PC Dock passenger‑fee revenue creates dedicated fund; engineering cost and procurement under review

Haines Borough officials told the Ports & Harbors advisory committee that a newly implemented per‑passenger fee for cruise visitors has generated an initial revenue pot to fund PC Dock maintenance and capital improvements.

"We started implementing it at the beginning of this season, so every revenue passenger on the cruise ships contribute $9 to visit this port," Tourism Director Rebecca Hilton said, adding that a conservative estimate of revenue collected this season is about $400,000. Harbor Master Henry Paul clarified those revenues are limited to the PC Dock enterprise fund and related shoreline public infrastructure; they cannot be used for unrelated harbor floats or ice‑house upgrades.

Paul said staff intends to package PC Dock work into a single bid package with alternating bid items so the borough can identify what industry can build for available funds. He warned that engineering alone can be costly: for the floating cruise‑ship dock component, an engineer's estimate came in at about $700,000. Staff said they will explore competitive procurement and possibly a design‑build approach to balance cost and risk.

Committee members asked about other funding sources including grants and CVP funds; Paul said grants will be part of a multiyear financing plan that could also include revenue‑backed bonding paid with passenger fees.