Ketchikan’s American Legion Post 3 was a popular, active community center before it burned down last year. Hunter Davis is the commander of the local veterans group chapter.
“It has been used as a polling place, meeting, dances, dinners, weddings, funerals,” Davis said.
In a town full of history, the Legion building was particularly historic. Ketchikan’s legion charter dates back to 1919, making it the oldest in Alaska. The now-demolished structure on Park Avenue was built in the 1930’s and had been collecting artifacts and memories ever since.
“It’s just always been here, so it’s always been in use,” Davis said. “It is a fixture.”
After it was destroyed last fall in an alleged arson fire, Legion members immediately started planning to rebuild and have been fundraising to do so. Yet even with their insurance settlement, Davis said they’ve only raised about half of the $1.2 million they need.
In late June, Gov. Mike Dunleavy signed the state budget, vetoing over $225 million in operating and capital expenses. Two of the nixed capital projects were destined for Ketchikan — one to help rebuild the American Legion Post, and the other for a grandstand structure at Norman Walker Field.
If the vetoed state funding had materialized, Davis said the Legion could have comfortably moved ahead with construction.
“The money would have been extremely beneficial to our fundraising efforts,” Davis said. “I did not want to count on it, but at the same time, it was pretty disappointing when we did not get it.”
Alaska’s budget was debated by legislators over the course of their four-month session and ultimately passed in mid-May. Then, about a month and a half later, Dunleavy slashed millions in expenditures with his veto pen.
For nearly every vetoed line item in the capital budget, including the two Ketchikan projects, the explanation provided was to “preserve general funds for savings and fiscal stability.”
If you ask Republican Sen. Bert Stedman though, the legislative budget had already preserved fiscal stability.
“We already had a balanced budget delivered to [Gov. Dunleavy,]” Stedman said. “He gave us a budget that was $900 million underwater. We gave him back a budget that was in surplus.”
Stedman represents a wide swath of Southeast Alaska. As co-chair of the Senate Finance Committee, he is instrumental in crafting the budget. He said this year was the first time in a while the state had a little extra money to dedicate to local capital projects. While he acknowledged that vetoing them saves some money, Stedman said those savings aren’t significant in the big picture.
“If the oil prices decline, then it would help cushion it a little bit,” Stedman said. “But the amount of vetoes aren’t going to make a hill of beans of difference if oil goes down five, six, seven dollars.”
Stedman emphasized that their submitted budget was well above what the governor stated as his own savings target.
When asked to elaborate on the reason for the vetoes, a spokesperson for Dunleavy said via email that the administration didn’t have enough information about the Legion rebuild, and that funding for the grandstand had already been allocated by a local bond.
Ketchikan voters did pass a ballot measure for about $6.7 million in 2021 to pay for upgrades to two baseball fields and a parking lot. Still, due to multiple complications and skyrocketing construction costs, Public Works Director Morgan Barry said the final cost will be roughly double the amount covered by the bond.
However, the Walker Field grandstand is set to move ahead as planned. Barry said the borough had already appropriated local funding before the vetoes came down.
“We know from past experience that the budget isn’t settled until the governor’s performed his vetoes,” Barry said.
Barry said they operated under the assumption that Dunleavy would cut their legislatively approved funding, and if the money happened to materialize, the borough would have rearranged things to put it towards a long list of other projects.
The Walker grandstand, complete with a concession stand, bathrooms, two meeting rooms, and a media booth, is currently out to bid and expected to be completed by March 2025.
As for Legion Post 3, the members say they are doing their best to raise money, but they still have a long way to go.
Hunter Davis said one of the Legion’s challenges is that renting out their building was typically their biggest source of income.
But as they continue normal operations of funding scholarships and youth sports, Davis said he’s been amazed by the community’s support.
“We have seen the response of the Ketchikan community to the loss of our building, and it has just been — it’s very humbling to know that people pay such close attention,” Davis said.
In the short term, the city is looking into renting a building to the Legion, which is directly across the street from their old one, and recently vacated by First City Homeless Services.
