Petersburg’s Harbor Board approved a proposal to use borough funds to help a cruise line extend the local port dock. The vote came at the board’s meeting on October 17 and now moves to the Borough Assembly for further consideration.
American Cruise Lines Inc. approached the borough in August about building a floating dock extension for the local port dock. The company said the extension would better accommodate visiting ships, and help them expand cruise service to the community. They’re sailing a second cruise ship to Southeast next year, and doubling their number of visits to Petersburg.
The American Cruise Lines vessel, Constellation, takes up a large amount of shared harbor space when it visits Petersburg. Harbormaster Glo Wollen said she hears a lot of complaints from local mariners when the almost 283-foot vessel blocks traffic to the town’s only marine fuel station.
She told the Harbor Board that extending the dock could help alleviate congestion.
“I would like to see that we have a plan to get a better situation in place for this particular vessel,” said Wollen, “because what is going to require to tie them up 34 times next year is we’re going to have to kick all the tenders off to tie them up. There are times when the fuel barge is coming in, they have to fuel up the tender fleet and things like that. So, it’s really going to be a juggling show for the harbor department next year.”
American Cruise Lines is asking the borough for a 60-year lease for the structure, as well as funds for the dock. If the borough puts down 50 to 80 percent of the total cost for construction, the town will have partial ownership of the structure. That means Petersburg would have more say in the cruise ship schedule, and could collect more money from visiting ships.
Local businessman Jim Floyd told the Harbor Board that chipping in for the extension would cement Petersburg’s say in its own future.
“What happened to Sitka?” Floyd asked the board. “Somebody came in and said: ‘Listen, we want to do this partnership,’ and the borough says: ‘No, thank you.’ So, a private entrepreneur went in, built the dock, and guess what? They have no control. As I see it, we have two choices: we can either do business with [American Cruise Lines] and have control, or it’s going to happen anyways.”
The borough is planning to hold several work sessions with American Cruise Lines and community members before it puts the question to the assembly.
The plans for the extension are still quite early, and neither party has any estimation for how much the dock extension will cost. In a letter to the borough, American Cruise Lines CEO Charles Robertson said he wants to have the dock operational by the summer of 2027.
