The Nome City Council meets tonight to debate the purchase of property at Anvil Mountain. Sitnasuak Native Corporation is the property’s current owner. If the purchase goes through, the city would also own the White Alice Towers, communication towers constructed by the Air Force during the Cold War.
The council began the debate at last month’s meeting. City Manager Tom Moran expressed his support for the land purchase.
“I really think that this is something that would benefit the community as a whole, not just within city limits, but Banner Creek and Dexter and Newton and so on and so forth,” Moran said.
Moran explained it’s taken the city 20 years to reach the land purchase agreement with Sitnasuak.
Mayor Richard Beneville has long been involved in tourism in Nome. He brings many of his tours up to see the Cold War relics.
“I believe in saving the site,” Beneville said at last month’s meeting. “I believe in preserving the history of our town, of our region, of our country. I think it’s a very, very important thing.”
But not everyone was in favor of the land purchase. While he said he liked the White Alice Towers, Councilman Matt Culley did not think the city should enter into the agreement.
“You talk about tourism, and we need to grow it here,” Culley said, but he added “it costs money, and right now, we’re spending more money than we’ve got, and that money has to come from somewhere.”
Because of that, Culley said, he wasn’t interested in spending the city’s money to make the purchase. “I don’t think it’s the city’s place to take [the towers] over,” he said.
The City Council will hear the second and final reading of the land purchase agreement at tonight’s meeting. They will also discuss joining a housing task force, purchasing a new fire truck, and making further repairs of the jetty at Cape Nome.
