Rural Alaska

State recommends against dueling Nushagak annexation efforts

Years-in-the-making requests from two Bristol Bay towns to annex Nushagak fishing grounds to collect more revenue from the fishery may have hit a wall this month.

The state agency responsible for vetting the requests issued a report earlier this month that said neither Dillingham nor Manokotak had made their case to annex part or all of the Nushagak District.

Dillingham applied first to annex the entire Nushagak District, and Manokotak submitted a competing petition to annex the Igushik Section, where many of its residents fish.

After public comments and each city's response were submitted,  the state Local Boundary Commission said in its preliminary report it would deny both requests. According to the report, the agency can't approve requests that overlap.

Instead, the staff report suggested asking the state to create a borough to  include land from the Southwest Region and Dillingham school districts, and the fishery in Bristol Bay.

That borough could collect and distribute revenue from a fish tax, as well as tourism and other industries, across the region. The report noted no one community provides all the services a fishing fleet needs.

Staff said the solution had been discussed in public comments and that's why it was included in the report. A borough formation study has been in the works all year, and the idea was mentioned in some of the comments on the original petitions.

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Mayor Alice Ruby has been part of the conversation for quite some time, and said it's not a new idea.

"There have been several (studies) in the past produced and it would take some creativity to create a borough here, to fund it, to make it what the residents want but carry the financial stuff," she said. "It takes some creativity. And I guess we'll see."

Over the years, Ruby said she's heard concerns from those outside Dillingham about the town serving as the population center of a borough that includes other villages. She also heard from Dillingham residents about sharing its services.

"I think it's changed a little bit to the better, but there's still a lot of people worried about it," she said.

Manokotak Mayor Melvin Andrews told KDLG News his town isn't on board with the new plan, and still wants to have some control over the nearby fishery.

"We have been attempting to maintain our ancestral rights to keep Igushik managed through our tribe and municipal entities. The tribe has not been able to move forward with it, so the city has moved forward, when we've had the chance … to oppose Dillingham's attempts to annex areas strongly related to Manokotak," Andrews said.

The preliminary report also outlined specific issues with each request. For Dillingham, staff said the annex area is too large in comparison to the size of existing territory, and is more appropriate for a borough. And in response to Manokotak's request, the report said annexed land, specifically the Igushik district, does not need a city government.

Ruby also noted the report was preliminary, and feedback was still being gathered. The commission will eventually make its own decision, she said.

Public comments can be submitted through July 15.

KDLG's Dave Bendinger and Shaylon Cochran contributed to this story.

This story first appeared in The Bristol Bay Times/Dutch Harbor Fisherman and is republished here with permission.

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