The Petersburg Borough is the closest it’s been in years to owning a well-used portion of tidelands south of town. The State of Alaska is considering giving the borough ownership over specific tidelands on Mitkof Island, located dockside of the Papke’s Landing neighborhood.
The local borough has plans to develop the waterfront area and improve the infrastructure there for mariners.
“We’ve got lots of ideas,” said Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht. “But it’s just a matter of trying to make some of this stuff come together.”
Giesbrecht said the borough intends to acquire the upland area as well as the tidelands. However, it has taken years to reach this point in the process to potentially obtain ownership of just the tidelands portion, he said.
“Getting into this, I did not expect it to take [so long] to get the ownership squared away. But … we’re closer,” Giesbrecht said.
There is a boat ramp and dock on the water that’s used mostly by lodges and locals living in the neighborhood “out the road.” And although the floating dock is owned by the state, locals have kept it usable by doing their own repairs over the years.
But the wooden dock needs major maintenance. Improving it has been on the Petersburg Borough’s list of desired capital projects for years. But Giesbrecht said that’s a big project, and in order to secure grant funding for it, the borough will need to own the infrastructure.
“It’s going to be a rush between getting ownership and it falling apart,” Giesbrecht said of the dilapidated dock. “I hate to say it that way, but that’s exactly what the case is.”
However, the dock is technically not part of the portion of tidelands that the state is considering giving the borough. The proposal includes the land underwater, but not what’s on the water.
The state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) owns the tidelands. The state Department of Transportation (DOT) has control over the float, trestle and the dock. Giesbrecht said the plan is to get ownership of the tidelands from DNR, and then the DOT will subsequently transfer its assets to the borough. Then the borough will try to get grant funding for improving the infrastructure.
Because the dock has structural issues, Giesbrecht said the state is more inclined to demolish the dock instead of spending money and resources on repairs.
“They’ve sat in my office and said … if it starts to get too dangerous to use, we’ll just tear it down,” he recalled. “That makes it hard to get grants, if you have people who own it, saying it’s not worth fixing. We have to move past that a little bit.”
Giesbrecht said the borough has developed designs to replace the dock and build something brand new. When that project could happen, however, will depend on how long it takes to officially own the area and find funding.
According to the state’s preliminary decision, the borough has submitted a comprehensive plan to repair and maintain the dock. Giesbrecht said the borough would be able to do piecemeal fixes in the meantime until money for the larger project is secured. Obtaining ownership, though, is the next step.
The state is accepting public comments about this preliminary decision to convey the tidelands ownership to the Petersburg Borough. The deadline to submit comments to the state ends this Friday, April 25.
