Rumors are once again rolling that the Ketchikan Gateway Borough might annex some or all of Prince of Wales Island.<\/p>\n
At the Borough Assembly\u2019s Monday meeting, Assembly Member John Harrington said the annexation question was once again surfacing on Prince of Wales, prompting him to write a draft resolution for a future vote.<\/p>\n
The Assembly approved a resolution in early 2013 disavowing any interest in extending its western borders, which end in the middle of Clarence Strait.<\/p>\n
That resolution noted the Assembly couldn\u2019t bind future Assemblies and couldn\u2019t stop a citizen-led initiative.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, one Prince of Wales leader said the borough hasn\u2019t done enough to convince residents of the island.<\/p>\n
Harrington said he became aware of it through his role as a member of the state\u2019s Local Boundary Commission.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeveral years back, we had put forth, I thought, a reasonable resolution saying we weren\u2019t interested,\u201d Harrington said. \u201cBut apparently that wasn\u2019t quite enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leslie Isaacs, current chair of the Prince of Wales Community Advisory Council, said on Tuesday that while he\u2019s hearing \u201cthe normal chatter\u201d about annexation, Ketchikan\u2019s borough hasn\u2019t done enough to calm fears on Prince of Wales.<\/p>\n
Referencing the 2013 resolution, he said that a \u201cresolution is exactly that \u2014 just an opinion of the council at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Isaacs also works as the administrator of the City of Klawock.<\/p>\n
He also noted a radio interview during Ketchikan\u2019s October election season, when one candidate talked about the two potential mines on southern Prince of Wales as \u201cpotential revenue sources.\u201d<\/p>\n
While that might be innocuous in Ketchikan, Prince of Wales residents worry the mines on their island could be used to fill budget gaps across the strait.<\/p>\n
Isaacs noted the state\u2019s continuing budget crisis and fewer federal funds coming to rural Alaska.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith those cutbacks, what does the future look like?\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s what scares us, honestly. In that declining revenue, what would stop them from annexing the bottom half of the island, where they might be able to pick up some revenue?\u201d<\/p>\n
Harrington\u2019s draft resolution, which hasn\u2019t been considered by the Assembly, would establish as a \u201cpolicy\u201d of the borough that it \u201cwill seek no additional annexation without specifically being asked to annex an area by residents or property owners in that area.\u201d<\/p>\n
The draft resolution states that the resolution is \u201cmade in good faith,\u201d and the policy is expressed with \u201cstrong conviction based on current borough plans and intentions.\u201d<\/p>\n
The resolution, like its 2013 precursor, states that it can\u2019t bind future Assemblies or others who file petitions with the state\u2019s Local Boundary Commission.<\/p>\n
The last large annexation of the borough took place in 2008, when it expanded its eastern borders to include more than 4,000 square miles of the Tongass National Forest in southern Southeast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rumors are once again rolling that the Ketchikan Gateway Borough might annex some or all of Prince of Wales Island. At the Borough Assembly\u2019s Monday meeting, Assembly Member John Harrington said the annexation question was once again surfacing on Prince of Wales, prompting him to write a draft resolution for a future vote. The Assembly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-13915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13915\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13915"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=13915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}