Skagway Assembly debates FY26 capital budget and whether to spend cruise-passenger funds or sales tax reserves

Skagway Municipality’s assembly spent much of its Oct. 23 meeting weighing tradeoffs in the proposed FY26 capital-improvement program, with members pressing the manager to prioritize school bathroom and ventilation upgrades, shore- and port-related safety work, and urgent erosion control on West Creek.

Manager Deach led off the session with a broad CIP summary, saying the school restroom and access upgrades will complete design this year and be phased over two years to spread costs. “You will see in the budget for ’26 is the critical restrooms, getting those constructed first and then moving on to the doors, access control, and the remaining restrooms,” Deach said. She told the assembly she expects roughly $1.2 million from sales tax in the draft budget for those initial efforts and has budgeted about $620,000 to design school ventilation upgrades.

The manager also described a series of port-funded projects separate from the sales-tax and CPV (cruise passenger) funds, including rockslide mitigation where a…