The Ketchikan Borough employees’ health insurance fund is $1.3 million in the red, and the assembly will look for a remedy when it meets in regular session on Monday.
The fund pays claims under the borough’s self-insurance program. The Ketchikan Borough Assembly will hold a public hearing, followed by a vote on a budget amendment to eliminate the deficit. Borough management is also recommending the assembly be more proactive in dealing with the fund, and amend the budget each year to eliminate deficits should they occur.
The assembly will also hold a public hearing and final vote on a request to rezone a quarter-acre industrial lot along Ketchikan’s downtown waterfront in the Newtown area. The rezone would allow for mixed commercial and residential use. The owners plan to build retail shops at street level with housing above.
A previous request was rejected last November after neighbors complained that the rezone did not include a height limit. At its April 4 meeting, the assembly approved a rezone request that included a height limit of 50 feet.
Also Monday night the assembly is scheduled to hold several work sessions. One is to discuss options for addressing the housing crisis in Ketchikan. Recommendations by staff that the assembly could pursue include regulation of vacation rentals, temporarily allowing certain types of mobile buildings on residential lots for a limited time, and applying for a planning grant to develop a new borough subdivision.
The assembly will also hold a work session to discuss the 2023 budget.
The assembly is slated to enter into executive session to evaluate the borough attorney, borough manager and borough clerk.
Ketchikan’s Borough Assembly meets at 5:30 p.m. in the White Cliff Building. Members of the public can weigh in at the beginning of the meeting and during public hearings. The full agenda is available at the borough’s website, where the meeting is also live-streamed. It’s also available on local cable channels.
