To provide for the conveyance of certain Forest Service land to the city of Coffman Cove, Alaska.

July 28, 2005

Ms. MURKOWSKI (for herself and Mr. STEVENS) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources

To provide for the conveyance of certain Forest Service land to the city of Coffman Cove, Alaska.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Coffman Cove Administrative Site Conveyance Act of 2005'.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

Congress finds that--

(1) the community of Coffman Cove, Alaska, which originated as a logging camp in the 1960's, was incorporated as a city in 1989;

(2) the Forest Service property located in the center of the City was used by the Forest Service as a work center;

(3) the Forest Service work facilities included part of the logging camp, a log sort yard, and a log transfer site, all of which supported the long-term timber sale operations and other subsequent timber sales in the Tongass National Forest;

(4) as the long-term timber sale operations concluded, the need for the Forest Service to use the Forest Service site in Coffman Cove diminished;

(5) the Forest Service work center facilities that supported timber operations have been removed and the site has been restored;

(6) the location of the administrative site interferes with the ability of the City to further develop commercial operations and tourism support facilities relating to a new ferry terminal;

(7) the City wants to acquire a portion of the site to continue the transition of the City from a timber-dependent economy to a more fully developed and diversified economy; and

(8) the Forest Service expects that only approximately 3 acres of the administrative site will be used in the future for National Forest System purposes.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

In this Act:

(1) CITY- The term `City' means the city of Coffman Cove, Alaska.

(2) SECRETARY- The term `Secretary' means the Secretary of Agriculture.

SEC. 4. CONVEYANCE.

(a) In General- Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary shall convey to the City, without consideration and without additional warrants or liability on behalf of the United States, fee simple title to the parcel of Forest Service land described in subsection (b).

(b) Description of Land-

(1) IN GENERAL- The parcel of Forest Service land referred to in subsection (a) is the approximately 12 acres of land identified in U.S. Survey 10099, as depicted on the plat entitled `Subdivision of U.S. Survey No. 10099' and recorded as Plat 2003-1 on January 21, 2003, Petersburg Recording District, Alaska.

(2) EXCLUDED LAND- The parcel of Forest Service land conveyed under subsection (a) does not include the portion of U.S. Survey 10099 that is north of the right-of-way for Forest Development Road 3030-295 and southeast of Tract CC-8.

(c) Right-of-Way- The United States may reserve a right-of-way to provide access to the Forest Service land excluded from the conveyance to the City under subsection (b)(2).

END