Seward: City Council Meeting 10/12/2026

7. Okay, we're streaming to YouTube. Ready when you are, Mayor McClure. Okay, thank you. I will call this meeting of the Seward City Council to order.

It is Monday, October 12th, 2026, at 7:00 PM. Chief, would you please lead us in the Pledge?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you very much. Mr. Clerk, would you please call the roll?

Roll call for tonight's meeting. Barnwell. Here. Kreitz is excused. Warner?

Here. Osenga? Here. Calhoun? Here.

Draper? Here. And Mayor McClure? Here. You have a quorum.

Okay, we have— oddly, we have no proclamations today. We've been having quite a few previously. So that brings us to citizens' comments on any subject except items scheduled for public hearing. We do have two public hearing items, so you might check the agenda. And maybe, maybe we— maybe I won't say whose phone that was.

Was not mine.

What was it? Oh, and so you can speak on any subject. You'll have up to 3 minutes. There's a 36-minute total time, and there's a signup sheet for this. I'll take the people signed up first, and then I'll ask for show of hands.

And I think those here know this, but when you come up to speak, would you state your name and whether you live inside or outside the city limits? With all of that, Mr. Clerk, who signed up? There are 3 people signed in to speak, and first on the list is Steve Fink. Okay.

Okay. All right. Um, good evening, Mayor and Council, and happy Columbus Day. My name is Steve Fink. I've lived in Seward for 26 years and I live in town.

First off, I want to thank City Manager Kat Sorensen for bringing the All-America City plaque back to Benson Memorial Lagoon there. It honors the 3 times that Seward won in 1963, 1965, and in 2005, including the aftermath from rebuilding the 1964 earthquake. It reminds everybody in this town both the history and the culture of Seward. That same spirit is here— why I'm here asking you guys to support on the agenda. I'm not sure if I'm going out of place here, out of turn, speaking before the agenda has been posted, but Ordinance 2610, um, asking, uh, the city to move the general— or move the municipal election to the general election.

I'm very supportive of that. Um, on October 6th, during our municipal elections, only 388 people showed up to vote out of a total of 1,776 registered voters to cast their ballots. It's barely 1 in 5.

And when normally about 1,000 or so turn out during the presidential election. So moving to align with the November general election has shown greatly increased turnout and substantially lower the cost for taxpayers as well. We wouldn't be the first ones to do that. Matsu voters switched in October 2018, dramatically increased, increased their turnout. Kenai Peninsula Borough in in October 2025.

Homer, March 2026. Fairbanks North Borough voted just this October, and Soldotna as well.

And the cost savings are, are basically that we used to share the election costs with the borough. They moved to align with the general election November, kind of leaving us to hold the bag. So if we align with them, that would We would get those, we would definitely dramatically lower our costs. When Homer looked at this, they haven't had their elections yet, but when they did the, they looked at the finances, it's going to save them about $10,000 in costs. I don't know how that aligns with us, but anyways, you guys have the authority to make this change.

Please support Ordinance 2610. And appreciate that. And that's it. Thank you. Thank you, Steve.

Mr. Clerk, who's next? Next on the list is Tim McDonald. Tim? Are you sure?

Yeah, go ahead. Can she go next?

I think you're supposed to.

I am shorter. Go ahead. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah.

I live inside the city limits. My name is Marie Gage. I just want to introduce myself. I am hoping to be on a historical commission, and I've lived in Seward 67 years, and both Mr. Seavey and Mr. Koleski were my teachers. I've been working on the Woodlawn Cemetery since I was just a little kid.

I ride my bike down there and kind of clean up some of those headstones or the graves and stuff. And we've been really working on it the past year in the city. Parks and Rec have really come up and helped a lot, so they've probably done more in the past year than I've done in the last 40. But I really appreciate it. So that's all I have to say.

Thank you. Thank you, Marie. Okay, now, uh, Tim McDonald.

Tim McDonald, Inside City Limits.

I've lived in Seward also for a long time, born and raised here. '64 Earthquake. Started commercial fishing at 16 on the Smarag for scallops as my first trip. Crabbed for 5 years from 19 to 24. Sane for another 10 years and halibut fished all the time.

Fisheries, I don't think anybody can argue, have dropped off dramatically. We fish different species of fish now. Gray cod, which was a trash fish when I was fishing, is now one of the top producers. The crab is gone, the halibut are gone, the salmon are pretty much gone.

And, you know, I've got to say it, that it's partially the cruise ships' fault. It's also the fault that we're dumping millions of gallons of sewage, especially during the summer months, into Resurrection Bay. It's basically treated with added chemicals before it's dumped. Yes, it's legal, I know. You're obeying all the rules and laws you're supposed to for DEC.

It doesn't matter. The fish are the canaries in the coal mine. They know when the water's good and they don't like it. That's why their runs are down 80, 90%. And if anybody wants to argue with math, we can break out the figures.

So there's a reason and we're not doing our job. And you guys are gonna go down in history if you don't do something. This is one of the jewels of Alaska, Resurrection Bay. It's the best port in Alaska, we know that. Growth is coming and it's going to be exponential.

These cruise ships are going to be replaced with warships probably in the next 5 years. Whatever happens, you need to prepare now or Resurrection Bay is going to be a dead zone. It's pretty close to that now. Nobody likes to admit it, but all our salmon we do get are dependent on being planted by the by the aquaculture associations. You need to upgrade the lagoon— not the lagoon, the sewer lagoon facilities.

You know, human urine has a lot of potassium in it, which you can be pulling out for fertilizer. You think it's a joke, it's not. Half the world is ready to plunge into famine because all the wars. There's no fertilizer, there's no crops, there's nothing. And it's probably gonna affect us by doubling the food prices in a couple years.

Seward is a productive fishing hole. It always has been, but it's very sick right now, and it's up to you guys to do something. And if you don't, you guys are going to go down in history. It's going to be in the books as you did nothing while Rome burned. That's what it is.

It's your responsibility right now to get that fishery and get that sewage lagoon and do something about it. Thank you. And I don't see any other folks in the audience, so I'm assuming there's no one in the hall. Can I speak twice? No, I don't think so.

So I will move us along to the approval of the agenda and the consent agenda. I need a motion to approve and a second, please. I move for the approval of tonight's agenda and consent agenda. I'll second. Okay, it's been moved and seconded.

Are there any changes anyone would like to make? Councilmember Calhoun. Madam Mayor, is it— I'm not sure, is it proper to put the appointment of Marie Gage on the consent agenda? Absolutely. I was going to if you didn't.

Is there any objection to that? Okay, so congratulations and thank you. We'll put that on. Any other changes? Okay, we're ready to vote.

Mr. Clerk. Voting on the approval of tonight's agenda and consent agenda as amended. Draper? Yes.

Calhoun? Yes. Barnwell? Yes. Warner?

Yes. Osenga? Yes. And Mayor McClure? Yes.

Your agenda and consent agenda have been approved. And on the consent agenda were the September 28th, 2026 City Council meeting minutes, the The introduction of Ordinance 2026-010, amending Seward City Code 4.01.030, Date of Regular Election, to move the election date to November to align with borough and state elections. The introduction of Ordinance 2026-011, amending Seward City Code 8.20 to remove the $100 vehicle for hire permit and consolidate it with the business license application. Resolution 2026-086, authorizing the city manager to enter into a service agreement with Lift Off LLC for a 1-year renewal of the city's Microsoft 365 licensing subscription in the amount of $59,461.20.

Certify the results of the 2026 regular municipal election. No grounds for protest for the AmCo Liquor license renewal for the Breeze Inn. No grounds for protest for the AmCo Liquor license renewal for the Lone Chicharrón. And lastly, to appoint Marie Gage to the Historic Preservation Commission with the term set to expire May 2029. Thank you.

That took care of a whole bunch of print, and we're now over to in-person reports and presentations. And first we have the City Manager report, which you can find on page 52 of the packet. Madam City Manager. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um, just two— a few things I wanted to note.

On October 5th, which was last week, the application period for the request for information for the different offerings at the community center after the old middle school closed, we received a good number of responses on the, um, on a variety of the RFIs. We had them for rentals of the nonprofit spaces, an after-school program à la like Boys and Girls Club in that space, as well as a daycare program. The, um, so we'll be looking over those and going through the space one more time and seeing where all the puzzle pieces fit together, and then we'll probably bring back a few contracts as we move forward with setting that space up. That also leads me to remind people to sign up for the Zombie Run on October 17th. I will be there as a zombie, and I've been training, so I will get all of the flags and get all of the, um, people as they run by the zombies.

Also, a big kudos to the entire Parks and Rec team. Uh, the Madam Mayor and I attended the ribbon cutting for the dog park this weekend, and it was really exciting to see just how much use it received immediately. So So excited to see that and have that added resource for our community. So a reminder to people, there is a dog park that opened up across the street from the Seward Military Resort. So check it out with a dog or not.

Yeah, thank you. Just want to come and watch dogs run and run and run. It was wonderful. Yeah, I got to use the big scissors. It's fantastic.

Mr. Bickling, do you have anything No comment. Okay. Any questions, comments?

I have—. I have a list. Council Member Gregor. If it's okay, it seems like it's a good time. Oh, sure.

So I just was curious about updates on electric projects, one being the report from the large meter audit. I know we did that, but I think it's done. It'd just be kind of nice to get a report. On what became of that, um, when we did the audit of the large meters to see if we had line losses. And, um, I think I was told the meter installation's been delayed till May because it's backordered on equipment.

Yeah, our meters have been ordered for replacing, but they have not yet arrived. So once they do, we will be able to get those all installed. One of the things is just, um, supply chains have been a little bit slower than anticipated, but once those are in and we start installing them, we'll let everybody know. And still on electric, um, I watched the town hall meeting and I heard Brian mention that he thought that the next step going forward is a work session with City Council. And I just want to make sure that kind of gets said and maybe planned to talk about what's our next steps for the future of our electric department.

Yeah, so at our next meeting, I put a discussion item to discuss— I wanted to wait until the council election results were certified so that everybody on the dais could have a say of when that meeting would be scheduled, just because we're heading into the holiday season too, and I know in and out across November, December. So we'll have a discussion item on that at the next meeting. Um, we had a citizen comment on paving, and I've talked to Jason a little bit about this, but, um, sounds like they're— the paving list of residential paving areas needs to be prioritized, and there needs to be a mechanism for funding each year. Yeah, we— that was discussed when you discussed that about a year ago now. And Public Works, and we kind of put together a list of all the areas that, that aren't currently paved and some, a number of roads that need like repair or repaving.

And so, uh, yeah, the— and at that time what we discussed is that during the next budget cycle, um, we would look at— there'd be discussion of, uh, having the same mechanism like we do for sidewalks, where I think sidewalks currently there's like $250,000 a year that's put— that's set aside for that, and then it builds up, and then we tackle projects that way. It'd be kind of nice for some people to see that there's a light at the end of the tunnel. My road's on the priority list and someday it's going to get paved. He says trucks are rolling by and creating a lot of dust in that subdivision past Hilltop because that's unpaved up there. Okay, one more thing.

The middle—. Are we going to call it the middle? Are we going to call it the Seward Community Center? We're going to call it the Seward Community Center just for ease. I put out a survey to see if anybody had any input, and that was the response that we received.

So yeah, nice and simple. So we'll see if it stands. Any other questions for the city manager? Um, one thing you did, um, we— I appreciate you You have a monthly meeting with the other city managers on the peninsula, correct? Oh, yeah.

It's just— that's a good thing. Yeah, so every month, all the city managers on the Kenai Peninsula and I meet virtually on Zoom, and then once a year, we'll meet in person at one of the different locations. So this past week, I went down to Homer for that meeting, and it was really interesting to touch base with all of them and see similar issues that we're all facing, different issues that we're all facing. The election and the date of the election was a discussion item that we talked about for a bit since all of those— all of the other municipalities opted to move their election date. So that was interesting.

I was the only one who was just recently— we were the only community that was like, oh, how's everybody's election results? They're like, ah, not till next month. Well, and there was a reason for that in our code. Yeah. Done it for this election.

So just, you know, we're not behind. Yeah, just to clarify, per code we need at least a 1-year notice to make any changes, or per our charter, not per our code. Oh yeah, right. So that's why now we're able to talk about it and decide after. Okay, anything else for the city manager?

Okay, moving along, we have a city clerk Report on page 71. Do you want to show it and read it to us? No. I glossed it. You want to say what you've got in there, though.

It's pretty cool. Sure, thanks, Madam Mayor. As we're wrapping up our regular municipal election and the canvas board, I just wanted to give a big thank you to all the voters and the council candidates and the election workers and the canvas board workers. And everything went really smooth and, you know, we showed that we can do the regular election on our own without collaborating with the borough if needed. So, it all went really well.

Okay. And included in the packet are the tally results from the canvas and all the statistics from the election. So, if you're curious, I sat there in the back and tallied. It was pretty— I always love going to the canvas. But anyway, if people are interested, it's in the packet and it's online, so you can see.

And every vote counts. As you know, it was really close, just a 4-vote difference. Every vote counts. Yep. And so, at the next meeting on the 26th, we'll have the swearing-in ceremony at the start of the meeting with Matt Cope and Bob Barnwell.

We're going to do that. So, and congratulations. Okay, a question on your right. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, go ahead.

Thank you, Madam Mayor McClure. Um, I just had a question, or more of a statement, for the clerk. Um, you've been working on a pretty awesome project with past election results. Could you tell us a little bit about that? Yeah, on legislative history right now, we have PDFs of all the election, election results from October's regular elections dating back to 1963.

And it's a little hard to navigate to right now, so I haven't like made a big announcement about it yet, but we're working on making it easier to find these things. We're expanding our categories on legislative history. Awesome, thank you for working on that. Yeah, it is really exciting.

We don't have to keep our results anymore, we can look them up.

Any other questions for the clerk? Okay, City Attorney report. We have Mr. Severin right there. Right here. Yeah, thank you.

Um, it was a nice drive down. We're in the sweet spot because the fishing has wound down but the snow hasn't fallen. It makes driving down here really nice. A couple of things. September was Relatively quiet, just kind of the normal hum, but nothing too exciting, or— yeah.

One, I guess, looking at that first line, I just thought I'd explain, I usually try to pick something and just explain it a tiny bit, but it talks about responding to multiple public records requests, as well as responding to a subpoena for records, and— Often the work on public records requests gets kind of a little understated in here. On any given month, that can be a bit of a time-consuming issue, uh, for some of the thornier ones, uh, in our office. But this— a subpoena, that is a frequent thing that comes into cities, and the setup there is usually that, uh, a civil suit that has documents that are relevant that the city holds. And so instead of a public records request which they can still do, but they'll often just subpoena the records. And, uh, it's the same drill largely from the city perspective where we have to identify everything and then evaluate it for different privileges.

But, uh, one of those came in last month that was a little, um, a little time-consuming. So that's what that is. It's just that, uh, if parties are in litigation, they have the option to do a subpoena, and in some ways it can be a little bit easier for the city, actually, because some of the public records exceptions don't always apply, which makes it a little less screening sometimes. But that's— otherwise, one of the, one of the things we worked on, I guess it came up during a fire department RFP process, is it's nice to attach a draft contract to the RFPs. And I don't know Seward's always done that, but we're going to try to gravitate toward that.

That way you can just, you know, get the proposals and then go, well, now we need to draft a contract. We've already included it, and you can say, well, that's what we're following short of negotiating specific terms. Seward hasn't always had a uniform sort of draft contract for those kind of things, and so we're making a conscious effort to gravitate toward that. Over time, and so that's come up, but that's actually a— probably won't impact anybody much on the day-to-day, but it's a positive development. I didn't mention any personnel things.

I usually don't, but last month I just didn't even mention it at all, but there's always some, and that should have probably made it on here. But the only other thing is Port Harbor stuff. I know just from— Just anecdotally, the day-to-day, I've been talking with Tony Moore, so there's some— largely it's because he— Seward is just really in the leasing business in a way that most cities aren't. You know, it's just kind of unique. It just runs through the— it's all port and harbor stuff.

And we're almost always kind of chipping away on renewing one or dealing with one in some fashion. Usually just kind of renewing or transferring, but there have been a couple of those lately, which is, I suppose, a healthy thing. But, uh, otherwise, that's about, that's about all I've got. Okay, thank you. Uh, question, Councilmember Barnwell?

Yeah, um, thanks, Sam, for the overview there. A couple of questions. Uh, one on the, on the records request. What, where do people run afoul Why not? Why is a lawyer involved with records requests in general?

What's happening there that's getting the lawyers involved? That is a really good question. We represent cities all across the state. That's a big part of what we do, and I would bet that I spend 15 to 20% of any given week working on public records issues. Or any given month.

That's a big part of what I do. In a nutshell, what it is, it's not people running afoul, it's all the exemptions that— and a lot of the exemptions pertain to privacy, so we really need to analyze carefully for whether we're following the exemptions. So, you see that your neighbor gets pulled over by the police, you're like, "Oh, that's kind of interesting. What the heck happened there?" I'm going to put in a public records request. Usually the department kind of knows what to do there.

There's certain things that just can't be by law provided, and— but occasionally they get stickier questions, and, um, or somebody new and they call and go, we're going to release this report to Barnwell, but can you just take a look at it? That's a really simple version. A lot of it pertains to privacy and The way the law was written, I'll tell you, part of it, the reason lawyers are involved is because the law was written such that lawyers have to be involved. A lot of them are, the exemption is for this kind of record, parts of it are exempt to the extent that it would constitute, that the release would constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Well, that's great that you can read that in the code, but that just sends you off to try to figure out what the heck it unwarranted invasion of personal privacy would be, which is all in case law and has to be kind of divined.

So, it's mostly privacy issues, questions about, yeah, what can be released.

I think that— Chris, does that capture it? Mm-hmm. Yeah. But it's, I mean, it's just phenomenal. Every week I get one where I go, "God, I haven't thought of that yet." And it just— comes up.

It's remarkable. Oh, that's brilliant. I didn't, I didn't even think about that. So thanks. There's also an issue of, um, city codes are all kind of different, or they don't have one.

Seward's not in that boat. And then it's a question of, well, okay, so then we default to state law, but state law's applicability to cities is kind of— it's not perfect. And so there's—. Yeah. There's just a lot, lot there.

And on the other one that is the cost and the quote for you can charge for a certain amount and how do we navigate that? Person says our quote is absurdly high or how do we even just communicate that so that we can make sure to recoup our costs, that kind of thing. Okay, second question.

Ah, Chris, I'm glad you're back. I'm ready. On the drafts, so basically we would attach a letter to the RFPs, and would that be something that City Council and the administration would work through? I'm trying to envision that, because it's something that's kind of bothered me since I've been on Council, is when we put out an RFP, we obviously, most, as far as I can recall, we basically throw it out to the, to the engineers to say, hey, draft up a police station, rather than being more definitive about cost and size, some of the details that we haven't really hammered out, so that it gives them a more focused approach to how they might—. Right, and that's actually, I mean, that might be a different topic.

I'll tell you what I'm specifically addressing I'm glad you made the clarification, is just sort of a more not construction contract. And Jason's been through the construction thing. I was going to say, like, the fire department is because they're putting out an RFP for snow clearing or something like that. And so we have to have a contract so that way when we have, like— a lot of it's for services. Yes.

I would say it's mostly about services because the city puts out RFP for a lot of services. And so a lot— and I'm the person that works with services. Sam a lot on this because usually department heads come to me and like, I don't have a contract, or the last contract I have is 25 years old. So then Sam and I work together, but what we want to do is we want to have a standardized contract so that way if the department puts out an RFP for snow clearing services, the successful respondent will already know what the contract looks like. It's going to say— it's going to have all the necessary things that the attorneys want to see that, that kind of covers that, hey, this is what we agreed upon, uh, this is the insurance things.

If we both want to get out of it, this This is how we do it, you know, just those types of things. Because right now we spend a lot of time trying to clean up old contracts, and it would just be better if we had this starting point that kind of has all the elements in it that really we could, you know, we actually don't need this section because of this type, it's this type of service that we're looking at, so we don't really need that, or—. Okay, so that question I have is, because we pumped it somewhere else. Yeah, but those are like, those kind of, That kind of stuff is pretty rare that we deal with. It's the more— this is more the day-to-day type of thing.

Well, your reference would be more towards the project planning when the firm has been hired and the discussions when it's in here and you're saying, well, we would like to see X, Y, and Z rather than A, B, C. Yep. Yeah. Okay. Sounds good. Thanks.

Other questions for Sam?

I love it when you educate us on things. That part of it's really enjoyable. Thank you very much. Okay, this brings us to public hearings, and we have two. Uh, the first is an ordinance for enactment, Ordinance 2026-009.

Mr. Clerk, would you please read that into the record? Ordinance 2026-009, amending Seward City Code 16.01 and 16.05 to clarify public improvement requirements when subdividing, developing, or selling land. Okay, thank you. And you'll find that on page 74 and beyond in the packet.

I'd ask for a motion to enact and a second, please. I'll move for the enactment of Ordinance 2026-009. I'll second that. Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Administration, thank you.

I'll invite Courtney from the Community Development Department to come speak to this.

Usually our ordinances get a lot more turnout. I'm surprised, but this is a quite a lengthy revision to code, so I'll run through some of the most important things, the major changes. Much of the changes that you'll see though were just like administrative and technical updates. Many of the things that we put into the code were things that the city already required, but it was never delineated in code. So for example, now the code is a little bit more clear about the subdivision review process, clarifying the application, what's required on a preliminary plat.

All of that was already required, it just wasn't ever within the code. Also, construction plans are required to be provided by the developer. After the submittal of the preliminary plat. That was also a requirement previously. Drainage plans have been required, which were required in the past but just specifies better now in the code.

There's a section also specifying that electric utilities will now be required to be placed underground, which was a protocol that the Electric Department was already implementing. But now it's written in code. And then as well as the placement of the utilities, specifying in code that water and sewer will be in the middle of the right-of-way, electric utilities on the outer, um, 10 feet of that right-of-way. And then street lighting was previously in our subdivision code, but this revised version just establishes better standards and provides better guidelines for developers. Two areas that I'd like to just explain a little bit more detail are the water system requirements and then the street construction standards.

So we'll start with the water system requirements, and then I believe this is on page— starts about page 88 in your packet.

So essentially all development of subdivided land in the city will still be required to follow Title 14, which requires that, um, the development connect to city water. This subdivision code provides a waiver opportunity for individuals, developers who are subdividing their property, to potentially be approved for an alternative water system other than connecting to city water. And this was specifically placed in the subdivision code with the consideration of areas out along Nash Road, particularly in consideration of the one that the Planning and Zoning Commission approved a CUP for, the Mount Alice Estates, which is being developed right now, that had to go through that CUP process as a— planned unit development in order to have wells approved. And so by placing this water waiver opportunity in our subdivision code, then a developer doesn't have to kind of do a circumvent, you know, find a loophole in code to figure out a way to get a viable water source to their development. They have a way outlined here that outlines requirements and then that, you know, Public Works Director, us, Planning and Zoning Commission can kind of follow.

So essentially what the water waiver system or this pro— this section in code would outline is that in order for someone, a developer, to submit a waiver, the proposed subdivision or development must be located more than 400 feet from an existing public water system. Some of me— some of you may know that in Title 14, um, an individual developing their property, if they're more than 200 feet from a sewer line, they can put in a septic. And so we intentionally wanted the water waiver to be greater than that 200 feet because we of course want to have people connect to city water as much as possible. And so 400 feet was the the distance that a subdivision or development has to be located further, further than 400 feet in order to submit the waiver. Or the other option is that if the connection to public water system is impractical due to excessive slope or topography, and that would then be determined by the Public Works Director and the Commission if the developer truly does have a location that is impractical to connect to city water.

So once those two conditions are met, then an individual can submit an application which would be reviewed first by the Public Works Director and Community Development staff. And on page 89, letters A through E outline what would be required to be put in that application. The requirements aren't easy and And I do want to point out that this application and these items would need to be met during the preliminary plat part of the development. And so there would need to be extensive engineering studies done on the land very early on in the process for a developer to even bring forward this application because they would need to prove through a report prepared by a registered professional engineer that there is physical water, such as if they wanted to drill wells, or they would have to provide documentation that they would be in compliance with the DEC if they were doing wells or other alternative systems such as rainwater catchment or cistern systems. They would have to provide a maintenance and monitoring plan.

So all of these things would have to be provided at the time time that they submitted their preliminary plat. Um, an alternative water system would not be allowed to be approved later on in the platting process. So if they— a developer had come in and had their plat approved and didn't submit this application, they couldn't get to the end of their plat approval, like with the borough, or partway through their development and, and say, oh no, um, we didn't think about the water. And we don't want to connect to city water, it would be too late at that point. They needed to have thought through that process when they submit their preliminary plat for their development.

So some of the alternative water supply systems that may be approved would be a private well. And I just want to point out that there is a requirement here that the lot area for a private well can be no less than 40,000 square feet. And this is just a requirement that kind of comes down from the borough. They wouldn't require— I mean, they wouldn't allow wells to be placed on anything smaller than 40,000 square feet, and so we're just mirroring that to prevent any complications with their rules that they follow in the planning process. A community well system would be allowed, and then a cistern and rainwater catchment system water system would be allowed.

And there are 7 additional rules to help guide that process since cisterns and rainwater catchment systems haven't been something that the city has allowed in the past and doesn't have any in the city boundaries currently.

Um, then finally, I just want to point out with the water system waiver, letter F on page 91, points out the fire protection requirements. So every— all the water systems would need to be approved by the fire chief and be ensured that they are in compliance with International Fire Code. If water storage was utilized as the alternative water system, a cistern or rainwater catchment system, then water storage required for fire protection, such as the sprinkler system, in-home sprinkler system, that would be required in addition to the potable water supply that was required to meet the domestic needs of the development.

Then moving on to the street requirements, these ones are A little bit more straightforward, but some bigger changes to what was previously in code. This is on page 95 of the packet.

Previously in City Code, the streets were required to be not less than 50 feet. We're increasing that to 60 feet, which is basically bringing up to the common standard of right-of-ways currently. And our code also is specific specifically saying that— are requiring that the right-of-way must be paved. So in this— and it clarifies in the code that it's the right-of-way used for vehicular travel, because typically you'll see a 60-foot right-of-way and only about 40 feet of that is used for vehicular traffic, and then you have the edges of the right-of-way used for utilities. And so that area that's used for vehicular traffic must be paved now.

Number 2 calls out that permanent cul-de-sac streets will be prohibited. I know there was a lot of discussion amongst the Planning and Zoning Commission for that. There's a lot of individuals who are in favor of cul-de-sacs— quieter neighborhoods, less traffic, slower speeds— but also the connectivity is lost with a cul-de-sac, and so individuals walking or trying to access other neighborhoods. The cul-de-sacs present a lot of issues with that, and so, um, prohibiting cul-de-sacs allows for better walkability within the community. And then it also logistically— Public Works Director brought out that snowplow removal is much easier when you have connected streets, as well as just the connect— connecting of utilities.

To have a complete loop for sewer lines and water lines. Finally, the third one there, there's now a requirement that public streets must include pedestrian facilities, and it's, and it's worded in this way so that there is an option for developers, rather than specifically requiring sidewalks, that they could do an alternative, such as what's been done up in Hilltop, where The right-of-way is just paved a little bit wider and then that pedestrian facility is delineated by painting or writing on the sidewalk or signs that say, "Pedestrians only," "No parking," that sort of thing. And so this portion of the code kind of outlines that, that a developer could either put in a traditional sidewalk or provide a wider paved right-of-way for pedestrians. Overall, yeah, those are the major changes, but other than that, the bulk of it is just to provide a clearer, more consistent development standard for developers and to make it— ensure that the developers understand that it is their responsibility and to know what their responsibilities are when they develop Subdivision. Okay, you might just wait, and after the public hearing, we might have questions for you.

Yeah, that's okay. Um, any other administrative comments? Okay, I'll open the public hearing on Ordinance 2026-009. Mr. Clerk, has anyone signed up?

There is one person signed in to speak, Tim McDonald. Okay, you can have, um, up to 5 minutes. On this. Thank you, Mayor. And we still need your name and all that.

Tim McDonald, inside city limits.

I don't have any sidewalks in my street, but it's okay, there's only 5 houses on it.

Um, if I was a developer, I would have some questions on this. And myself, I personally don't have any problem with conditions. The problem with is who pays for them. In other words, you're the— all full utilities is going to add what? I mean, I'm talking your streets, paving, all this.

You're going to add 20, 30% to the cost of a house, is that correct? Something like that. Whatever it is, it's a lot.

And you guys have got a pretty sketchy record with the developers. I remember the 16-acre parcel on the other side of the bay. He was going to build a million-dollar mansion there where the old Freightlines dock was, but he refused, gave it up, and the property's still for sale 4 or 5 years later. Because the chief wanted him to put in a 20,000-gallon tank for water, for firefighting capacities, because of the switchback road going down. Short road, but it still had a couple switchbacks in it.

But the problem on the price is you're shifting the cost to the developer, and he doesn't use any of the things. He's getting paid to build the house. And put in a yard.

Loading him down with that stuff raises his cost of everything and makes it harder to sell and whatnot. And he doesn't use the roads. They're all after-the-fact things. He built his house, he gets paid for it, but you want him to pay for the roads and all the ancillary stuff. But he doesn't get any taxes.

You guys get tons of taxes off that property. Owner. So the fact you're loading the developer up with these huge extra costs doesn't seem really fair to me at all. And if I recall also, 2 years ago, one favored contractor— one— was given almost $400,000 free for improvements in his little subdivision.

So how do you reconcile that with now— now you want to charge everybody through the teeth? I think at a very minimum, the city should probably kick in 50% at least. If you're going to do it, you have to make it palatable to them. What you're talking about now could raise their costs more than 20 or 30%, and that kills them. You know, do any of you swing a hammer for a living?

I doubt it. I swing a hammer for a living. I've done physical labor all my life. And you know, you're telling me that if I build a boat, I have to pay for the shipyard, you know, more than what I paid for it. I have to pay to build it is what you're saying.

So I mean, it doesn't really make sense. It's, it's a cash grab. And like I said, 2 years ago you were begging them. Not only begging them, you paid them $400,000 to do it. How do you reconcile that with this?

Boom, flop from one side to the other. So I think you guys are out to lunch, man. You have to make this palatable to everybody, and you have to work on it, and you have to think about being on the other side. You guys are in a combat— not a combative relationship, but you're in a relationship where you're telling them what to do and they don't really have any say in it. Uh-uh.

This is terrible legislation. You guys need to think it through, and somebody's got to pay for it. They should bear the total cost. Maybe some of them, but they don't use any of that stuff. That stuff they build is those, those lights and that street and stuff.

They don't use any of that stuff when they're building it. They don't need a street, they drive on the dirt. So those are not their costs, and you're the one who gets the taxes to pay for it all. So you're double-dipping on the building contractors, and you quadruple-dipped on that one you gave $400 grand to. So Straighten up.

Let's fly right.

Has anyone else signed up? Mr. Quick, does anyone else wish to speak? I would like another 1 minute just to speak.

I believe that's in the thing. Yes, you can have your 1 more minute.

I don't think you used your 5 anyway. What's that? No, you can have your 1 minute. I only had 20 seconds. Oh, okay.

I can't see that.

Okay, Tim McDonald, Inside City Limits. I'm just thinking about what makes this town livable, you know. Are we going to be an executive community where only millionaires can live here and there's nothing but million-dollar houses? What about the people that don't have that kind of money that want to live here? Seward is a nice place to raise a kids.

It shouldn't be an exclusive enclave, and passing this kind of legislation is what that does. It's not fair. If I was a developer and you hit me with that lawsuit— yeah, you gave $400 grand to developer for free, and now you want him to pay the whole nut. Uh-uh. You guys are in legal jeopardy with this.

I'd think twice about it. Do something that's fair for a change.

Okay, anyone else? All right, I'll close the public hearing and bring it back to council. Um, council, questions for administration on this? I have one question. I watch all the planning and zoning meetings and work sessions, but I, um, they passed this unanimously, was it?

Um, yes, yes. And in there, um, I honestly don't recall exactly, but in the work sessions and such, were there developers at those meetings or work sessions that spoke, if you recall? I—. You may not. Yeah, we have a subdivision code.

We started discussing, I believe, in the early part of the year. It was about February. Yeah. And I believe those early work sessions we had a couple developers. Um, the later work sessions we had one developer that provided some email comments but no in person.

But they did have input on this then? Yes. Okay, I've just clarified. Councilmember Barnwell. Yeah, um, Courtney, how does this coordinate with the borough's, uh, demands for building?

They don't have any. They don't have any? Yeah, so the main correlation with this is just kind of outlining the preliminary plat approval process. So basically, when we get a preliminary plat, that application process, and then there's a new stipulation in our code where we outline If there are major changes and what those changes would be to a preliminary plat, that would regulate it to come back to the Commission for a second approval. Right now our code doesn't have that, and so if there are changes to the preliminary plat at the borough level, then we just kind of internally have to decide, was that major enough that we need to bring it back, or was that a minor change?

So that is the main connection with the borough. Other than that, the meat of the code just deals with the city requirements for the installation of public utilities, right-of-ways, that sort of thing. Go ahead. So, so just to respond to Mr. McDonald's comments, uh, just briefly, Forest Acres was a good example of a developer that didn't meet their expectations, uh, and slipped by. And that cost everybody a lot of money.

So there's a reason for these demands. And I don't think they're excessive. But are they similar to say Homer or Soldotna's demands? Or do you know how, how they—. Is there some sort of uniform code for these towns in Alaska?

Yeah, I mean, I'm not familiar with the other codes, but it is common across the board to require developers to provide all the public utilities and installations when they develop a subdivision. And, and just to clarify too, this, this change to our subdivision code is not now requiring developers to provide that. It has always required that.

Councilmember Calhoun. Yeah, thank you, Madam Mayor. Yeah, I was going to say, I think We all know about the DRP program and the subdivision agreements that go into that. And they've all carried these requirements in all those subdivision agreements. And typically some of the developers of the land are also builders of homes.

Sometimes they're not. And so, the cost of this obviously is going to be baked into the cost of the lots, which, you know, in the end product, the homeowner ends up paying for in their mortgage or whatever it is that they're doing. But this is not a brand new thing. This is, you know, we've looked at the DRP program and we've given developers a whole lot more than $400,000, but never free. We—.

They've had to pay back a lot of the, you know, half of the money on that program that that they've been, you know, front-funded. So it's, you know, portions of it you may consider it free, but this isn't new. This has been in the code. This just makes it, in my opinion, tighter so that there isn't something two-thirds of the way through the development development where they're going, oh, well, wait a second, we can't afford to do this. They've already known that up front.

It's already agreed to. It's already done. And I would wager a bet that if we asked our city attorney, that he would tell us that this probably doesn't put us in any legal jeopardy when it's something that is agreed to, signed, and contracted before the development even starts. That's right. And the reality, I mean, if somebody found that some particular thing was unlawful, they could challenge that, but they couldn't— they wouldn't give rise to a lawsuit for, you know, runaway damages or something.

But if something was unclear or somehow conflicted with some other code or law, you could challenge that. But that's right. Because it's largely done by agreement, like you're saying. Thank you. Yeah, the only other thing I'll say is I've said in all the work sessions that they've done with this, and they've put in a lot of work.

Community Development has put in a tremendous amount of work, and I know that the attorneys have also been involved in all that. So I'm— I don't have any issues with this moving forward. Anything else? Yes. Councilmember Draper.

Yeah, I too appreciate all the work that went into this. I think it's really well done. I had comments, and I've been going back and forth with Courtney about catchment and cistern systems for water, and it ran through my mind that these might not be financeable by conventional financing for a single-family home, and do we have any responsibility for giving waivers and then having properties out there that can't be conventionally financeable? And Courtney went to Alaska Housing and they said that they would finance catchment or cistern systems if they were common in the area. Well, they're not common in the area because they're not— partly because they're not financeable.

They're not financeable because they're not common. It's sort of a catch-22 in that regard. It seems like, well, we've got a citizen comment about catchment systems being economical and that would be a great way to save people money. But, yeah, I mean, I guess I'm just throwing it out there for discussion that are we going to create in a subdivision that would have catchment and cistern systems unfinancable homes, you know, that would only be able to be purchased with cash or owner finance. I've seen it in other communities where they created a situation where there was a series of living units that were no longer financable, and it kind of becomes run down.

And yeah, just throw that out there. I don't know if there's anything to do about it. Councilmember Barnes. Apparently a fascinating conversation we have here. Good job opening this up, or presenting it.

That leads me to think that because largely this is driven about from the development over off Nash Road, that's city property, right? So we had talked as a city or as a council about, I think, former fire chief have talked about possibly having— needing a tanker truck. Do we get in a position where if we allow these kind of alternative systems for water to exist, do we put ourselves in a position where we are going to be responsible for buying a tanker truck to meet the needs of that area? So within the legislation in front of you, there was a requirement, as Courtney said, to have a separate tank for the fire suppression systems in that house. So, correct?

Yeah, so if you are to build a house using a catchment system, a well or anything, and you're not on city water or near a fire hydrant, the requirement would be that your home has enough water at all times to handle a fire suppression unit. So that's baked into this as well. So no is the answer. Yeah. Thank you.

Thanks. Okay, anything else? Um, yes. Um, so, uh, one of the requirements is if they were approved, like say for a water well, and then at some point in the future the, uh, the city, uh, water came within— is it 200 feet that they required to hook up to city water within 12 months? Yes, correct.

That is a requirement in there upon— I think it's specifies in the code, the city needs to provide notice once the water line is within the 400 feet that they need to connect to that. And then within the 12 months of that notice that was provided, then the property owner would need to connect to the water, the city water. So does this only apply to new subdivisions, or like if there's anybody out there now— I know there are properties around here that have water wells Does that also apply to them with this code change? This, yeah, this code change would just pertain to the sub— like, properties that are being or in the future would be subdivided. So any future subdivision agreements that are created based off of this code as it stands.

Okay. Yeah, I'm just picturing someone getting a brand new water well that cost them $25,000 and all of a sudden the water comes close and then they have to hook up within 12 months. There's really no—. Yeah. Okay, anything else?

Ready to vote? Mr. Clerk. Thank you, Connie. Voting on the enactment of Ordinance 2026-009.

Calhoun? Yes. Barnwell? Yes. Draper?

Yes. Osenga? Yes. Warner? Yes.

And Mayor McClure? Yes. That ordinance has been enacted. Okay, we have one more One more public hearing. Do we need a break before that?

Anyone? Okay. It's a resolution, Resolution 2026-, I can't read it, 082. Mr. Clerk, when you're ready, would you please read that?

Resolution 2026-082, accepting the dedication of right-of-way along Chamberlain Road and recommending Kenai Peninsula Borough approval of the revised final plat of Cliff Addition Seward Townsite Walker Replat. Okay, you'll find that on page 97 in the packet. I'd ask for a motion to approve and a second, please. I move for the approval of Resolution 2026-082. I'll second.

Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Administration? Thank you, Madam Mayor. I will invite Courtney to speak to this as well. All right, it's interesting that this this resolution comes at the same meeting as our subdivision could, because this is a situation where a change, a minor change, was made to a final plat that had been approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission and City Council back in April of 2025, actually, so quite a long time ago.

Um, and that change that happened to the final plat, the borough sent it back to us to review and then required that city council did provide approval of that change. So I just want to point out, I believe the, the final plat should be in your packet. And so along Chamberlain Road, there are two triangular portions of lands that are being dedicated as right-of-way. In the preliminary plat, they were shown as right-of-way easements that had been dedicated previously by document, but this final plat changed it to actually be a right-of-way dedication, so it's not an easement anymore. And so the borough just requires that the City Council formally accept that right-of-way dedication in the plat— the Okay, thank you.

Okay, Mr. Clerk, did anyone sign up for this? Nobody has signed in for this. Does anyone wish to speak?

I guess I better open the public hearing first. Does anyone wish to speak on this? Sorry, what's the public hearing? It's on Resolution 2026-01. 0082, The one the clerk just read?

What's that? It's the one that clerk just read.

Okay, does anyone wish to speak? All right, I'll close the public hearing and bring it back to council. Any questions or concerns? The biggest question I kept getting was, where is Chamberlain Road? Everybody should should learn where Chamberlain Road is.

Anyway, are we ready to vote on this? I'm seeing nods. Nods. Okay, Mr. Clerk.

Voting on the approval of Resolution 2026-082. Calhoun? Yes. Barnwell? Yes.

Warner? Yes. Osega? Yes. Draper?

Yes. And Mayor McClure. Yes. That resolution has been approved. Okay, thank you.

Now we're down to new business. We have 3 items. Uh, the first is Resolution 2026-083, and when you're ready, Mr. Clerk, could you please read that?

Resolution 2026-083, authorizing the city manager to sign contract documents associated with drilling a test pile for the harbormaster's office for an amount not to exceed $286,061 and appropriating funds. Okay, and you'll find that on page 105 of the packet. I'd ask for a motion to approve and a second, please. I'll move for the approval of Resolution 2026-083. Second.

Okay, it's been moved and seconded.

Administration, I think I know who's going to come up here. It's actually—. Oh, no, no, no, it's going to be Jason. Oh, Mr. Big Wing. All right, almost put Doug on the spot, right?

Don't walk in.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Excuse me. So the Harbor Master Facility and the uplands development is currently in the pre-construction phase. And the goal of this process is to make sure that when they get all these pieces together and they get bids and they go out is to make sure that what we're building fits the budget instead of a lot of times what they do is they make plans and they start going through it and they start building and the budget gets out of control. And so this is the process of creating kind of a maximum price.

So with the geotechnical work that has been done, they've done some boreholes, but it can't be fully determined what is the best approach approach to take for the foundation that will kind of minimize the cost and acceptable risk so that way vendors are willing to put bids in for it. And they can say, yes, we can do this for this amount of money. And so we know from other recent projects in the area that over the last 5 years that have doubled their budgets in like millions based on what they did not know about the foundation. And so What this would do is this test pile would provide information that will help them make choices. And so this, even though, and this is technically like a budget item, so this amount will fall within the project.

And also too, this amount that's here is built in with a lot of contingencies, 'cause they're building it for like the worst case scenario that they like drive a pile and it doesn't hit bottom for a very, very, very long time. So, but they're thinking it's gonna go down a certain amount of depth, but they need to test and they need to prove that. And so that way they can have this information available to understand the type of foundation so that it doesn't get out of control there. So, but yeah, this will be tied into the cost of that project that is finite. So.

Okay. Thank you. Questions for Mr. Bicklin?

Councilmember Carnaval.

I mean, I'm trying to figure out how to frame this, but the last part of the hotel, uh, the Tugas Hotel down there, when he had to keep— they had to keep— we watched them digging farther and farther down and try to figure that out. I don't understand how this might prevent that or how they would change the building design to prevent that kind of scenario. It's the foundation design. So there's like 4 different ways that they can ways to design a foundation, depending on the land and the area. We saw one that was done, like, the current— the new terminal was one type of design.

Tom Tugus' was another design. The Jugashmi Clinic is another design of ways they can, like, either do vibrocompaction, because really what they're trying to fight is, like, during an earthquake, is liquefaction of soils underneath there. And Seward has very complex soils. This site has even more complex soils because it was— it's man-made. And so because it used to be like— there used to be a breakwater, remember, just on one side, and then they built the other one and they filled it in with dredge material.

And so they're not just worried about what's on top, they're worried about what's down deep below. And so driving a pile will give them information because if they can go down and they hit— they hit resistance really short, then they know like, okay, just driving pile will be the way to go. But if it if they're driving pile and it goes down super far, they're like, no, because that would be really, really expensive. We know that they have— like I said, there was— I don't want to, like, call it out, but there was a project where they put twice as much pile on the ground as they thought, and they ended up costing millions and millions extra just for the pile. And so this right here will just help them understand what that is so that way they can be sure of what type of foundation that's going to be the best to use at the least amount of cost.

That's good. Thanks. Yeah. Other questions?

We're ready to vote. Ready, Mr. Clerk? Voting on the approval of Resolution 2026-083. Warner?

Yes. Barnwell? Yes. Draper? Yes.

Calhoun? Yes. Ocinga? Yes. And Mayor McClure?

Yes. That resolution has been approved. Okay, next we have Resolution 2026-084. When you're ready, Mr. Clerk, would you please read that?

Resolution 2026-084, approving an update to the City of Seward fee schedule to include the new community center. Okay, and you'll find that on page Page 119 and beyond. I'd ask for a motion to approve and a second, please. I'll move for the approval of Resolution 2026-084. I'll second it.

Okay, moved and seconded. Administration. Thank you, Madam Mayor. As we move forward with, um, turning the former middle school into a new community center for the community, we had to look at the room rental rates for the individual rooms available, including the gym space, which is the large gym, basketball, volleyball center, the music room, classroom, home economic room, and kitchen. And so we put together these reasonable room rental fees of $50 for the gym and the kitchen, and then $25 for the music room, classroom, home ec room, and those are all hourly.

And so these are rates that we took, we based them We were inspired by the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District's room rental fees that they had charged to Tier 2 and 3, which is their nonprofit and for-profit uses, and have already had a few local organizations reaching out and utilizing this, but we, we can't officially charge anybody until we have the room rates set into our fee schedule as required by code. One thing to note too is that this does not prohibit us from creating separate room use agreements with heavy users, say the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District youth sports. And so what we've seen a lot is usage by the sports teams, especially as the high school gym is being refinished and re— refurbished over there. So I've been working with the KPBSD superintendent to create a separate agreement outside of this, recognizing that their usage is probably going to be significantly higher than, say, a one-off weekend use or a weekly rental for an hour or so. So this is for future rentals of the spaces within the community center space at a reasonable cost so that we can recoup some of the costs of taking that building on.

Okay, thank you. Questions? As for the city manager, Councilmember Barlow. Just to clarify, there is not a nonprofit rate. This is one rate.

Got it.

Any questions, Councilmember Calhoun? Just to follow up on that though, for nonprofits that are tax exempt—. They can present their tax— Yeah, they can—. Tax exempt and they at least get a little bit of a break. Yes.

Other questions? Okay, we're ready to vote. Mr. Clerk, voting on the approval of Resolution 2026-084. Osega?

Yes. Warner? Yes. Draper? Yes.

Barnwell? Yes. Calhoun? Yes. And Mayor McClure?

Yes. That resolution has been approved. Okay, we have one more res—. Resolution. It's Resolution 2026-085 on page 125.

Mr. Clerk, would you please read that? Resolution 2026-085, authorizing the city manager to enter into a contract with Roger Hickel Contracting for the Lowell Point Blower Replacement Project utilizing a loan from the Clean Water Fund. Okay, thank you. I'd ask for a motion to approve and a second, please.

I make a motion to approve Resolution 2026-085. I'll second. Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Administration. And now I will invite Public Works Director Doug up to speak to this.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. Um, thank you for going through this resolution with us. This is a an actual culmination of a long history of the sewer plant out at Lowell Point, where we pump the sewage out to. It was in the 1980s that went in. 1995 Did some pretty substantial repairs.

2015, Big sludge removal and also added biodomes and a different type of blower, which was separate from the original blowers. As we were going the last several years, we've had some real issues with the, the old blowers that were in there originally and had to make several repairs, but they're getting to be 40 years old and have some, some issues of getting the right parts for them. We worked through a loan agreement and turned it into a grant actually with the Clean Water Fund through DEC, so the project was pretty much all paid for, for it. We put it out to bid. This is the result of an RFP.

We did only get one bidder, which was a little surprising, but Roger Hickel Contracting is who was the bidder, and they did a good bid on it with us, and we're ready to begin that construction, get those new blowers installed. It's just a matter— right now there's a little bit of a parts delay. Some of them, they're just a little more of head time to get those in here. So we're hoping to get construction started here and done by the end of the year, but it might be in the first few months after the first of the year. But I'd be glad to answer any questions if we had any on the contract.

Or the—. My question was going to be, can you do this during the winter? But obviously you can with the parts. Councilmember Bernal. Doug, while we have you here, there's A member of the public questioned how clean the water is in the bay due to the wastewater treatment.

Can you comment on that? Do you have test— water testing data on top of your head on how clean that water is coming out? We have to do testing in our areas where we discharge water. And we have a mixing zone that we have to test. DEC is very stringent on where we're at.

We have to go through through their whole processes. Once in a while we'll find maybe some ammonias or something here and there, but as far as passing our tests with our mixing zones out there, they've been doing very well as far as what we have to test for.

Okay, any other questions? We're ready to vote. Mr. Clerk, voting on the approval of Resolution 2026. -085.

Ossenga? Yes. Warner? Yes. Calhoun?

Yes. Farnwell? Yes. Draper? Yes.

And Mayor McClure? Yes. That resolution has been approved. Okay, that was, that was the business at hand. Going on to the final page here, there's a list of the upcoming City Council Budget work sessions.

I don't think I need to read those, but I could just say that be advised, we will be having budget work sessions the week of October 26th, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 5:30. So if you're interested, and there will be a list of which departments on which days. So that'll be all sent out, people will know. And there— I've included, the clerk included, a very nice letter to me personally from the consulate in Seattle, the Mexican Consulate, thanking me for participating in the tall ship festivities here. And it was just such a beautiful letter, I thought that should be included.

I had a great time, and they were very, very kind. And I guess, you know, anyway, so that brings us to citizen comments. This is when you don't have to sign up, but you can have up to 5 minutes if you want. Anybody wish to comment? Tim, come on up.

Tim McDonald, City of Seward. I guess I'm the last man standing. Nobody else is here.

Uh, first off is concerning the, uh, street— the utilities for contractors and the streets and lights and all the other things that you're asking to pay for. I didn't have any objections to those. I was— you missed— you redirected my, my concerns and, and changed them. My concern is who pays for it. That's— I don't have any problem with having great neighborhoods with lighting and pavement stuff, but the contractor gets a modest one-time profit.

You guys get various taxes for decades on that one thing. It's not fair to saddle them with all the cost. That's what I was saying. Okay. And it's really not fair at all.

You know, you guys get all the money. They get very little profit. Now, the other thing that concerns me is our garbage tax.

One other thing I wanted to ask, have any of you guys ever been on a pile driving crew? I have. Pile Bucks and Divers Union 502 in San Diego, California. I worked on the pile buck crew and I drilled pilings down in the basin here in Seward with my old man when I was a kid.

400,000 Or 300,000 bucks for driving a piling is out of I mean, if they want the job, they should do it gratis for you just to get some credit, you know. It's, and by the way, that piling doesn't stop for a very, very long time. It's called driving to the point of refusal, Jason. That's what it is. It's not very, very long time.

It's driving the pile to the point of refusal.

If anybody remembers, Anchorage lost a billion dollars about 10 years ago when they drove all their pilings to refusal and bent most of them. And Hickel was responsible— or not Hickel, Sheffield was responsible for it all. And it cost them a billion bucks down the drain. Right?

So, I mean, somebody needs to know what they're doing. But this dump agreement you have with the borough, I think, is unconscionable. It's not the borough's garbage. It's not the borough's land. And yet they have control over it.

There's enough lumber goes into that dump every single day to build a house. I was out there 2 weeks ago, and there was somebody backing up a 20-yard trailer. Like a dump truck, but it was plywood sides, and it was packed with personal possessions. And I says, what's going on? And they says, oh, this old guy's moving.

He sold his house. He just told us to throw everything away. This is the fourth one, and we got two more. 80 Yards of personal possessions, and they dumped it out, and it was tools, it was couches, on and on, on, artwork, Everything perfectly good stuff, threw it away because he's, he's old, he doesn't want to deal with it, he's gonna kick the bucket in a few years, whatever. I don't even know who it was, but it's a terrible waste.

And that dump, all the— everything but the household garbage, which you ship over to their landfill— everything should go on a conveyor belt when it comes in and All hazmat to the side, no questions asked. Takes the hazmat. They didn't manufacture this stuff. They bought it because it was sold to them. Take care of the hazmat.

Everything else should be sorted out. You need to build a 12-man bunkhouse, get a bunch of street people in there, somebody that wants the jobs, pay them $15 an hour plus whatever, pay them minimum wage plus housing, and start a free store. Everybody else does these things. We're doing it like they did it 100 years ago, and we're the only ones. Everybody else recycles their garbage.

Have you been to Europe? Have you been down south? Everybody does it different than us. It's the most terrible waste I've ever seen. It really is.

I mean, I've seen stacks of plywood thrown away just because they were in the way. You name it. And it's the most disgusting thing I've seen. You know, the Indians or whoever would love to live in that dump and collect all that stuff. But we need to stop the waste and start doing things right.

And you need to take control of our dump so that we can do it. It doesn't cost that much money, and you shouldn't have a dump there anyway. It's right next to the river. All that stuff— does anybody Remember all the floods of 2000 and '86 and whatever? It's going to end up in Resurrection Bay.

Okay, thank you, Tim. Is there anyone else? Okay, I'll move it to council and administration comments and responses to citizen comments. I'll start with Madam City Manager. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

I pulled a Sam and decided to look through my city manager report and pull out something I wanted to highlight at the end of this meeting, and I wanted to highlight, uh, community development department, Danny and Courtney, who were on display tonight, and say that even outside of their work with planning and zoning and coming to council to do replats and all of the fun, exciting stuff, they have been diligently working on the comprehensive plan. And internally, we've all been able to get a look at it as department heads. And then we're sending the draft to the designer to get a really good first draft into place before we bring it back to council planning and zoning get eyes on it as well. So we have a few more times that will be out and about for public comment, Council comment, P&Z comment, but a lot of the big heavy lifting is behind them. And I want to give them a big kudos and round of applause because it's a— once you see it, it's a very, very exciting document.

Yeah. Thank you. Mr. Bickering, do you have anything? I don't normally have comments, but I did want to just say thank you.

To Planning and Zoning and Community Development just for that was a heavy lift. And I think it just helps our code out so much for development and just kind of makes it easier to comply with it and also just a lot tighter so that we don't end up in situations like we are now. So anyway, I just appreciate— because I— you look at the pages of that, and that's a lot of work and a lot of conversations. And so I just appreciate that a lot. Okay, thank you.

Councilmember Calhoun will go this way. Thank you, Madam Mayor. So much I could say, some I won't. Um, in response to a couple of things, we do get probably, uh, a good amount of money when we have a subdivision developed based on property tax and things like that. We also maintain, repair, and operate the electric utility, the water and sewer.

We pay the employees that take care of it. We pay to get the roads repaved. We pay to fix the broken power lines and all that kind of stuff. So there is a lot of responsibility that we have beyond the developers putting it in and keeping those homeowners with lights and water and sewer and that kind of thing. I believe that the landfill actually is owned by the borough, correct?

It's not ours. Okay. Little bit of a racist comment about who would like to get into the landfill. I thought that was a little inappropriate.

The other thing I do want to say is our electric utility received a couple of really high awards at the Alaska Power Association annual event. And I know it's in the city manager's report. I just wanted to highlight it and, uh, and have people take a look at that. So that was, uh, that was really— they've been doing a good job to to get that.

And, uh, for a lot of people too, sometimes it looks like council members up here don't ask a lot of questions, um, at different times. And mostly it's because they've already gotten the answers that they needed, that they didn't want to bore the public with for an hour extra of meetings. So don't think that we don't care or that we're not paying attention. It's just we don't want to waste people's time listening to ourselves talk. So that's all I have to say right now.

Okay, thank you. Councilmember Wagner. Thank you, Madam Mayor LeClerc. A couple of things. Uh, thank you to Miss Gage for her interest in seat on the Historic Preservation Committee, and congratulations to her appointment.

I also want to acknowledge Julie Kreitz for her time on council, and congratulations to Bob Burnmahl and Matt Cope for their appointment to council. I want to echo Community Development and Planning and Zoning. That was a really big lift that they did for Resolution 2022. -009. So thank you for all that work that you guys all did to make that come forward to council.

Also just want to remind the public to take the time to come participate in our budget work sessions. It's going to be a number of them, but really looking forward to community input on that. And then last, just a big shout out to Parks and Rec. They're doing a lot of work right now. The property up at the Jesse Lee, the dog park, the community center, and all of their Halloween festivities.

That's, that's going to be a lot, but very grateful for them and the team there at Parks and Rec. Um, thank you. Okay, thank you. Councilmember Barnwell, um, I would like to— a big shout out to the city clerk's office And the election workers and the canvas board for the election. And the people that voted.

It's great that— I agree, we need a higher turnout, but I really appreciate— and it's just a shout out to the people that take the time to vote. It's important. The planning and zoning, or the community development group, Courtney and Danny are exceptional. And Jamie and Jamie, sorry, Jamie is exceptional also. They, they, that whole comprehensive plan was thrust upon them.

I think I've said it many times, but Homer paid a lot of money for the same thing. We are doing it in-house. And they're, they're taking the time and really working through it carefully and well. So thanks for pointing that out, Kat.

We also have not only the rec department, but we have great— we have a lot of good directors and people, employees at this city. The roads and the gutters, we haven't missed those, although mine needs a little work still. But yeah, thanks Doug for writing that down. Yeah, it's really noticeable. It's really There's just so many good employees in the city and in the admin, and it's just exciting to be— you know, I've been gone for a few weeks and coming back, it's exciting to be a part of a lot of quality people.

So that's it. Thank you. Councilmember Draper. Yeah, it's fun to go last, like what everybody else said, but I think, wow, we really do have a great team of people working for the city, and it's just phenomenal. Seeing everything that's going on.

And I was really happy to see Mary Gage step up to be on the Historic Preservation Committee. And congratulations to Matt and Bob. And I'm not going to be the newbie anymore. Yeah, it's true. Finishing up my first year here.

And, uh, yeah, that's all I have. Vice Mayor Senga. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um, I also would like to thank, uh, uh, Mary Gage for stepping up and congratulate her and welcome her to the Historic Preservation Commission. Uh, I was glad to see— I'm sorry I missed it— I was glad to see that the dog park opened this last weekend.

I would have liked to have been there, but my dog needed to see the vet that day, so I had to go to Anchorage. Um, and I would also just like to reiterate thank you to all the election and canvas workers and all the voters out there for this last election that we had. Yeah, I agree that we could hopefully someday maybe have a higher turnout, and maybe someday we'll reach that. I can always, you know, always be hopeful. Um, I'd like to thank Council Member Barnwell for bringing up Doug because I was thinking, what can I say for the city guy sitting there?

And he took it, so I don't have to say nothing. Don't forget the fire chief—. I mean the police chief over there. Oh, he's always here. Yeah, yeah, thank you.

Okay, well, what they all Congratulations to Mr. Barnwell and Mr. Cope, and we'll be swearing them in next meeting. And thanks to Marie, my friend, who'll be on HP. I can't think of a better person to be on HP at this point. And I have two others in the works to apply with a potential third.

So I think what happened at our last meeting has sparked interest that people would need to step up to historic press locally. So I'm happy about that. I have a sad thing if you did not hear. Recently Keith Campbell passed away, and he was up in Anchorage. You know, his wife Jackie passed about 3 and a half months ago, and then he did.

He was part of the city for quite some time, and part of our church, and just a substantial person. I just wanted to let people know if they did not know, and might drop a line to the family and that kind of a thing.

I'm not a dog person, but I got asked to cut the ribbon at the dog park. And I'm just really impressed with the park, what they put together, and what the dogs can do in a dog park. I know I was in California for 20-some years, and there were dog parks, and we'd take our dog, and he didn't really like it much. But, you know, this was amazing. There were a whole bunch of people with dogs, and as soon as we opened it up, the dogs were in there just running around and having a great time with their people.

And I'm so impressed that we have that very thing. Um, that's all I have, and there's probably an addendum from a couple of you. No?