Port Commission hears of busy summer coming up

By Diana Haecker
The Port of Nome is expecting a busy summer with at an anticipated 13 cruise ship landings, four visits by the research vessel Sikuliaq and two dockings of the Japanese Naval training vessel Oshoro Maru, according to Nome Harbormaster Lucas Stotts, who updated the Port Commission in their regular meeting last week. Most notable, he said, is that the cruise ship Scenic Eclipse is scheduled to arrive on May 27, very early in the season. Stotts doesn’t anticipate problems for the vessel to dock at the City Dock, inside the port but noted that last year, the floating docks, which are located at the inside harbor, were not even deployed until the end of May. The last cruise ship is scheduled to arrive on October 5.
All cruise ship visits, he said, are day trips.
Stotts reported that the floating docks, often receiving cruise ship passengers being brought ashore by transfer vessels are the receiving docks and staff has bought new traffic cones and a pop-up pavilion tent with the City of Nome logo to offer an inviting welcome to the guests. When asked how many passengers would visit Nome this summer, Stotts said that the cruise ships are rarely booked out, but if they were, it would be 7,000 passengers for the summer.
Port Director Joy Baker updated the commissioners on the Port Expansion project, saying that the city is on schedule to submit the 95 percent design package of the Local Service Facilities —the city’s responsibility of the project, i.e. docks, utilities, fuel lines etc. — is on schedule to be submitted to the Army Corps of Engineers on Feb. 24 for their many-layered review.
Then the city has time to respond to requested changes or concerns with the 100 percent design being submitted by May 3. The only pending item, she said, to start phase one is the National Marine Fisheries Service permit for impacts on marine mammals. “Nothing on this permit process is being skipped, it was started late,” Baker said. The Corps, she said, “tossed it to the city” and is paying for the cost. “The city gets credit for the cost it incurs on the permit engineering and environmental contractor to submit the application and negotiate back and forth with NOAA to determine what it’s going to take for approvals,” Baker said. We’re hoping to see an approval in the next few months. There’s two permits that have to be authorized. This is the one that’s kind of an unknown but things are going well thus far and there are no delays on that timing,” Baker reported.
Road projects that the city hoped to have done prior to port expansion construction are pushed back, per their discussions with the Alaska Dept. of Transportation. Improvements to the Port Road won’t be bid until 2026 with construction to proceed in 2027. “It’s just not practical or financially efficient to try to shove together a project trying to improve the road significantly and then run haul trucks and all sorts of heavy commercial vehicles across it, so we look at doing temporary upgrades and maintenance to it, each year starting this summer just so it can support the loads.”
The alignment of Center Creek Road with the new Snake River bridge is also being pushed back to 2025.
Baker also reported, as she told the City Council last week, the Corps and the city will hold a public meeting on the port expansion on May 17 in Nome at the Mini Convention Center.
The commissioners heard of the 2022 statistics on commodity volumes. The port received 37,818 tons of cargo; nearly nine million gallons of fuel and saw an export of 121,143 tons of gravel, down from last year’s record amount of nearly 380,000 tons. The port saw only 97 vessels anchoring at the port, down from 156 in the year 2021 and 150 in 2020.
Going over budget amendments, the port asked for an increased budget for garbage removal. Budgeted were $3,500 for garbage removal but the amendment called for an additional $4,000. “The garbage is eating us alive,” said Baker. “We need to spread the costs among the transients and home port users.” Commissioner McLarty noted that non-port users are dumping their trash in the receptables at the port and Harbormaster Stotts added that he sees every morning people getting rid of their garbage at the harbor dumpsters. Commissioner Lean reminded people that the Nome landfill at the Beam Road is open for free garbage disposal and promoted the free dumping on Saturdays as quite the social event that ought not to be missed.
On a more serious note, the commissioners and Baker agreed that the port needs to address waste oil disposal. City Manager Glenn Steckman said that the city’s Public Works Department is working on a plan to utilize used oil to heat some of the city’s buildings.
In commissioner comments, Commissioner Shane Smithhisler asked about the succession plan for Port Director Joy Baker as she gave notice. Simultaneously Baker and Steckman answered: “We’re working on it” without going into the particulars. Smithhisler also said that people approach him about this and want to know if Baker is “resigning” or “retiring.” Baker answered that she is retiring. “I’m done working. I’m going to retire. I mean, I got other things to do. But yes, it’s not a resignation,” Baker clarified.
Since the next scheduled meeting would fall right in the time of Iditarod time, the meeting will be held at a different location from its usual place at City Hall or it would be canceled.