What's the City to do with the Carlson House? At a meeting Tuesday, the committee left just 3 options on the table: a Veterans memorial, an historic museum, and USFWS office space.
In a meeting Tuesday night, the Carlson House Advisory Committee inched toward an eventual decision on what the City of Dillingham should do with the old home and the land it sits on.
The property was left to the City by Mary Emily Carlson over two decades ago. In recent months the Committee has taken various suggestions from residents who want to turn it into a Veteran’s Memorial park, a museum, or a hospice facility, among other ideas.
Before considering the full list of options in its meeting Tuesday, Dillingham City Manager Rose Loera reminded the Committee of some restrictions that were spelled out in the original Carlson House deed.
The deed says the property must be administered "for the following uses," Loera recounted. "By charitable organizations including Samuel Fox, the Dillingham Historical Society, or, by the general public for charitable, literary, scientific or education purposes. This restriction was intended to benefit all the citizens of the City of Dillingham."
Given those requirements, the four committee members quickly eliminated options they said didn’t have a clear educational value to the general public.
"The ones that we’ve taken off the list are: 'Have UAF program renovate for hospice care'... 'Sunday school rooms for Moravian Church," said committee member Rae Belle Whitcomb. "We’ve removed 'Create botanical gardens on the property.' And we've removed at this time 'Sell the property as a bed and breakfast, and then the chamber of commerce office space. That’s because they didn’t fit the deed restrictions in the initial interpretation."
So the Carlson property won’t be dedicated to Bible lessons, plants, a B&B, or end-of-life care.
That leaves just three options on the table. One, to build a Veteran’s memorial park possibly run by the local American Legion; two, to restore the property for historic preservation; and three, to turn it into office space for the Togiak National Wildlife Refuge.
That third proposal from Fish and Wildlife is a new one. Allen Miller from the Refuge responded to the Committee’s concerns about whether a government office building would provide educational value.
"We’re not trying to push our way into this," said Miller. "If there are other options that work really well for the city, we’re not trying to say, 'Hey, we want this property.' We’re saying that we might be able to incorporate a lot of educational stuff; we always do, even in our small space we have now."
"But we also may be able to do something like still incorporate some type of memorial on the property -- there's nothing that says that federal property can't have other things on it."
The Committee has asked for a more detailed proposal on what Fish and Wildlife wants to do.
Once they have proposals in hand, Loera says the City will consult with a lawyer to determine if the three remaining plans fall within the deed restrictions.
There’s no set timeline for when the Committee will make its final recommendation or when the city council will act after that. The Committee’s next meeting is scheduled for January 20th.
Contact the author at hannah@kdlg.org.
