October 15, 2011
Saturday AM

Just to clear a few things up. Mr. LeCompte, please go back and re-read my first post on this. To clarify your accusation of me not telling the truth and sounding like Sarah Palin, what I meant by' it doesn t matter' is that it was 6 years ago and I don't remember which cruise line company had the last spot open on the dock and don't remember the number of spots they had. My point was that the cruise ships have more than we do and we need to reserve more spots on the docks for locals to do business. The city said that there are only a certain number (I don't remember what that number is) of spaces on the docks and the only one left was taken by the cruise ships. Not a lie, just don't remember which cruise ship has it and the majority of them.

So in my opinion the solution to the problem lies on the city. Why?

I was told that they didn't want anymore stands on the docks so that is doesn't look like every other travel destination around the world. Docks filled with vendors as soon as they get off the ship. I find it kind of crazy if you're trying to bring in cruise ships here that you (the City) will only allow a certain number of stands on the docks. I would agree that we need more spaces on the docks for locals to do business. That was my point in the earlier post about the cost and restrictions of locals to do business at our own docks/city.

What needs to happen is the city needs to change the policy on how many stands are allowed on the docks/streets so more businesses can build their own stands on the pier or have a small trailer they can park along side the road when the cruise ships are in town. Did you know that the city will not allow you to park a concession stand on the side of the street even with a permit? We need to change our city's regulation / policy / laws to make it easier for local business owner to work in Ketchikan. I'm all for allowing people the opportunity for building their own business at their own expense. Now we just need to get the city and borough to show us they fill the same way by changing some of the silly laws to allow us to build our own businesses without a bunch of regulations and lower the amount of permits. After all the more businesses the more people that are employed and spending their hard earned money supporting Ketchikan YEAR round and not just for a few months in the summer.

I agree we need more space on the dock for locals to do business, but I do not agree that the city needs to build/pay for them to be built but to allow for us to build our own following city building codes and keeping regulations to a minimum.

Art Bailly
Ketchikan, AK