- During the August 1st meeting of the Craig City Council, what should have been a routine motion to sell the lease of Richard Trojan’s property on the island’s only public use car wash was vetoed by the City Mayor Tim O’Connor.
- This property, leased to Trojan by the city, is the island’s only public use car and boat wash with an oil water separator and Mr. Trojan’s off residential equipment storage and maintenance yard.
- Mr. Jon Bolling’s (the city administrator) recommendation has been to sell the lot to Mr. Trojan and the council accepted and verified his recommendation with unanimous approval to sell. This action was vetoed, 8 days later by the City Mayor Tim O’Connor.
In the council minutes which may be found [here].
"Richard urged the council to vote in favor of selling the property to him and recounted his participation in city business and volunteer work throughout the years. Richard explained that the extra money will be returned to the property. Richard has complied with all council requests and changes to his lease. Richard is looking into the option of a recycling businesses that could be viable on the property which would in turn be a benefit to the residents of Craig and Prince of Wales island.”
While there was some back and forth by the council members on the ‘aesthetically pleasing’ aspect of the property and ways to make it ‘greener’ the motion was unanimously carried and approved and the Mayor did not make any ideas known during this discussion.
However, eight days after the council meeting the mayor vetoed this decision with a memo:
“The Mayor wants to run the city for maximum profit. Read reason 1 and 2 of Mr. Mayor’s memo (posted below). Line 3 is just beating the panic drum. Mr. Mayor is not concerned about the 1,200 gallons of waste oil the city stores or the steam cleaner the CTA is using on a gravel site in a residential area or the city pressure washing equipment at the city shop. Mr. MAYOR EVEN STATED TO ME THE CITY DOSEN’T NEED POLLUTION INSURANCE THEY ARE BIG ENOUGH, TO JUST PAY FOR IT. Trojan and son is the only company the city has required to carry pollution insurance.
Line 4- I do not intend to run a “scrap yard”. I don’t even have to be in the can business at all, But I think that by having people who want to recycle aluminum cans and store the cans until we are ready to receive them. Then once a month or every other month somebody will be there to keep the garbage dumpers from screwing this up for us. Another option that would be in the future is to have hours similar to the dumps hours so people could drop off cans."
The property in question was a 20-year lease with an option to buy. Richard has paid the city $100K already and has to pay roughly that amount to purchase the land.
POW Report reached out to the city Administration to confirm that this veto was in fact the Mayor's first veto of his term. Unfortunately, after several attempts POW Report was not able to receive additional comments from the Mayor regarding his decision.
The next regular City Council Meeting is scheduled for September 5, 2019 at 7 pm in the Craig City Council Chambers. Among additional discussion of the veto, the council will consider the purchase of bear proof dumpsters, as well as a report from the US Army Corps of Engineers on the Craig Downtown Harbor Project.
You may find the agenda [here]
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