The Ketchikan Gateway Borough Assembly has scheduled a marathon policy meeting, starting at noon on Friday and lasting through Saturday.
The members will recess the meeting at around 4 on Friday, though, and then reconvene Saturday morning at 9 a.m., to finish out the agenda.
The purpose of the meeting is to discuss policy issues, and provide direction for borough management. The items up for discussion include the borough budget, library funding and the school district budget ; sales tax collection; the process for determining the community’s capital project priority list; Parks and Rec fees; and the process for filling vacancies on the Assembly.
During a presentation Wednesday to the Greater Ketchikan Chamber of Commerce, Borough Mayor Dave Kiffer added that economic development is another topic that could be discussed, and he invited the public to come to the meeting and give advice.
“We are always looking for more ideas,” he said. “If you’ve got specific ideas or things you think we should be looking at, let us know. To be honest, over the last 15-20 years, the borough hasn’t always done the very good version of economic development. We’ve made some good choices. Certainly supporting things like the shipyard have benefited the community. But we don’t always make the right choice. Sometimes we end up with bowl factories.”
While the policy session is expected to recess at 4 on Friday, the Assembly will have some more work to finish that night. Some items from Monday’s regular meeting had to be postponed due to a snafu over the legal notice, which wasn’t published in time. As a result, the Assembly recessed Monday’s meeting and will reconvene at 5 p.m. on Friday to take care of those postponed items.
The policy session and the reconvened meeting both will take place in Borough Assembly chambers at the White Cliff building.
