Political Quotes

“H.R. 1948 is the result of several months of work on a land exchange proposal to help the City and Borough of Sitka, Alaska, to develop new economic opportunities. Sitka is located in southeast Alaska, and is not accessible by road. Its major source of year-round jobs for several decades was a pulp mill which shut down in 1993. The land for the pulp mill site was originally granted to the Alaska Pulp Corporation in 1960. However, the Federal Government retained a reversionary interest in it. This means that the United States may take ownership of the site if there is no timber processing on it for 5 consecutive years. With the mill closure, the property cannot be used for anything other than timber processing, even though it is one of the best available locations for new economic development in Sitka. The closure has several severe effects on the local economy. Year-round jobs were lost, the tax rolls took a hit, and people moved out of the city, to name a few. Sitka has taken a number of steps to revitalize the community. An important component of this effort is to reuse the pulp mill land in order to offset the job losses. Since the Federal reversionary interest clouds the ownership status of the land, the site cannot be put to productive use. H.R. 1948 takes care of this problem through a land exchange between the company and the United States. Under the legislation, the Federal reverter interest in the pulp mill will be removed.”