Faced with rising costs and aging infrastructure, Ketchikan City Council raises utility rates
Posted by Eric Stone | Feb 19, 2021
KPU Water Division work crews fix a broken water main on Schoenbar Road in July 2019. (Leila Kheiry/KRBD)
Water and power rates are going up in Ketchikan. That’s following a vote by a divided Ketchikan City Council after concerns were raised about steady losses by the city-run utility.
Ketchikan Public Utilities’ water division hasn’t broken even for at least a decade. That’s despite rate increases nearly every year. And KPU’s electric division hasn’t fared much better it’s also been in the red for most of the past decade.
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The first hour of the regular Ketchikan City Council meeting was filled with public comment Thursday evening, with community members supporting a motion on the agenda to commission a totem pole to honor Alaska Native civil rights activist Elizabeth Peratrovich; speaking to the council s effort to urge legislators to resume the Ocean Ranger shipboard monitoring program; and a representative from Petro Marine Services offering information about the company s pricing structure as it takes over Crowley Fuels in Southeast Alaska.
The second hour was taken up with a discussion about whether a COVID-19 program authorized under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act â the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act â should be extended for city employees through June 2021, and the first portion of a presentation about the resumption of the cruise industry in Alaska by representatives from Royal Caribbean International.