Cordova: August 10, 2026, Council Work Session

The audio is on.

Yes, great. We go. I'm going to call the city council— sorry, city council work session of August 10th, 26th to order. Um, yeah, we're here to welcome our legislator, um, Louis Dutz, and to talk about the Alaska Marine Highway System and ferry service. And I will let the clerk call the roll.

Okay, uh, Mayor Smith, here. Deborah Adams, here. Lee Collins, here. Aaron Hanson is absent. Casey Hanson, here.

Mike Mickelson is absent. Wendy Rainey, here. And Dave Zerstros, that's a quorum. Thank you. It's a quorum of council, although this is technically a work session, so— but we are noting it's a quorum so that we've got it on the record that, um, the council members are here in the room.

Um, yes, our work session topic is to meet with our, um, State Representative Louise Stutes about the Alaska Marine Highway System and Cordova's winter 2026-2027 ferry schedule. But I want to start for a moment with just giving an update on where ferry service is projected to be in about 18 to 24 months. I'll say, you know, being, um, Conservative, I guess. So right now there's work funded to upgrade the Cordova ferry terminal dock so that it can have an Alaska-class ferry tie up at our dock as a side berth. Currently, the Alaska-class ferries, the Hubbard and the Taslina, which have been, which are the latest vessels in the fleet, are not able to tie up safely as a, at a side berth on our dock.

So they're doing some physical modifications to make that happen. Those changes should be complete by the middle of 2028, I think, if, if not a little bit sooner. But I think that's what, where that's at. And the Taslina is currently having crew quarters put in, installed. So it's getting that work done now.

What the AMHS Director Craig Torga has told me is that he thinks the Taslina will be ready before the dock is. We'll see. But anyway, those are the two things that have to happen to have the Taslina come to Prince William Sound and, and be able to replace the Aurora. So, so that's kind of where that's happening. And I think the RFP for the crew quarters on the Taslina was just issued.

So not sure how long that advertises for, but if it's a month, if it's 6 weeks, and then they have to select—. 65 Days. 65 Days. I just want to make sure you know these. Oh, thank you.

Oh, great. Thanks, Craig. There you are. Okay, welcome. Um, and I also— Susan, could I trouble you to open the window?

Yeah, absolutely. Better sort of— yeah, it's going to get warm with this many people in here, which is great. Thank you so much for coming out on a warm summer evening to, to hear from the representative and to register our community concern about ferry service for this winter. I also just want to point out that the long-range AMHS plan, which takes us out to 2045, documents a commitment to Alaska-class ferry service in Prince William Sound. So that's in there.

That's the plan. The plan also shows that of the 7 vessels in the fleet right now, I guess that's like, this actually is in the winter considerations document that got circulated for upcoming winter service. But 2 of the 7 vessels that are in service right now are going to be out for 5 months in layup for 5 months. And 3, another 3 are at the, are out for at least 3 months out of the year. And my point is just that our system, this, this has been systemic disinvestment in our ferry system.

And I want to urge everyone, if you have a chance in the next less than 90 days to talk to any candidate for governor, ask that person, ask him or her what their plan is for the ferry system. Are they going to endorse and commit to this long-range plan that has taken a lot of work and a lot of effort on the part of AMHS to put together and see that followed through on. Because that's what we really need. We need consistency.

We need a commitment to this solution. We, you know, it's possible that another governor could come in and say, oh, we don't want to do that now. We're going to do something else. And then we start this process all over again. So let's make sure that we ask consistency and follow through on the long-range plan and make sure that the Tatlina comes to replace the Aurora because the Aurora is at least approaching 50 years old, I think, as a steel vessel.

So that's, that's a tired boat. And the more money that we spend on fixing a tired boat, the more money is not going to setting aside money for maintenance and the next replacement vessel, which is going to come along in another 20 years, but we should be saving for that. So anyway, I just wanted to make all those points and thank you to the council members who have heard me say that already for bearing with the repetition. And I would like to invite Louise Stutz up to address us. And so, yeah, we'll hear from Representative Stutz and then we've also, as we noted, got AMHS Director Craig Torma on the line with us too.

So thank you, Representative Stutz. Hi there. Good to be back. We heard you loud and clear, and I said, hey, I'll go to Cordova. So it's, you know, I'm always looking for a reason.

Afternoon, Craig. Thank you for taking your time. Really appreciate it. The concerns, and I'm not here to guarantee that I can do anything, but I'll tell you what I did do. I got the attention of Mr. Torga, who is the man at AMHS.

He has worked miracles and he can work miracles. I have talked to the skipper of the Testimena. I just want to lay out a few ideas that have been, I guess, sidebars or that have been talked about. I can't guarantee you anything because there's a lot of puzzle pieces that we can get Cordoba service in the meantime. We have— Craig has to talk with the captain of the Tuscamena, of course, who will be coming to Cordova.

And then, as you all may or may not know, the last time that there was ferry service provided when you didn't have service, it went to Baldeas, and that was a big bus. There was no ridership, and it cost the Marine Highway System lots of dollars, and they weren't excited when I came and talked to them this time about providing service until I talked to Captain of the Tustumena, who would hopefully be providing new service. And the idea would be to go into Whittier. Now, you may or may not know that the Tustumena cannot dock at the ferry dock. In Whittier.

So we would have to make arrangements with the cruise ship dock that's in Whittier in order to have the Tusamena land there coming from Cordova. So there's a lot of puzzle pieces that have to fit together. We're hoping for once a month service. Well, I have a very temporary calendar that was set out by the Captain of the Testimena. In the conversation that I've had since I've been here, I'm here to gather some information to say what timing in the week is the best for this community to utilize that service.

And I need assurance to the best degree you can to tell me we're going to be using this service because it's going to really be a problem if we go through all these hoops to make sure you have service here once a month or whatever it is and there's no ridership. So that's why it's so important to work collaboratively. With the community to say, what are your best dates? You know, I'm sure, of course, you would like 4 days or 3 days over on the mainland and then come back. I don't know what that's going to be.

I'm not— I don't make the schedule. I don't know how that can fit in. That's going to be up to Craig and the captain of the Tustumena. But what I do know is we want to accommodate you. I'm going to let Craig talk a little bit about it.

I've talked to Craig about whether it's going to be a whole, you know, October to March, or whether there can be time cut off of it. If there's time cut off of that, can we cut 2 weeks off the front, 2 weeks off the end? Can we cut a month off the front end and none off the— So I think it's really important because Craig is going to be your key guy. You're lucky that I know him and I have a good relationship with him. And he's been fabulous to work with.

You guys can all see what he's done for the Marine Highway System. You know, it took this long to actually get a new custom made on, and it's been awarded. So, I think with that, just know that I'm here. So you guys have to look me in the eye and say, yep, we're with you and we're going to work this out. And if we can get the service, we're going to use it.

So, Craig, I'm going to drop it on you. Okay. Well, thank you.

Luis put a lot of ideas out there, and I think it's the same as you saying, we need to get your input, would be great. 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. We'd be glad to do that. And, um, also on the Whittier, uh, I haven't personally looked at that.

I've seen the, the cruise ship dock there, but understand from Captain Mayer that we got a pretty good bow rail on there. We've got to get a ramp over, and then we have to get some camel fendering But, you know, we'll work on trying to get that done if we can make a deal with the cruise ship dock to allow us to come in there, and we'll see what we can do to put that in place. I would also like to point out that we're trying to shorten this schedule. We gave a scope of work to the shipyard.

We're going to meet with them personally as they're lining out the schedule and getting pre-ordered on parts to see what days we can shave. 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 and what what— and what the yard will allow us to do at this point since we made the commitment. I don't know what other vessels they have in there other than our Aurora and then the Tustimena coming in later. So open to hearing the input on that if there's some value in that October delaying, in the first October.

Also, I just wanted to add something to the mayor's comments. I appreciate the comments on the long-range plan. Um, I'm fairly new to the ferries. We did not have a plan here. We did not have a fleet plan.

We put an effort into a plan, and if you get a chance to look at it, it's a big document, but a lot of effort went into it. And, but the real focus in it is to get a standard in our fleet a standard in our docks so we have some interchangeability, get away from these problems we have with this boat can't go there, this one can't go there. The only boat that should ever be, you know, any kind of challenges with the elevator, but I will say on the TRV, we changed that to the new Tustimena Replacement Vessel. We have changed that up so it will have a standard stern doors that go all the way down, and so it can go alongside a float where today it can't. It has to just go tie up to a regular sheet piling dock, but it will have that flexibility, and we want that across the fleet where we can interchange our fleet where today, you know, it's very difficult to do that.

So, um, do, do, uh, I just again just saying thanks to the mayor for making the point we do need the support to stay with the plan. All this effort we're putting into this Taslina is a, is a good example of boats designed one-off, and, and now we've been spending a lot of money changing them. This is a $43 million shipyard we have for the Taslina to add crew quarters and That's why you have to have pre-planning design vessels per that plan and stay with the plan so we don't end up with vessels like this. So anyway, just a little bit of editorial there, and then I'm open to hearing the input on the schedule. If there is value in pursuing a delay in October, I'm open to hearing that too.

So I can step aside. So if people want to come up and give it, but keep this in mind. And again, I don't make the schedule. That's between the captain and Greg. But I was led to believe that it's once a month.

It's got to be a static time. So if it's the first week in November, it's going to be the first week in December and the first week in January because you're affecting other schedules. As I've said, I believe we're all in this bucket together. And so Kodiak gets good service. And so that's when I talked to the captain of the Tustumena and said, well, can't you take a trip or two away from Kodiak and service Cordova at least once a month?

Because it's the right thing to do. I prefer that not be on the front page of Kodiak paper, of course.

But, you know, so whatever they come up with for Cordova is going to disrupt other community schedules. And so it's got to be static each month. So, so those communities can continue to count on the dependability of the schedule, just like you guys want to. So I'm happy to step aside and Let you— let your endovians get their 2 cents in. Great.

So I'm hearing 2 things. We are being asked to comment on kind of an approximate— I guess the word is schedule. What would the timing be? And 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. And I think that works for a lot of Cordovans too.

But please comment on that. That's one topic. And then I guess the consistency and what people think about the timing. If we are shaving something off one end or the other, do you see a preference there? And I'm going to pick a little bit on the school district.

I would love to hear from you all. For sure. So if somebody—. Kim Hanish is willing to come up and speak, that'd be great. And, and I certainly want for everybody to be able to have a turn.

He will come on up. Yeah, please do. Great. Thank you, Rob. Jeff loves to travel, so I'll let him speak.

Um, you're totally right. Um, about the— oh, I'm Seth, and, uh, what works best for the school district, um, for us, for us to be on the ferry, for the students to travel, it's, it's almost always a Thursday leaving Carrillo and a returning, um, Sunday. Anything outside of that, chances are super, super slim that we would be on that boat. I, you know, I can't—. I don't—.

This is just primarily speaking for the school. I, I, I think the weekends are— is a great option for us as a community as well. But for the school, that's, that's how it has to be, or we just won't be there. Um, we don't— everything is scheduled for weekends for, for all school districts. Um, when it comes to, you know, the time of year or the time of the month, I guess, um Just quickly looking at, you know, this, this master schedule I have, it's pretty consistent that we're traveling every weekend.

So we're thankful for anything. So I don't necessarily just by scanning have like an exact, you know, first of the month or last of the month or middle of the month because it's pretty scattered that almost every weekend we would be using the vessel as we normally do.

Craig, I was a little confused what you said about the September or October pushing one way or the other. I don't quite understand what you said. Can you rephrase what you said? Yeah, I was stating that right now we're scheduled with the shipyard. We've contracted with them to start October 1st.

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. So I just wanted to verify that, if that's, uh, of value. Okay, I was, I was afraid you were saying the opposite, that you wanted to push it to a September date, and that would really mess us up. No, I don't think the yard will let us do that, but they might They might be open to a delay.

Okay, that works for us. Um, I guess, yeah, another little point here, so like Thanksgiving, you know, Christmas, um, are something to keep, keep in mind here when we are traveling for our community. And, um, um, what was that? Yeah, yeah, so for, for us specifically, for school, we, we wouldn't be traveling on, on those, on those major holidays, you know. The Thanksgivings and the Christmases.

Um, that could be different for the community, but for us specifically, um, we don't— we're not doing anything then. Okay.

I have a question. Um, when the school travels, how many, how many kids is that? It, it completely depends, um, on the, on the team, but You know, if we're looking at, you know, as, as a prime example this year specifically, when we're— we've been used— we used— we're used to currently last handful years of having an October to now December, but last year obviously January. Um, but now we're getting into the basketball seasons when you start getting into this December through March. That's an entire basketball season, and that's almost every weekend starting in January all the way through March.

And that's, uh, 50 people, um, for our school that will be traveling every weekend. Um, so it depends on the year, but we're— anytime we're traveling, I mean, our students are very involved in a— one student will do as many things as they possibly can, whether it's a good thing or bad thing sometimes, um, what we really love that they do. But what's— what that means is that every student group We're at 20+, you know, 15, depending on each team. But, um, with the chaperones involved, and, and even not, you know, you're counting the, the parents that are traveling to Anchorage to watch them play, um, that kind of thing. We, we typically, for our, our school, we typically have anywhere 15 to 50, so maybe 70.

And then that doesn't account for home tournaments where we're bringing teams in, like a tip-off tournament. That was kind of a a big discussion last year. That's bringing in probably 70 to 100 people to Cordova, um, for those type of tournaments. I have a question, Seth. Can you also elaborate on how many vehicles that includes in traveling?

Yeah, um, if it's— it does vary, but we're 4 vans, 5 vans at times that we're, um, trying to scrounge up to get on the ferry for, you know, especially for the basketball season. But if it was the volleyball season, it's a very similar thing, um, where there's 3 vans going out and, you know, 15 to 25 or 30, you know, people. So, yeah, um, can I also add, you're not counting parents and their cars, correct? Correct. Yeah, we start So in a typical basketball tournament we're going to, it's maybe 4 vans, um, for just our, our students.

And then, yeah, not including all the parents and anyone that wants to go and watch those games that uses the vans or uses the ferry, you know, regularly.

Good.

And I asked then, Seth, um, if there was the option to either start a month late keeping service all through October, or get a month back at the end, starting service February 1st. What would your preference be?

Uh, sorry, at the beginning you said what was the date? It would be, um, instead of the, the, um, gap, service gap starting October 1st, it would start November 1st and it'll go all the way through to March 6th, or start it as planned October 1st and end it a month early, that would mean it would end February 5th-ish.

The hard part with that is you're—. Craig probably couldn't hear me, so if you want to—. I did hear, yes. Some of the hard part of that, kind of stealing from one team season to give to the next. So it's hard for me to— if, you know, if you, if you go earlier start date, then you're disrupting a lot of, you know, junior high sports, high school wrestling, high school volleyball.

Understood. Yeah, if you end it early, the basketball team is going to be happy, but you might have screwed the others, you know. So I don't think I have an entirely, um, I guess without fully flushing it out, just, um, really thinking about it, um, to say who we should kind of take their half their season from or pull their full season from. Um, without really thinking about it. Okay.

Playing the difference. 2 Weeks. Yeah. Which I think that's a good thought. I, I, again, I would like to think on that and actually like really look at the schedules.

I maybe wasn't as prepared to take all of these questions, but I have a rough, you know, rough idea of where everything's at. Um, but I could, you know, be a part of— if we're not coming up with an answer right this second today, I can be a part of some work sessions to try to come up with a better, you know, game plan on either starting earlier or later. But I really need to look at the schedules a little bit better. Okay, yeah, you got time for that. Great.

Yes, can I ask a question? Yes. I've been a part of lots of boat projects and boats being put up to be worked on, and I also know that projects take much longer than you anticipate and delays occur. So is there a guarantee with the shipyard that they are going to finish on time? Yeah, that's— unfortunately, the answer is no.

And the main reason is because these We have to open quite a few areas on this, this shipyard. And once we get into these, these framing and bulkheads, we, we find more rotten steel. And so there's always that risk. We were into a lot of the tanks last year, not just inspecting, but a lot of work in the tanks because we had all the fire main piping to change out because it had rusted through. It is a raw water, so it's salt water going through those pipes.

So it's Standardly, they'll give out first.

So a lot of the— we did find a lot of them in good condition, but when we pulled up the stock or this chalk on the aft starboard side, we exposed a lot of rotten steel.

Probably more paint there than steel that was holding it all in place, but we had to audio gauge out around that a certain distance that the Coast Guard required us to. Which exposed more steel that has to be replaced. The, the, the, our classification society, Alaska, I mean the American Bureau of Shipping, that's a requirement that anytime we lose more than 25% of the steel thickness, that we then have to replace that steel. And so we have quite a few areas where more than 25% of the steel is, has wasted away when we audio gauged it. So we do have a bit of steel to replace.

We've got a lot of steel on the deck, car deck, last year, and plus all that piping. So there's still risk just because of the age of the boat, and every time we open up another area. So I, I don't have a lot of experience with operating 50, 60-year-old boats except for my couple of years here, and nobody runs them like this but the ferries. And unfortunately, every time we've gotten into the opening up different areas, we find, we find more to be done. So that there is that risk all the time.

We do have a little contingency in there for that in the schedule because we know there's always there. We have it in the schedule and the budget. So we'll just have to see once, once we get into them. We have another substantial project as well. We have to replace all the steering system.

We had to do it on the Lakonti this last year, the sister vessel. And it's, you know, a million-dollar project.

It's outdated, not supported anymore, and just constant problems with, with the steering that obviously makes it unsafe for the operators. So we're upgrading it all, and that's another good project on, on the Aurora. Thankfully, it's a custom-built system for this old boat, and We, we did get— made the design this last year. Pacific Radar was our contractor. They, they designed it, engineered it, and they got the approvals from both US Coast Guard and ABS for it.

So the approvals ought to go very pretty fast this year. We waited almost 2 months to get them all last year while we were in the yard. So we should be pretty well set to get started on it and shouldn't see delays from the steering side of it.

I just have a follow-up. Yes. So, in short, if we were to make a choice then of where to cut the— to delay, it should be probably on the front end because there is— we can anticipate delays. Come spring.

Yeah, there's, there's risk of it. I don't, I wouldn't bank on it. Just, we put a little contingency in there, but you never know until you get into start working on things. And, and we're going to have to uncover a lot taking that, a lot of the deck up on the back, the back end, and that's a shared overhead from the rooms below. So a lot of insulation, things to take down and get at it all.

And each time we get into it, especially some of these old bulkheads in some of the rooms, we do find that we have to do replacement of that steel as well. It's all part of the structure.

Hey Craig, I have a comment on, you know, all this is while we're going through this and there's potential delays and, you know, I know it's common and you can't control what the shipyard, what was going on there, you know, you're you and others are kind of the messenger when the shipyard is going through this, um, and finding this stuff. If, if while we're kind of— if we continue this, you know, work session past this, or, or however we, we come up with dates, um, what I ask from like our standpoint from the school district, um, whether, you know, it's going just straight to our mayor or somebody, if we can have like somewhat consistent updates of sorts where we can properly plan. Kind of in the past, we've been kind of put in the dark in some cases where, like, I know specifically for me last year, it was a lot of, we think we can do it, we think we can do it, we think we can do it for about a month, and then it never happened. And I know that's how things happen, but we were put in a really bad position for the, we think we can do it., and then we, we didn't have— we were kind of scrambling with 5 days left kind of thing. So as we get, especially towards the end, if we can get some sort of updates like, hey, this isn't going as planned, it's going to be an extra week, that would be so, so benefit— such a benefit not only for the school district but for like so many other people that are making plans.

Yeah, no, be glad to do that. We can give you a scope of the work at the start so you have an idea in the schedule, and then we can keep you updated on a regular basis. That'd be fine. Awesome. Yeah, that'd be great.

Yeah, yeah. Um, anybody have questions for this? I, um, again, definitely open to sit down, like, really get through, like, our schedules. You know, I know other people want to comment, but that was just kind of our, our point. It has to be a Thursday to Sunday for it to work for us.

It's great. Maybe you can— we can follow up together and you can, after you've had some time to think through the schedule a little bit more, about how you know, if they're— again, representative said in terms of coming up with a consistent schedule, you know, whether it's the third weekend of the month or the fourth or whatever, if we can make some recommendations, okay, that'd be great. And I can be available to get back on a call anytime you need as well. Great. All right, you guys, thank you.

Right, other—. Anybody else want to come forward and Sure, um, Council Member Gard has spent a lot of time at these tables, former council member. No, I have a propensity for going on the rants and raves, so I'm going to hold myself down here and not do it. Um, other than to say the only thing we've learned from the ferry system over the last 8 years is we can't trust it anymore. That's why we don't have ridership.

Um, But if we're going to set something— and the schools are a big issue for us, we've got our kids in there, we need to make sure that they get facilitated for us so they're ready to launch in the world and they can take care of us when the rest of you get like this age. Um, but if we're going to go up on a Thursday and come back on a Sunday, that's kind of really tough to do a lot of medical with. There are a bunch of us that are getting to that point in life where medical is more important. So if we had to go up and do something that we need, uh, pictures taken or something, and then an appointment to see somebody and do that, we're trying to cram all this stuff into one day for us, and that really doesn't work. So I don't know if we could get two business days somehow, go up on a Wednesday, come back on a Sunday or whatever, but, you know, a couple business days to do business is a big deal, especially we're only getting to do it once a month.

Okay, that's all I got. All right, thank you. Yeah, yeah, please.

I'm Bill Lindo, a fisherman here, and I ride the ferry occasionally. Um, and I'm sure there are people here that have a much better idea than I do about our normal wintertime ridership.

But just like off the cuff, 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. And hopefully we can hear from somebody else like a ferry, local ferry employee or somebody that has much better sense of our annual ridership. Can kind of clue us into that. But I wouldn't want to see, you know, a half-full ship.

But at the same time, I want to have a ferry as often as possible, as reasonably possible. So hopefully we can nail down this frequency of sailing a little bit better.

Thanks. You know, I will just on ridership, if you look on our website, we do have the traffic reports, so you can see the ridership.

It's a fairly long document. I think it's about 70 pages, but it does go through and give you the monthly ridership between ports.

And of course, Cordova Whittier has a a lot of calls because you have a dedicated vessel, unlike a lot of other places. Kodiak does as well, Homer Kodiak, that's pretty steady. But a lot of the places like in Southeast, you know, they, they see a ferry once a week, so they don't see as much because they don't have dedicated vessels just for their between two ports. But you can look on that Ridership, the reports are on there. They're on annually for each year.

They go all the way back. I think, I think I've seen them as far back as 2014 still on the website.

Great, thank you.

Hello, my name is Kelsey Hayden. I'm a lifelong resident of Barabara and the director of Barabara District Fisherman United. One of the things that we're looking at the month of September is kind of the end of our salmon season, which will hopefully be strong. We also have a number of vessels, 90 vessels and 300 people that participate in the annual SERVS training that ends September 29th. So September is a pretty busy month.

A lot of people are looking to go do their boat maintenance and get out of town, and if the sees it, if the ferry schedule is extended 2 weeks, that gives people the opportunity to fish the entire month of September, which hopefully there will be, and participate in all these activities which put more funds in people's pockets in the economy in Cordova, all of which we need on a year like this where we're having a tough fishing season. So having additional 2 weeks in October would would make a significant difference to the fishing community and the fleet and the rest of Barovans. I also sit on the Hospital Authority Board for CCMC. We struggle with getting a skilled workforce in town, and when you have traveling nurses that are coming to town and doctors, they need a vehicle for the most part. When we don't have ferry, even if we have once a month, That's helpful for getting the— get that skilled workforce into town.

Also super important for people that are just going out for doctor's appointments, like you said, or like you've already heard, and pregnant women who have to leave for a month at least. Having once a month service through the fall would make a significant difference on those families who need a vehicle to be gone for a month. So I don't have any thoughts on timing other than having an additional 2 weeks in October would be incredibly helpful. And a monthly service, I imagine, would be pretty chock-full. So, good.

All right. Thanks for that input. Can you say the service dates again, Kelsey? The annual fall service training is September 25th through the 29th. Isn't the Tier 1 training on October 1st?

Yes, so we have an additional day on October 1st as well. Thank you.

Hello, um, Milo Burcham, Cordova resident, and, uh, I just wanted to say a couple of things. I haven't attended other meetings, um, but when it comes to this ferry service, uh, it's not a luxury for us. It's the city evolved with it. Um, we bought our homes, we chose to live here, we You know, chose our jobs, bought our businesses, everything based around this town evolved around the ferry, a long-term ferry service that was year-round. So it's not a light thing that is a luxury.

It's basically what this town was built on. I also have a brief question about infrastructure money. I thought there was a lot of money dedicated towards the ferry service during or at the end of the pandemic. Uh, I don't know what happened to that. I'm kind of surprised to see these shortfalls, uh, since then.

And if I was to pick a time that was more important, uh, you know, based on how I perceive the community using the ferry, it's definitely in the fall up through Christmas or so for Christmas shopping, hunting, vehicle maintenance, um, doctor visits, veterinarian visits. We don't have a veterinarian in town these days, There's infinite number of things. Not a lot of people love winter driving, so I think it would be used more in the fall. But as Bill just said here, I don't think you're going to see empty ferries, especially on a monthly schedule. Anyway, those are the points I wanted to make.

Okay, you know, I will comment on the budget.

You know, in this position here, Unlike in— I was in the private sector where I had P&L responsibility. I don't here with the budget, so that all comes from the legislature and the administration. And so anything you can do to help us that way and support us, you know, we always ask for help with getting funding for the ferries.

And Cordova's hurting in a lot of ways these days. You know, we're just sort of like a death by a million cuts. I think people are tending to leave town because of some of these factors, and the ferry service is one of the important ones that has made it a place that people have chosen to live in the past. Yeah, and you know what, just to your point, this is not, you know, the condition of the ferries just doesn't affect Cordova. It affects every one of our communities, unfortunately.

And so we hear this from, you know, all our communities. It's unfortunate. We just don't have any other vessels to put to work. We don't— we have the 6 that we operate right now and that we have the funding for. If we could crew the 7th, we lack crews.

I don't have the funding to operate the 7th. But, you know, if you get a chance to look at the long-range plan, we're really trying to put something in there that was more affordable going forward, making the fleet more efficient, and then also interchangeable just so we can cover each other, each other, each other, one of the communities when a vessel is out. And that's what we're trying to design in this so we can get back. If you look back at The way this fleet was designed originally, it was— it had the right idea. These ships were sister vessels and they were built for running up and down the waters we have.

And unfortunately, over the last, you know, 60 years, they just— we just haven't maintained that. And hopefully we can get back and there's funding enough to get us to have a standard back in, in the fleet that would give us something better going forward. But, um, you know, and I've shared with the mayor before too, with this little La Conte we have, the sister to the Aurora, it's had a lot of troubles the last few years. And then we have docks down here where it's the only boat it can go to, like Pelican. And Pelican hasn't had half a year of service for the last 3 years with all the downtime we've had on the La Conte.

The Aurora hadn't been as bad, and hopefully we can shorten this one down as well, but when they start bumping over 50 years old, it's pretty hard on them. But we get another, we get these docks upgraded, it'll be great to have a newer vessel in Prince William Sound. So thank you for your comments.

Glad that we have a legislator here to hear that also, because it's the legislators that are making the spending decisions. So that's the, the legislature you have there fights for the fairies, and we're very grateful.

Farjul, community member. And thank you for being here. I feel like you're in the position of cleaning up some longstanding messes that you were not a part of creating. And I really appreciate the long-term plan being in place because it's desperately needed. And I appreciate Representative Stutes being here.

She knows that I'm someone that doesn't hesitate to ask for what I think is needed versus what people are proposing or saying is allowable. So I want to say I support everything that everyone said earlier, and I would encourage us to look at twice a month for many reasons, some of which have been articulated. So one of which is medical appointments. People didn't talk also about vehicle services that we can't get here. You know, if your car goes down here and you can't get it fixed, it's not really that easy to get around, get your stuff.

There's no taxi or bus service or anything like that. Um, and I would encourage us not to necessarily look just at ridership over the past few years because, as one person mentioned, we have known that we can't really rely on the ferries, so we often make other plans. Um, so past ridership is sometimes more indicative of the fluctuating schedule and the unreliability as opposed to how people would actually like to use the ferry.. I know for myself, I've oftentimes had to say I can't do it because I've got to get back and I'm not sure the ferry's going to run. So just a couple of other things to consider, and I know I'm asking for more, but as Representative Suits mentioned, as Alaskans, we're kind of all in it, and I don't really want to see Cordova just having to carry the water for this.

That doesn't feel right, and we've carried it for a long time. This is the fourth time that I've sat and testified asking people to reconsider ferry cuts. So just a plea for that. And again, thank you for being here and for your work on this.

And I— on the Tustumena, it's great we do have this option. It does go in the shipyard itself in January. And then Kodiak, as they annually do, they'll be without the ferry as well. Here in, here in '25, the Tustimena was in the yard for 4 months, and Kodiak didn't have any service for those 4 months either. So Representative Stutes is familiar with, with that process as well.

With the Tustimena, there's just the, the only one that could back it up is the Kennecott, and unfortunately we haven't been able to crew the Kennecott at the same time that we've Columbia. So it's, uh, there is, there is pain for each one of the communities, unfortunately, right now.

Thank you. Yeah, my name is Story Baker, longtime resident here, and I, I guess I just have a couple of questions because I definitely support everything that's been said. Am I understanding then that the Tusti is going to go out of service starting in January then? Yeah, it will go in the shipyard in January. We need to have it back in service before May because that's when the first runs go down the chain, uh, and it has a good a little over 3 months of a shipyard period itself.

So then what we're actually talking about, is there another vessel other than the Tusty that could help? 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. No, we're getting it— March 6th is one of the two back. We're getting it in February.

January, February would be the blank months. Yeah. Okay, effectively. So I'm just thinking about Seth putting together his athletic schedules and delaying, you know, start dates and end dates. And if we really have a big blank in the middle of this schedule, then I think we should keep that in mind.

Yeah, that's a given. Okay, maybe I just wasn't picking up on it. No, no, I mean, you're right. I don't know that people were seeing that. The only other question, Greg, that I sort of thought was then, in Whittier, I mean, I've been in and out of there forever, and we're talking about the cruise dock there.

What is the ownership or situation like for AML parks or the barges? Are any of those other waterfronts suitable?

No, not for the Tostamina. The Tostamina with the vehicle lift, it has to tie up alongside of a flat dock. It just can't do a stern load or discharge, so it has to lay side-to to the dock. So it'll have to go dockside. And the ramp, I haven't looked at that AML facility there, but it's a ramp for the rail cars coming on and off and then also driving some of their gear on, but that wouldn't match up with the Tustimena.

Gotcha, gotcha. All right, we'll open it up for others, but thanks again for this deliberated—. You bet—. Attention. There's a lot of moving parts.

I, I, you know, I, uh, it's, uh, I do want to point out that with the— when we do get the Taslina done They'll be done before next winter, and so we won't be in this situation next winter. We get the, the taslene up there. Thank you.

Hi, Craig. Kat Renfell from Cordova Chamber. Nice to see you again. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you, means a lot, um, that you were— we both able to take some time to talk through this with us.

So just thank you so much for being here. Um, so just, I wanted to follow up what Tori was saying to kind of clarify some things. So please correct me if I'm wrong here. Um, we are talking about a couple different possibilities, one of which is— and, and we— it's possible that both of these could come to fruition if if I'm not mistaken, the first being that there could be up to a month that could be shaved off of the service gap, either 4 weeks on the front, 4 weeks on the end, or 2 weeks in the front, 2 weeks on the back. And that is all, of course, contingent on things going as planned in the shipyard.

That's right. Additionally, we are talking about trying to get one trip, round trip per month. So, and they— that could include one month in— one trip in October, one trip in November, one trip in December. Correct. That's correct.

Yeah, they wanted to kind of sum all that up so that everyone's kind of in the same page with that. So, um, January and February, there's no option unless it would be possibly going back early.

Yeah. Okay. That's great. And that could be 2 weeks or months depending on how that goes, or earlier. Get super duper lucky and the sun shines down upon us all and rainbow.

So we've heard from the school district, which I think is a very important element here. We've heard from, in some ways, from the hospital. Thank you, Kelsey. And from fishermen also a bit, Kelsey and others.

And we haven't— I'm wondering if there's anybody here that can speak to any other business interests that are going to be relying on the Rain Highway system this winter that could have any input on what kind of schedules would work best for you or would not work for you, for Craig. And I also want to highlight what was said about having extra business days in Anchorage. I think that makes a lot of sense for people trying to have doctor's appointments. And but then again, I also want to just mention too that whatever we can get is great. As Kelsey mentioned, there are people who are making one-way trips that are also very beneficial to get in and out as well.

I know there are several local businesses and organizations that do have vehicles that need to be maintained. And so getting those up and back is important. And then there are some entities in town doing some infrastructure projects. I'm not sure if anybody from any of those entities is here that would like to speak as well. We just wanted to bring some of that to the forefront to encourage anyone else who has anything to discuss on those topics.

And that's all I need to say. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Rainey.

Um, yeah, to that note, um, I'm Wendy Rainey, a local business owner, um, and council member. Um, the point of having an extra business day in there is huge. Um, we just lost our main lumber supplier in town, um, and shopping, uh, Costco is available, but not much else is available on the weekends. So one day to do any kind of doctor's appointments and combine it with getting freight is a little harsh. So, you know, again, I'm happy for anything that we can get, but we're in a dual battle here.

I mean, federally, we're fighting for our EAS system with the airport that is once again under the gun and cuts to Alaska are on the table, you know, we're looking at a battle just for us to be able to live here. And so while I appreciate the long-term plan, you know, I'm in my 50s and those years that you say sound very, very far away. So I appreciate that. But 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.

And 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. Um, maybe do some online courses for those kids that are traveling, um, so they can leave a little bit early. But I think that would work a little bit better for the main, um, non-school district portion of the community to be able to do our business, get our doctor's appointments and get our vehicle serviced, you know, having 2 days would really make the difference. And ridership-wise, I didn't ride the ferry when it went to Valdez because I don't want to drive that in the winter. Um, you know, going into Whittier is a totally different animal than going into Valdez.

Um, so I'd be happy to do a lot more riding going into Whittier than going into Valdez, at least for me. Um, basically I just didn't feel like doing that drive in the winter. I had to for many, many years and I'm not a fan of that. So, you know, the Whittier option is much better. Thank you.

Understood. I've done that Thompson Pass too. And by the way, you're very young. Okay, you're my new favorite, Barry. I've retired twice and I like fixing things.

And I have to admit that once I was introduced to the bureaucratic system, I don't know if everything's fixable.

So, um, I just want to clarify what you— by what you said, Wendy, and you have a great point— is that what would we do, though? You know, like a Wednesday to Sunday thing? We absolutely would do that. I was kind of giving the minimums of Thursday to Sunday, right? If, you know, if it was a Wednesday, Sunday, that's good for us.

I mean, we're happy. Thursday, Monday. Yeah, however, however much we could get. But Yeah, coming back on a Monday is kind of tough because you got to go through it here and you don't get much time. So realistically, Wednesday would be ideal.

Wednesday, Sunday. From our standpoint, the school, 99, 95% of everything that is going on is a Friday, Saturday. Yeah. So if it's better for the community to leave on a Wednesday, we'll make that work.

Thanks. Hello, Julie Reynolds, community member. Um, I have a question and then a comment, just to further other comments. The question I have is, if we go with— if we do get ferry service once a month, um, was it November, December? No, October, November, December.

What vote would that be? The customer—. Okay, and that's been issued, so it should be on January. So it's my other comment to agree or fully support the idea of a Wednesday-Sunday ferry is, uh, orthodontist appointments that are very regular. I used to have an orthodontist that came to Cordova for 20 years and they're not anymore.

So there's a bunch of kids getting braces, mine included, that need to go to Anchorage every 2 months, and insurance doesn't pay for travel for orthodontists. So, um, the flight cost—. The flight versus ferry— ferry is preferable. So that would be another reason for the Wednesday-Sunday schedule. And thank you for your time, and thank you for representing students' time.

Thank you.

Uh, Alyssa Kleisler, longtime resident here, teacher. Um, I want to thank you. Uh, I had no idea about the long-term plan, so that's really nice to hear about that, and to also get educated on why, you know, we can't have just other boats coming to our, to our ports. So thank you for that information. I just want to also further support a Wednesday to Sunday.

I just went up on that schedule. Actually, no, I went Wednesday to Saturday. I'm thinking about the sailing time. It's kind of important, like the current sailing time was I think we left here at 7 AM, which was lovely, but then when I got there, I couldn't really schedule an appointment because by the time you get to English, it's around 3, 3:30, and most offices, like, they cut off at 3, 3:30. That's their last appointment time.

As well as I find some of our doctors, they don't even schedule on Fridays. So, um, You know, you're just down to then Thursday for some of your doctors. I really like to just reiterate the Wednesday to Sunday would be great. Every, every 3 weeks.

And I'm just really thankful that this is even on the board and we're talking about it and I hope that, uh, all of your efforts really come to fruition for our community. And I'd like to thank, um, Representative Steeves as well for your time.

Here she comes.

Let me just say a couple things here. Um, first of all, We know we're not going to make everybody happy all the time. That's the nature of the beast, but we're going to do our very best. I feel like we've already taken a huge step by having Craig here. Captain of the ferry has been texting me, Captain Mayer.

I told him Thursday, I said, but you would be a hero if you would— Craig can work out Wednesday to Sunday. It would be once a month because that's a lot, a lot of time. I think that Kat Mayer told me it's— what did he tell me? 20 Hours from— 20 hours from here. Yeah, it's about 22 hours.

Yeah. 22 Hours from Homer to here. So it isn't just like the ferry's going to show up and, you know, that's a lot of travel time for him. And so Again, let's not write to the Kodiak Daily Mirror, please. You know, but I understand we all get it and we all get how important it is and we've got to come together as coastal communities and this is a good start.

So I appreciate it and as the sponsor of the AMHOM bill, the Alaska Marine Highway Operating Bill. Craig has been absolutely instrumental in moving this forward, and it is what came up with the long-term plan. We wrote this bill, and I think it was 6 years ago, and it was, it was a bugger to get out, and we got it out, and it sets out parameters for the Marine Highway long-term, because I'm sure we all remember when this governor first came in is anticipation that there would no longer be a marine highway system. And then the last thing I'll tell you for informational purposes is we are making headway. Every year up till this year when the legislature puts operating money into the budget for the marine highway system, Governor Vito's And we have been using federal dollars for operations.

This year, we put in $49.5 million for operations for the Alaska Marine Highway. It was nearly vetoed, $13 million. So we're ahead of the game just by not getting the whole thing vetoed. So we're on the right road. You know, we have to be optimistic.

We have to all work together. I'm excited to hear this and just know we all know we're not going to make everybody happy. And as soon as John said he's been, he's working on the schedule right now on Wednesday to Sunday and he'll get it to you and he'll get it to me as soon as he has it. And we'll see what we do. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Yes, I just want to make a brief comment that regarding sailing times, and our students are professionals on the ferry. They get on, they have their sleeping bags, they fall asleep, they bring their food. They know how to do the ferry. And so whatever time the ferry leaves, they will be there. 3 In the morning, parents get up and they will drive their kids to the ferry.

We are committed to that, and we've always been committed to that. So don't be afraid to schedule it for 4 in the morning. We will be there. I wanted to make sure that was really clear, and I really appreciate you, Craig. I hope you're not going anywhere.

Yeah, well, we do have a change coming up, so you never know.

I'm in an appointed position, so I might be retired again. Who knows? My last question is to Representative Stutes. What do you need from us as a community? I mean, Cordova will do letter writing campaigns like nobody's business.

You tell us what you need and we will do it. You know, I appreciate that. This is what we needed. We needed to show the Marine Highway Commission that you're vested. You know, if we can collaborate and come together and get a good schedule, you'll be there and you'll support it.

And that's, that's what we needed. And that's what— why I came here. I know Cordova. I mean, I know you guys love your ferry. And I said, oh, they'll be there.

They'll be there. We'll show you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

They're showing up.

Mr. M, because it is, it's critical.

Yes. Would other people like to speak, ask questions?

Anybody? Any other questions at the table? I don't think we have any council members online. I could just reiterate that like a Wednesday to Sunday works really good, and that seems like if we could do that with some consistency and reliability, then that And to reiterate, the ridership problem, I don't think—. Yeah.

Thank you. Yeah, I do. I think it's worth noting, you know, people, a lot of times when people look at the records of ridership and they say, oh, the ridership really fell off after 2012 with the fare system. Well, that's because the schedule changed. We used to have a lot more frequent service and then we didn't.

And so people couldn't take the So you really have to, I think, look at more than just that one absolute number. Look at how many sailings were there. How has that changed over time? Yeah, so there's a lot more to it. Other comments?

Anybody else want to come up and—. Matt? Yes, Councilmember Kinsman. As I'm listening to this and understanding that January and February will be no sailings, out of service. Sounds like we have some flexibility with up to 30 days.

It sounds like the Tostamina will be out of service. What service are we going to have in January and February? Well, nothing. That's what I'm saying. January and February, we won't have— my understanding is, and correct, correct me if I'm wrong, we won't have any service in Cordova January or February.

Is that correct? That's correct, yes. 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. That sits right now with our schedule. Also, what has been said is we have third pop— it's preliminary talking with the shipyard.

Sounds relatively confident we can shave 30 days off, and, and that's where later we can come in earlier. Am I just putting this out to the community? Is if we start October 1st with our as planned, and we take those 30 days at the end, that gives us potentially only 1 month without that service, January. Am I been saying that? Okay, you, you're correct.

Yep. Thank you. You bet. But to point to that, that depends on everything going smoothly. And if we give up that option for the shave off the front and things don't go smoothly, then we get nothing.

Yes, to be fair, if we take it— if we take that, that month off at the beginning, it could still not go smoothly, and then we're out another month. Right. So yeah, we're always running that risk no matter when we take that. And then if we do take— if we do push it later, then how is that going to affect proficiency starting if it goes nasal?

Yeah, and I will point out that we do have the Tustimena and the Aurora overlapping in the shipyard in the beginning of the year. There's always other vessels there too, so there's more risk of delay the more overlap, more vessels we have in there, because— and that's one of the things we're working on with JAG, it's, it's resources. They've done a pretty good job. Of being staffed up in Seward, and we'll see what— if they can bring others in. They do have a— not a deep bench in Alaska, but they do have others that they can bring in if available.

And so there's, there's a good chance, and that's what we're going to be pushing for, is, you know, what extra hands can they come in. We don't see a 24-hour shift, but we do see 2 shifts that work a slate in a day, and that, that greatly helps if they can do that.

So it's sounding like splitting the difference with 2 on the front and 2 on the back might be the safest bet. Most likely, yeah. And that helps a fishing community not have to be on the 30th ferry out of town, and the school district gets a little bit extra, so You know, that, that's what I'm hearing is that the 2, 2 weeks with the difference on either end might be the way to go. I think 4 therapies works good.

I'm reminded of a question. You said that you couldn't staff the KenCon. Is that right? Yeah, that's right. Yeah.

We couldn't, we can't crew the Kennecott the same time we have the Columbia going. We don't have enough crews for that. Both of those vessels take over 50 crew members and, and that's per shift. So you've got over 100 for 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off for both shifts. And then additionally, like I said, I don't have the funding to operate 2 at the same time either.

To the Ocean class or the main liners. Like people you can't find, people, they're not qualified people. Yeah, it's, we're short just about 20 licensed engineers in the fleet to crew 7 vessels. So right now we supplement out of the hiring hall. With MEBA, which is the engineering union.

They're the only union that has a hiring hall that we can pull from. On the— in the wheelhouse for the officers, we're short about— if you go for the second mate, the chief mate, and the captain, we're short 28 positions.

To Crew 7. We are carrying over 22 extra third mates right now, and we've been hiring them from the academies. Thankfully, we got a wage increase in, in the last collective bargaining agreement that made us a little more competitive with the academies, so trying to hire them out of there. And then, so we have a a program for these, uh, third mates where we're having them ride extra and to get their pilotage, and then they can get the sea time required to move up to a second mate, and they got to have the pilotage to move up to that. So we're trying to build our own workforce, uh, right now with carrying these extra third mates.

So that's— and we're short in the deck.

The one thing I've been trying to work on for the last few years, a couple years I've been here, is to get a program where we can provide training, haas piping. Haas piping term in the maritime is someone who starts in the bottom, works their way up. We want a haas pipe path for all our Alaskans to start working working for us, that they can see the, the, what the path is to move up. If they're coming in and they want to be a captain, they can start on the deck. And then we provide the training for each one of those positions.

We did get some federal funding for that, and we had some gaps until this year. We, we had gaps from moving from an AB to a, to a third mate. Or from an oiler to a third assistant engineer, but we have funding for 4 scholarships each year for 4 ABs to move up and 4 oilers to move up. We won't see the results of that right away, but getting this started in 4 or 5 years, if we can get 4 each year through there, it will start filling some of our positions. But we just have to have a program like this where we start building our own workforce.

And that is HOSPI, did you say? Is that an acronym? HOSPI? It's just like a pipeline of work. Oh, yeah, it's a— we call it— it's called HOSPIping.

We have a lot of, you know, the captain or the officers or the engineers that went to an academy, spent 4 years at an academy, and then come out with a license. For those that didn't go to academy and you have to start like myself as an ordinary seaman, or you start working on the boats and you can auspice and work your way on up. And we just want to have a pathway that we can support and, and provide the training so they can continue to progress. That's great. Thank you.

I was going to ask Director Chonger, can you speak at all to the question that was raised earlier about the infrastructure money that came out of the pandemic? I know there was money in the, I think, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

And yeah, yes.

Yeah, that was about $1 billion in there. I mean, that was, that bill was passed when I was still working before I retired from Kirby. And so I think when I joined, it had been going for 2 years. Unfortunately, you know, a lot of that money was— Senator Murkowski had put in some language in that bill for rural ferries and made it attractive for ferries that have routes over 50 miles. And there's only the Samoan Islands and Maine, I think, and then ourselves that had routes that distance.

So, and Lisa's plan with that was for it to be for building new ferries. Unfortunately, it hasn't all gone for that. A chunk of it has gone for operations as well, but The one good thing, the Tustimena, that's all funding from that bill. And then we do have a request in for another, uh, you know, it'll be an upgraded day boat, not like the Hubbard and Taslina, but they'll be built with crew quarters and, uh, and then built pretty much with a power and propulsion unit system like we have on the, the new Tustimena replacement, where it'll be a diesel-electric hybrid vessel. So hopefully we're successful in that.

We'll know in October.

But the DOT and the administration, they apply for those fundings. And thankfully they went for that. We were hoping that we'd be going for a mainliner replacement, but that didn't work out. So, but they did chase some funding for another day boat.

Great, thank you. Yes, thank you, Ms. Adams. I have one brief question with regard to the scholarships as the guidance counselor. High school. What is the route for an 18-year-old graduate?

Can you— I think this is a conversation we have to have later on, but briefly. Yeah, we, so we've, we're trying to get around. I don't have a lot of staff to make a lot of the high school career days, but we're trying to get around and introduce the maritime industry. To Alaskans. All our stats show that the Alaskans tend to stay with us.

We see a lot of turnover from out of state, and so we're focusing on the Alaskans coming out. And if they're just green and they get started, you usually start as a steward on the vessel, and then you can get your sea time and you can move over You know, after, I think it's about 18 months of sea time, you could move over and get an A— sit for an ABET ticket, able-bodied seaman. And we have a course we sponsor through ABTEC in Seward. And when you come out of there with your certificate, with an able-bodied seaman, and from there you can, if you're going the deck path, That's the deck path from into AB and then on up into the mates. If you're going the engine route, you'd be an oiler and then work your way over into the engine.

But that's once you get your foot in the door and get started and just start building your sea time and have the initiative to get over and take the schooling that's provided and the training that's provided. And I think we've had pretty good success. What I understand with this federal program, if we show we're getting some mariners through it, they'll continue to provide it annually and we'll keep applying for it. So that's, that's how they get started. If someone wants to get started on— we are, we are hiring for stewards now.

I don't think the posting is up right now, but it will be up this week again. And we hope to have another new hire orientation class here end of August or beginning of September again. Thank you. I'll be in touch. Good.

Yeah, if anybody wants, uh, terminal I want to come talk to the schools about, you know, the maritime industry. And, uh, if you have career day in Cordova, we'd be glad to do that too. You're invited. Yeah, well, that's great because you've got the Prince William Sound College director and the high school guidance counselor in the room, so I know they're— yeah, even, even literature. I know my kids had captain's licenses before they had driver's licenses.

So, you know, it's, it's important to get the literature to the schools. If you can't make the visit, you know, communicating with the school and just getting the community the information, we can get it out to the kids at this end too. That's good. There's a couple things they can do to start, and that's why we would like to get to the schools, because we find that while they're still in school, they're captured there. But if they could apply for their MMC, their Merchant Maritime Credentials, Sometimes that can take quite a while.

3 Years ago it was taking 6 months. It's down to about 5-6 weeks now, so you know, they start applying for that in, in the school year. They'll have it for when they get out. And the other document that's required is a TWIC card, and that only takes, you know, 2-3 weeks. But you get those in hand, then when you get out of school, you're ready to walk on, on the vessel and you're not waiting to get those credentials.

Well, since you mentioned that, my name is Steve Munkelbach and I'm a longtime Cordova resident. And in order to get your TWIC card, you need to get on ferry, you go to Anchorage. So yeah, that's the same. Yeah, it's the same all across Alaska, every village has to like go to Juneau or go to Anchorage. Yeah, yeah, just one more reason why, you know, to do any of that kind of professional development, you know, credentials that we need to have that kind of support.

So yeah, thanks. A lot of the comments made here today, and I own several businesses in Cordova, and Wednesday to Sunday, you know, really having those extra business days is critical. So thanks. Thought I'd pop in with that last point.

Great. Any other comments people want to chime in with?

Council? Right. Well, I just want to say thank you so much to Representative Suits and to Director Torga for spending some time with us. That's been, I think, super helpful for everybody. We've learned a lot, and I think you have heard from us.

And so hopefully we can, uh, keep working. I can be talking to the representative in the school district, and we can hone in on some possible solutions. Thank you. And, and I'm available for a follow-up. Well, you just Let Louise know and she'll tell me to get on a call.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you.

We will adjourn.