/freezer vessel. "We fished it for 40 years" before selling it. The Toni Marie now works out of Sitka, he said.
Guggenbickler has several ideas that he said focus on improving security and safety in Wrangell harbors.
He would like to see the borough accommodate more liveaboards in the harbors. Attracting more liveaboards would put more "eyes on theft" in the harbors, he said.
As part of the work plans for the $25 million federal grant to rebuild the Inner Harbor, Reliance and Standard Oil floats, he hopes the design will add public restrooms for the Inner Harbor. "That's got to get corrected."
He also wants to correct what he sees as a safety risk at The Marine Service Center. There is a gap when someone steps off their boat when the vessel is hauled out of the water, he explained. That creates the risk of falling into the water if the boat owner slips or misses the dock while stepping out of the boat.
"I would support an enclosed walkway, like a gangway with a roof."
Guggenbickler does not support the port commission proposal - which is now dormant - to require boat owners to provide proof of insurance in order to rent a slip at any of the harbors.
Many fishermen have wooden boats, he said, and most wooden boats are not insurable.
"I am not in favor of forcing mandatory insurance. ... It'll put these guys right out of business."
Guggenbickler said he doesn't have an opinion on whether the borough should relocate the barge ramp and freight staging area from downtown to the former 6-Mile mill property. If elected, he said, "we can discuss that."
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