State: No breach of agreement in Seldovia Village Tribe ferry grant 07/28/10

Story last updated at 6:15 PM on Wednesday, July 28, 2010

State: No breach of agreement in Seldovia Village Tribe ferry grant

By Michael Armstrong
Staff Writer

The Alaska Department of Law has found no breach of a $1.5 million grant agreement with the Seldovia Village Tribe to build the Seldovia Bay Ferry, the department said through a statement released July 22 by the Alaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development.

"From a Department of Commerce standpoint, there is no separate investigation either in the works or planned," said Mark Kelsey, communications coordinator for the department. "With what we know right now, we don't think there has been a violation in regard to the state funds."

Under a fiscal year 2007 appropriation from the Legislature, SVT was awarded funds to help build a proposed ferry and related dock improvements.

SVT used its state grant to pay for part of the $3.3 million cost of the M/V Kachemak Voyager, built by All American Marine in Bellingham, Wash.

The Kachemak Voyager runs several trips daily in the summer between Homer and Seldovia, including what the Seldovia Bay Ferry advertises as a sightseeing cruise to Gull Island and through Eldred Passage.

Local tour boat operators maintain the Seldovia Bay Ferry runs a government-funded boat that competes with private businesses.

Kelsey said the language in the grant allows for tour boat operations.

"The grant was for the ferry and infrastructure, and that was what it was used for," he said. "We are prohibited by statute from putting restrictions or limitations on these kinds of grants. How the tribe uses the ferry and infrastructure, beyond getting people from point A to point B, is not within the scope of the grant, or our authority to limit."

Michael Armstrong can be reached at michael.armstrong.@homernews.com.

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