Video Clips

Quoted moments from Alaska public meetings, hearings, and press conferences.

David Persinger “One of the things that exacerbated the problem here within the municipality was that the Matanuska-Susitna Borough was in the same predicament with frozen septic and wells. So, there was— resources were spread throughout all of Southcentral, not just Anchorage.”

Anchorage Assembly: Infrastructure, Enterprise and Utility Oversight Committee-of-the-Whole Meeting · Aug 20, 2026

Brian Boss

“In my 20 years here at the utility, we've experienced frozen hydrant legs, but as far as frozen water main that serves multiple customers, I've heard of it, but I've never seen it myself. We had 3 last winter. What was odd is they all occurred within a couple of days of each other, right around the end of March.”

Anchorage Assembly: Infrastructure, Enterprise and Utility Oversight Committee-of-the-Whole Meeting · Aug 20, 2026

Brian Boss

“So, I mean, it's well over 3 times what we normally get. As far as frozen services.”

Anchorage Assembly: Infrastructure, Enterprise and Utility Oversight Committee-of-the-Whole Meeting · Aug 20, 2026

Brian Boss

“I went to a job site and I was talking to some of the people and they were so cold they couldn't talk straight. So, it was really just keeping people and equipment warm was a huge, huge deal. We broke an excavator claw because we were trying to dig through hard ground and, you know, those things are solid steel and it broke.”

Anchorage Assembly: Infrastructure, Enterprise and Utility Oversight Committee-of-the-Whole Meeting · Aug 20, 2026

Brian Boss

“if we tried to thaw every service right now, we couldn't respond to breaks or other bigger emergencies, and it would be a problem.”

Anchorage Assembly: Infrastructure, Enterprise and Utility Oversight Committee-of-the-Whole Meeting · Aug 20, 2026

Brian Boss

“What was different about the winter of 2025 and 2026 is we had to do it 2 times a week instead of 1 time a week. And so what that did is committed 2 out of 3 of our crews to this icing route, which gave us less flexibility to respond to other emergencies”

Anchorage Assembly: Infrastructure, Enterprise and Utility Oversight Committee-of-the-Whole Meeting · Aug 20, 2026

Brian Boss

“So this particular main was 11 feet deep, so it was very deep. The ground froze very deep in that area.”

Anchorage Assembly: Infrastructure, Enterprise and Utility Oversight Committee-of-the-Whole Meeting · Aug 20, 2026

Brian Boss

“So, frostbite, hypothermia, that type of thing, and equipment malfunctions were paramount to address. So, what are the lessons we learned? We need to do a lot more customer education and develop a lot more customer education materials.”

Anchorage Assembly: Infrastructure, Enterprise and Utility Oversight Committee-of-the-Whole Meeting · Aug 20, 2026

Erin Baldwin Day “thank you all very much for your work and please stay warm this winter.”

Anchorage Assembly: Infrastructure, Enterprise and Utility Oversight Committee-of-the-Whole Meeting · Aug 20, 2026

Erin Baldwin Day “you mentioned in your lessons learned consideration of potentially tariff modification for emergencies. Is that something that requires Assembly action?”

Anchorage Assembly: Infrastructure, Enterprise and Utility Oversight Committee-of-the-Whole Meeting · Aug 20, 2026

Brian Boss

“When I reflect on the winter of 2025 and 2026, I think of it as a prolonged natural disaster response.”

Anchorage Assembly: Infrastructure, Enterprise and Utility Oversight Committee-of-the-Whole Meeting · Aug 20, 2026

Brian Boss

“I personally think O&M is understaffed and we need to staff up more to address these emergencies. That costs money, affects our budget.”

Anchorage Assembly: Infrastructure, Enterprise and Utility Oversight Committee-of-the-Whole Meeting · Aug 20, 2026

Brian Boss

“Normal winters, that process of thawing takes private industry hours to a day to to do. Last winter, because of the volume of freezing services we had, it was more like days to weeks, and we had people reporting with a month out of water.”

Anchorage Assembly: Infrastructure, Enterprise and Utility Oversight Committee-of-the-Whole Meeting · Aug 20, 2026

Brian Boss

“last winter was unusual that the frost was getting down to 11 feet deep in those areas. Normal winters, that doesn't happen. Like I said, we've never experienced in my 20 years here frozen water main in the right-of-way like I showed you. But last winter, it happened 3 times, all within a couple of days of each other”

Anchorage Assembly: Infrastructure, Enterprise and Utility Oversight Committee-of-the-Whole Meeting · Aug 20, 2026

Brian Boss

“Last winter, we received calls and reports from our customers of about 250, 240 frozen services. That dwarfs the number of calls we got in the previous years of the data I just showed you in the winter. I mean, if you go back to 2019, 2020, which is one of the bigger records I found, they were a little less than 100.”

Anchorage Assembly: Infrastructure, Enterprise and Utility Oversight Committee-of-the-Whole Meeting · Aug 20, 2026

Kurt Wilcox

“I'm probably going to have to have a lawyer represent me at this next meeting because it's above my expertise. I'm not a good public speaker, and I'm sad to be in this position, but I have 2 weeks to prepare.”

Kenai: 8/12/2026 Planning & Zoning Commission Regular Meeting · Aug 12, 2026

Kurt Wilcox

“Um, the city is been very non-cooperative in approaching this particular gravel company.”

Kenai: 8/12/2026 Planning & Zoning Commission Regular Meeting · Aug 12, 2026

Kurt Wilcox

“I'm also, I'm preparing a document to CC to these agencies, Cook Inlet Keeper, EPA, DEC, in the watershed forum, and now Nancy at the River Center.”

Kenai: 8/12/2026 Planning & Zoning Commission Regular Meeting · Aug 12, 2026

Kurt Wilcox

“There's a catalog online. Okay. And this is the document that was provided to me by the Alaska Fish and Wildlife.”

Kenai: 8/12/2026 Planning & Zoning Commission Regular Meeting · Aug 12, 2026

Kurt Wilcox

“I could show you the Fish and Wildlife provided the document of the same site showing an anadromous stream. So my issue with they wanting an additional use permit to dig into the buffer is gonna take quite a few documents to show why this is unacceptable.”

Kenai: 8/12/2026 Planning & Zoning Commission Regular Meeting · Aug 12, 2026

Kurt Wilcox

“I've initiated a contact with DEC, and they've— I have had a conversation with the Fish and Wildlife officer. He has referred me to the EPA contact that he gave me just today to because he thinks he'll be interested in this because it's— I take the setback, it's the definition the city is digging into the water table, which is the Kenai Borough in their new gravel ordinance recommendations or has prohibited this, and there's, there's a reason for it, but I need the documents to present to the commission to verify my facts.”

Kenai: 8/12/2026 Planning & Zoning Commission Regular Meeting · Aug 12, 2026

Kurt Wilcox

“I will, at the next meeting, or I could provide them now, show you what they did when they first took possession of the cone pit. And the first thing they did was dig up the buffer, and they didn't have permission to do it. I have a, a document with Elizabeth Appleby, who was the city planner at the time. I notified her immediately.”

Kenai: 8/12/2026 Planning & Zoning Commission Regular Meeting · Aug 12, 2026

Kurt Wilcox

“Number 1, the pit, the cone pit run by Quality Asphalt is my adjoining neighbor. And I got a copy of their SWPPP report, which improperly identifies the creek that runs through our property, our Anajimus stream that originates on our property.”

Kenai: 8/12/2026 Planning & Zoning Commission Regular Meeting · Aug 12, 2026

Kurt Wilcox

“We've had other issues with QAP, which I have documents of that I'll provide at the next meeting in 2 weeks, and hopefully I have all the documents together that I want.”

Kenai: 8/12/2026 Planning & Zoning Commission Regular Meeting · Aug 12, 2026

Kurt Wilcox

“I'm working now with Fish and Game, who's gonna do an onsite visit in the near future. I'm working with the DEC because they're the ones that approve the SWPP program to see if this is an acceptable omission.”

Kenai: 8/12/2026 Planning & Zoning Commission Regular Meeting · Aug 12, 2026

Kurt Wilcox

“But hopefully I get it all done in 2 weeks, and if I don't, I'll at least present evidence that I— it's in the making. But there's just so much wrong about this particular company.”

Kenai: 8/12/2026 Planning & Zoning Commission Regular Meeting · Aug 12, 2026

Kurt Wilcox

“Their own site plan shows the Anajimas Stream discharging into the Kenai River.”

Kenai: 8/12/2026 Planning & Zoning Commission Regular Meeting · Aug 12, 2026

Kurt Wilcox

“Hi, I'm Curt Wilcox at 3329 Beaver Loop Road, and I'm giving my address because, uh, my property adjoins the, uh, uh, notice of public hearing that I received today.”

Kenai: 8/12/2026 Planning & Zoning Commission Regular Meeting · Aug 12, 2026

“keeping our roads safe and maintained actually aids in to getting to school safely, whether you're walking next to or driving on. I think they both go hand in hand. You can't necessarily really separate them, but when you're looking at it like this, I think it's a smart move.”

Mat-Su Borough: Planning Commission Meeting August 17, 2026 · Aug 17, 2026

“Seeing and hearing no objections, Resolution 26-17 has been approved.”

Mat-Su Borough: Planning Commission Meeting August 17, 2026 · Aug 17, 2026

Craig Tarraga

“No, no, there's— yeah, we don't have another vessel that we could crew and to come up and help. So then we wouldn't have service in January.”

Cordova: August 10, 2026, Council Work Session · Aug 10, 2026

Kristin Smith “So it's sounding like splitting the difference with 2 on the front and 2 on the back might be the safest bet.”

Cordova: August 10, 2026, Council Work Session · Aug 10, 2026

Craig Tarraga

“It does go in the shipyard itself in January. And then Kodiak, as they annually do, they'll be without the ferry as well.”

Cordova: August 10, 2026, Council Work Session · Aug 10, 2026

Bill Lindo

“it would seem like a once a month sailing, it's just about guaranteed to be stuffed full, the ship. And I would bet that maybe a 3-week, every 3-week sailing, you're probably also going to have a stuffed full ship in the wintertime.”

Cordova: August 10, 2026, Council Work Session · Aug 10, 2026

Kristin Smith “once a month would be huge. Twice a month would be fantastic, but realistically for, for the community, you know, maybe the school district can adjust that a little bit.”

Cordova: August 10, 2026, Council Work Session · Aug 10, 2026

Craig Tarraga

“The only thing that would prove that is if we got enough we're able to take enough off the schedule to get some days in February, but that's it.”

Cordova: August 10, 2026, Council Work Session · Aug 10, 2026

Kristin Smith “I think I've heard, and I imagine there will be comments coming tonight, but that ideally for the school district, it would be great if there was a very over to Whittier on a Thursday and coming back on a Sunday, and school groups could participate in weekend activities.”

Cordova: August 10, 2026, Council Work Session · Aug 10, 2026

Craig Tarraga

“The yard is pretty confident they can at least take a month off the schedule, but we're going to go through all that the first week of September in Seward with the yard and see what we can take off. And so if a little bit of that's on the front end, the back end, you know, we'll do what we can.”

Cordova: August 10, 2026, Council Work Session · Aug 10, 2026

Milo Burcham

“January and February will be no sailings, out of service. Sounds like we have some flexibility with up to 30 days.”

Cordova: August 10, 2026, Council Work Session · Aug 10, 2026

Kristin Smith “January, February would be the blank months.”

Cordova: August 10, 2026, Council Work Session · Aug 10, 2026

Craig Tarraga

“Right now we have booked the Aurora with the shipyard, and we're set for a start date of October 1st. We've made a commitment with them, but if there's, like was just stated, if there's some value in delaying that a couple weeks, we can have that conversation with the yard and see if that's possible.”

Cordova: August 10, 2026, Council Work Session · Aug 10, 2026

Craig Tarraga

“There had been some comments I heard that there may be value in delaying, uh, a couple weeks if there's some schedules, uh, events of the first couple weeks October. If there is, I, I could go back to the yard and see if we could— if they'd be open to a delay.”

Cordova: August 10, 2026, Council Work Session · Aug 10, 2026

Kristin Smith “if we go up on a Wednesday, they, you know, or come back on a Monday, they, um, ideally it would be going up on a Wednesday, so you have the 2 days to do it.”

Cordova: August 10, 2026, Council Work Session · Aug 10, 2026

Kevin Cross “this land fell within the Port Modernization Project and scope of work, wasn't it?”

Anchorage Assembly: Assembly Regular - July 21, 2026 · Sep 2, 2026

Dave Hale “we've been working with staff for a bit on this to make sure everybody was okay with the realignment of this right-of-way. So we have no objection to staff recommendations.”

Anchorage Assembly: Assembly Regular - July 21, 2026 · Sep 2, 2026

Dave Hale “there's a bunch of projects going on down there. The modernization with the T1, T2, those are separate.”

Anchorage Assembly: Assembly Regular - July 21, 2026 · Sep 2, 2026

Brenda Mills “Traffic circulation is not impaired. Vacation does not affect protected grid or OS and HP corridors. And no reviewing agencies or public oppositions or community council oppositions.”

Anchorage Assembly: Assembly Regular - July 21, 2026 · Sep 2, 2026

Brenda Mills “I move in case S12908 to approve the plat for 24 months subject to the conditions shown on page 5 of the staff report.”

Anchorage Assembly: Assembly Regular - July 21, 2026 · Sep 2, 2026

← Newer Older →