Kenai: 09/16/2026 City Council Meeting

Please call the roll.

Councilmember Grimme. Here. Vice Mayor Askin. Here. Councilmember Petty.

Here. Councilmember Kucena. Here. Councilmember Sonnert. Here.

Mayor Naxted. Here. Councilmember Daniel. Here. You have a quorum.

Thank you, Council. Before we get to the agenda and consent agenda Approval. I'd like to bring to your attention the laydown materials. We have 3. Add item H7, discussion, scheduling a Board of Adjustment hearing, appeal hearing, brought to us by the clerk.

Add item H8, action approval, scheduling a special meeting of the City Council, brought to us by administration. And then add item P1, an informational item, Alaska Commercial Fisheries Conservation Alliance Motion to intervene and protest of the Alaska Commercial Fisheries Conservation Alliance Deep Green Cook Inlet SPV LLC, docket number P-15423000, submission ID 1791000, brought to us by the clerk. Pleasure of counsel. Vice Mayor Askin. I move that we approve the agenda as amended with laydown materials, and ask unanimous consent.

I'll second that. Are there any additional revisions to the agenda and consent agenda from council? Seeing none, would the, uh, clerk please read the consent agenda items into the record? Thank you, Mayor Naxted. Approval of the regular meeting minutes of September 2nd, 2026, brought to you by the city clerk.

New business action approval, bills to be ratified, brought to you by the administration. Action approval purchase orders and purchase order amendments requiring approval in accordance with KMC 715-020, brought to you by the administration. Action approval non-objection to the acceptance and appropriation of a donation from Derek Kaufman Fund in the amount of $1,000 in accordance with KMC 725-030. Action approval non-objection to the acceptance and appropriation of the fiscal year 2027 library assistance grant in the amount of $7,000 in accordance with KMC 725-030. 5.030, Brought to you by the administration.

An action approval confirmation of mayoral nomination of Joshua Bowling, a student representative to the City Council, and Carolyn Karpik, a student representative to the Council on Aging Commission, brought to you by the mayor. And that is your consent agenda. Thank you very much for that. Are there, uh, are there any public comments on any of the consent agenda items just read by the clerk?

Seeing no one, unanimous consent was requested.

Are there any objections? Hearing and seeing no objections, the agenda and consent agenda items are approved. So that brings us to— Madam Clerk, you want to do the oath of office?

Welcome back.

Okay, we have no scheduled administrative reports. We have no scheduled public comments. So that brings us to unscheduled public comments. Are there any members from the public that would like to speak on any item not appearing on the agenda?

Come forward, sir. State your name and city you live in, and you'll have 3 minutes.

Yes, my name is Russell Clark. I reside at 117 Deepwood Court, Kenai. I am a Cook Inlet commercial fishing permit holder and president of the Alaska Commercial Fisheries Conservation Alliance, a nonprofit representing Cook Inlet and Alaska commercial fishermen. I'm here about the Deep Green Cook Inlet Project and a fundamental engineering failure that its FERC application does not address. Deep Green Cook Inlet SPV LLC has applied for a preliminary permit to install 330 to 350 marine turbines and 66 underwater data center pods across 1,650 acres of Cook Inlet seabed west of Nokiski, with the subsea power cable landing in the Nokiski industrial corridor within this borough.

The data center pods are cooled entirely by passive seawater circulation requiring approximately 380,000 gallons per minute of continuous flow. The application contains no thermal plume model and no assessment of what happens when that flow stops. And it does stop. Cook Inlet has mixed semi-diurnal tides with up to 4 zero velocity slack tide periods every day. During slack tide, water circulation stops.

The passive cooling collapses. 100 Megawatts of continuous computing heat accumulates in the project area with nowhere to go. The application provides no fluid dynamics modeling of this condition. The turbines also start generating electricity during slack tide. Maximum heat accumulation zero power for backup cooling.

The application proposes no solution. The effect on salmon is unmodeled and, and direct. The East Forland Corridor is a primary migration pathway for Cook Inlet salmon, Chinook, and Coho salmon. A temperature increase of even 1 to 2 degrees Celsius in the migration corridor causes avoidance behavior and migration failure. Superheated thermal pockets accumulating during slack tide across the 1,650-acre migration corridor are a serious threat that the application does not model, analyze, or mitigate.

On September 14th, ACFCA filed a motion to intervene with FERC in docket number P-15423-00, submission ID 1791, 000 and 179-1227 demanding thermal plume modeling, fluid dynamics analysis for slack tide conditions, and a full salmon migration impact assessment before this permit advances. I am asking this assembly to direct borough staff to file a FERC comment in docket number P-15423-000 before November 2, 2026. Thank you. Thank you for that. Would you be willing to stand for any questions council may have?

Yes. Vice Mayor Askin. Thank you for coming, Mr. Clark.

Um, I, I haven't gotten to read what you passed out. We just got it before the meeting, but is there any address regarding the riptides and the large boulders that are like car size that go up and down the inlet?

Pardon me? At this point there is not. They have not even made consideration for the boulders that bounce along the bottom of the inlet.

I can't imagine that after they do some studying that they're going to find this to be very viable, do you think? I believe that they will find it very challenging.

Thank you. Any further questions?

I don't see any, but I want to thank you for your laydown, and I did read that this afternoon, and a lot of that information I'd seen before, and that's quite useful, you know, down the road, recognizing that it's not a permit to construct right now, it's just a permit to really study and go forward. So it's something that we'll be considering. And if you needed any more time, by the way, there's another 5 minutes available at the end of the meeting for public comments if you needed, because you were right up to the line there. I'm going to let you know it's there. Thank you.

I would like that 5 minutes if you don't mind. Okay, well, that will be at the end of the meeting. Okay. Pretty close. Enjoy the meeting.

Okay, thank you for your consideration.

I'd like to make a motion to give Mr. Clark an additional 7 minutes of unscheduled public comment and ask for unanimous consent. I'll second that.

Is there any objection to unanimous consent? Seeing none, Mr. Clark, looks like you're going to get 7 more minutes right now.

Thank you. I want to focus this time specifically on what is not in the Deep Green application and what that absence means for Cook Inlet. Upper Cook Inlet is one of the most hydrodynamically complex tidal environments on the Pacific Coast. Tidal ranges here regularly exceed 28 feet. Current velocities in the East Fohlen Corridor reach 7 to 8 knots at peak flow.

These extremes are precisely what attracted Deep Green to this location, but these same extremes create a condition that Deep Green's application fails entirely to address. Cook Inlet's mixed semi-diurnal tides produce up to 4 zero-velocity slack tide periods every day. During each slack, current velocity drops to zero. The facility's passive seawater cooling system requires 380,000 gallons per minute of continuous water movement to prevent thermal accumulation. When tidal flow stops, cooling stops.

The 100-megawatt computing load continues generating heat. That heat accumulates in the 1,650-acre project area with no dispersion mechanism. The application contains no computational fluid dynamics model for this condition, not for a single slack tide, not for spring tide cycles, not for the compounded neap tide periods when slack intervals extend and flow recovery slows. FERC has issued a deficiency notice on this application for failing to provide basic structural data. The thermal modeling failure is far more serious.

No preliminary permit should advance without a complete thermal plume model under all tidal conditions, including the worst-case scenario of a neap tide slack period in summer when Cook Inlet water temperatures are at seasonal peaks. The consequential impacts on marine life are not speculative. They are predictable from established biological thresholds. Sockeye salmon, whose late run through the Kenai River system is one of the largest in the world, transit the East Corduroy, uh, corridor during July and August. Sockeye optimal thermal range is 12 to 14 degrees Celsius.

A temperature exceedance of even 1 to 2 degrees in a migration corridor produces measurable avoidance behavior, delays spawning timing, and reduces spawning success. The 1,650-acre thermal accumulation footprint from this facility sits directly across that migration pathway. The application contains no salmon impact assessment of any kind.

Cook Inlet's 331 remaining beluga whales, a critically endangered population that has declined 75% since 1979, use the East Foreland Corridor year-round for foraging, calving, and transit. Federal law under the Endangered Species Act mandates Section 7 consultation with NOAA Fisheries before any federal action affected a listed species in critical habitat. Uh, Deep Green has not initiated that consultation. Issuing a preliminary permit without it is not a technicality. It's a legal prohibition.

FERC cannot proceed. Beyond the thermal and biological failures, the application provides nothing on structural impact. 350 Turbine foundations and 66 data center pod anchoring systems will be installed across 1,650 acres of Cook Inlet seabed at depths ranging from 45 to 166 feet. No benthic habitat survey has been conducted. The seabed in this area supports dungeness crab habitat, Pacific herring spawning substrate, and juvenile fish rearing zones.

Construction sediment disturbance will generate turbidity plumes across these habitats with no impact analysis filed. The structure itself creates a permanent gear conflict zone for every commercial vessel fishing the East Foreland Corridor. Here is the core problem with this application. There is no engineering solution that fixes these deficiencies without changing the project entirely. Active cooling pumps require power that the turbines cannot provide during slack tide.

Thermal storage buffers large enough to absorb 100 megawatts of heat through a 2-hour slack period at a depth would materially expand the project footprint. Variable computing load management eliminates the commercial viability of the data center. Every fix requires a different project. A different project requires a new application with full environmental review. This is not a filing that can be supplemented.

It needs to start over. The city of Kenai stands 47 days from a deadline that will define whether this community has a voice in what happens to Cook Inlet. November 2nd, 2026 is the FERC intervention deadline. A comment filed by city staff at FERConline.ferc.gov, uh, on with with the City of Kena on record as a party to this proceeding for as long as it runs.

Let's see, I have any more time? Okay.

I would like to go over some of the conclusions and recommendations on the handout that I handed out earlier about Um, let's see. The Deep Green Inlet Subsea Compute and Infrastructure Hub project is filed— as filed, presents 17 categories of significant environmental impact, regulatory non-compliance, and community harm. One, complete thermal plume models under all tidal conditions including slack tide. Two, they need full computational fluid dynamics model of the power cooling double failure state. Three, ESA Section 7 consultation for Cook Inlet Beluga Well initiated with NMFS.

Four, anadromous fish impact assessment including salmon migration, turbine strike, and thermal barrier analysis. 5, Marine mammal impact assessment and MP.

Okay. Thank you, Mr. Clark. That was another 7 minutes, so—. Pardon?

Your time's up. Okay. Or did you have but a few seconds more there? I think I had— there's about 6 more points. I think, you know, we got to follow the rules.

I understand. Are there, uh, are there any further questions of council for Mr. Clark? I have a question. Councilmember Remy, I think you're—. So I guess to clarify, I want to make sure that I understand.

In, in addition to the obvious potential environmental impacts, um, the reality is there are requirements of this permitting process that have not been completed that, that are necessary by, it sounds like, federal law and several other standards that have not been sufficiently completed. Did I understand you correctly? That's correct. Excuse me. That's correct.

As a matter of fact, the entity that applied for these permits, they came into existence one month prior to making application for this project. And what happens is they have no experience at this type of project. He's a real estate developer. And what happens is, is by allowing this permit to go forward, he ties up 3 to 4 years of potential other investors that cannot— that, that have the experience and have the possible engineering that possibly could address some of these issues from proceeding or applying for this.

Thank you. That was very helpful. Thank you. Council Member Petty. Thank you.

Yes, sir. Have, have you shared this information with the Kenai Peninsula Borough representatives or any of our state legislators or the Kenai Watershed Forum?

Saldana? I mean, we're all neighbors in this here. I'm just curious. Yes, ma'am. I spoke at the Borough Assembly yesterday evening, and I have visited with Representative Vance on this issue, and I've also spoke with board members of UCEDA concerning this issue.

So Yes, I have. I want to thank you for bringing this to our attention, sir. Thank you.

Vice Mayor Raskin. Thank you. Is this company out of California by chance? Uh, they're out of Massachusetts. Oh, okay, okay.

Any further questions, Mr. Clark? I just want to thank you for coming and speaking to us for 13 minutes or 10 minutes, was that? Either way, that's a long time to get up and speak to us, so I appreciate that. I thank y'all for letting me speak that long. Especially that it was well-informed.

I appreciate that. Okay. Thank y'all. Thank you, sir.

We may be having some technical difficulties. Online here. Adam Clerk, do you need a moment? Thank you, Mr. Nexted. There's— the video is frozen, but everything I'm getting back is the audio is going out.

And other than resetting the whole meeting and all of the live streaming, I have no idea how to make it work. Also, every— as long as the audio is going out, the audio is what has the value, so I'm okay with it. The audio is going out from here, but we're not getting any in from anyone? No, we're— the audio is working fine, but our video is froze. It's the The same picture that's been there for quite a while.

Um, all right, I understand now. Um, so I'll ask if— is there any, uh, other members of the public that would like to speak on any item not on the agenda? And it looks like we have, uh, Cassandra online with her hand up. If you'd state your name and what city you're in.

Hold on, I'm trying to figure out how to let her Oh, we're working on it.

Um, Council Member Daniel, you're my IT person, and my letting them talk option is not there. Right-click on their photo, maybe. Yeah, or on their, uh, on the picture that says Cassandra to the left, the video screen. Yeah. Hi folks, can you hear me very well?

Thank you very much for waiting. Sure thing. Yeah, absolutely. Um, so hi everyone, Cassandra Nicholson. I'm a resident of Kasilof.

I just want to say I did join Rusty and other members of the public yesterday evening at the borough assembly. Rusty, thank you for being present tonight and being so articulate. You did a wonderful job. Um, so thank you everyone for your time. Um, just kind of echoing some of the sentiments here that Rusty had shared, I'm extremely concerned as a resident of this community, a resident of Alaska, and a parent to a young child in this community in terms of environmental and socioeconomic impacts imposed by the Deep Green Cook Inlet Project, project number 15423-000.

Those concerns are both long-term and short-term should the preliminary permit application for Deep Green Cook Inlet SVP LLC be approved by FERC. Cook Inlet is home of the Cook Inlet beluga whale, a population that is nearly extinct with a current estimated population of 331, uh, that was referenced from the Marine Mammal Commission. This fact alone should prohibit the further and mere consideration of building a data center in the waters of our beautiful Cook Inlet. Cook Inlet is also an integral part of the salmon life cycle and habitat. There are 4 hatcheries hosted within the inlet waters which supplement wild salmon runs and subsequent livelihood of of the locals as well as commercial fishermen.

Salmon are also a critical part of subsistence living for indigenous populations who may rely on Cook Inlet's natural resources for both food security and cultural significance.

It would be, in short, entirely irresponsible to allow a project of this magnitude to even cross one boundary of red tape There is not enough data to support the environmental sustainability of such a project, given the limited pilots and projects throughout the world to date. I'm requesting that this council or any other appropriate governing bodies on the peninsula submit their public comment and/or motion to intervene as soon as possible, but no later than November 2nd, 2026 at 5:00 PM Eastern Standard Time. I, I ask that this council adamantly articulate support for the denial of the application for Deep Green Cook Inlet SVP LLC to have any amount of access to our Cook Inlet waters and/or, I'll say, testing at the very least, just exploring things as an option, or any waters throughout our great state of Alaska. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Nicholson.

Is there any questions for Ms. Nicholson? Not seeing any here. Thank you very much for your testimony. Is there anybody else online or in the room that wants to speak to this particular item?

Um, I wanted to ask that before we go on to see if there's anybody else that wants to speak, but I thought I might take— turn it over to our city manager. City Manager Eubank, do you have any, any plans on, on what you might be recommending to council on this? At this point.

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of council. Um, I have had some preliminary conversations with the city attorney. He's currently out of the office. Um, we'll have further conversations next week. Um, I do believe it might be in the city's best interest to, uh, at a minimum, provide comment on the proposed project.

Um, and we may take a position, we may recommend taking a position of as an intervener An intervener doesn't necessarily denote whether there is support or lack of support for the project. It simply could provide the city an opportunity later and preserve its position as a party to these proceedings. So we're going to be reviewing that and discussing that, likely have a recommendation before council at the October— first meeting in October, October 7th, and we'll go from there. Thank you for that clarification. And we do have till November 2nd to submit that, so a fair bit of time.

Um, are there any other members of the public that would like to speak on any item not appearing on the agenda? Okay, seeing no one, that brings us to public hearings. The first public hearing before us tonight is Ordinance Number 3544-2026, amending Kenai Municipal Code Chapter 1.56, Kenai Municipal Library Department, removing the library regulations from the appendices of Kenai Municipal Code and amending the City of Kenai schedule of rates, changes, and fees for, uh, for housekeeping purposes and to align the library with other city departments, brought to us by administration. Pleasure of council. Vice Mayor Askin.

I move we enact Ordinance Number 3544-2026. I second that. Is there anybody from the public that would like to speak to Ordinance 3544-2026?

Anybody online? Seeing no one, bring it back to council. Uh, City Manager Eubank, there's a lot to unpack here, so if you want to just kind of give us an overview. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of council. I'll, I'll start this, and then when we get into detailed questions, I'll defer to our library director, Miss Wolf, who's here with us tonight.

So, um, as indicated, Ordinance 3544-2026 will amend KMC 1-56 and, uh, remove library policies from the appendices of code This, this amendment will allow management authority and policy administration of the library to be consistent with other city departments. It provides more— for more flexibility in the administration of the library and allows for more timely changes when needed.

It represents significant work, I will say, by the library director to write and have approved the policies that are included tonight in your packet. The memo provided on pages 15 through 27 of the packet include a sectional analysis of the changes and new policies intended to replace the previous code sections and appendices. And if you have specific questions on those, I would defer to Ms. Wolf. And City Manager Eubank, After the description there, there's the, uh, kind of working my way down there, the policies. We're really not voting on the policies.

Everything's just being moved into a policy that will be approved by you, the library director, and city attorney, correct? That is correct, Mr. Mayor.

Councilmember Grimme. I don't have a question, I guess a comment more. Um, I, I appreciate that decodifying these gives, um, the library and Director Wolfe the same autonomy that other departments currently have here at the city, and I think that gives her the opportunity and future directors, of course, to meet the needs of library staff and patrons and the buildings themselves, building themselves itself on a more timely basis. I met with Director Wolfe and then with Director Wolfe, Attorney Bloom, and City Manager Eubank, you know, a month or so ago regarding part of these changes specifically in relation to how the, the front room at the library, uh, is currently allowed to be utilized. And this part of one of these changes, um, will allow more public access to, to that space, which, um, we had recent public comment about that being an issue.

And I think that making this change gives Director Wolf the ability to meet the needs of not only the staff and the patrons but our residents as well who want to be able to continue to take advantage of the great spaces that are available in that library. I mean, that, that front space and the other, the smaller rooms and the smaller conference room are great spaces for folks to, to utilize in our community. So all of that to say, I support this change, and I think that it speaks highly of the the work that Director Wolfe has done in going through all these policies and considering the needs of everybody, not just library staff and patrons, but residents as well.

Mr. Daniel. Thank you, Mayor Naxied. I too want to echo support for this. I know this is a lot of work. It was interesting looking at some of the changes in there.

Um, the sleeping policy, I thought that was really interesting from before in the code. I was like, huh, all right, this is definitely a good refresh, definitely is needed to help us meet our needs of the community as a whole and the library and the patrons, of course, just like Councilman Girmay said. I did have a question though for, um, City Manager Eubank. Um, are there any other departments that need to go through this change? I know we've been kind of working through a few of them in the past.

Are we pretty much to the point where we're administratively handling a lot of this stuff? City Manager Eubank. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Councilmember Daniel, no, um, this is— the library is the, the one department that has, you know, specific policies regarding, uh, in the appendices of code, and then has a number of these what we would consider policies in code as well. So it really is kind of an outlier as far as the city department went, um, how code handled it.

And like I said, this will provide us greater flexibility and be more responsive to be able to make changes. Perfect, thank you.

Any further discussion? Um, I do also appreciate all the work that's gone into this, and, uh, um, been reading through all the policies, kind of making sure that everything is collected in there, and it's been expanded on a little bit. And through the city manager, I guess I would like to ask you know, the process of when this started and how you did it and perhaps just a little explanation of what you're most excited about in all of this because there's a— there's just a lot of changes in what you can do now within a reasonable time limit.

All right, I'll try. So we started this process about a year ago actually, just rewriting the policies. This is something that I've been wanting to do for a while. To clean up the code and to make sure that we have the flexibility, as City Manager Eubanks said, to actually make changes in a timely fashion. So it took us about a year.

Um, there— now these policies, they— we didn't just write them out of nowhere. We—. I did a lot of, um, reviewing of other libraries' policies. None of these policies are really out of the ordinary. They're pretty standard for in library world, so I didn't have to reinvent the wheel.

Thankfully. In terms of things that I'm really excited about, just being able to make certain changes. The sleeping is one of them, actually. It's always bothered me that it was in code that, you know, we said no, no sleeping, it's prohibited. And then having that taken out is, is a very good change.

Also easing up on library card eligibility, us being able to make it easier for patrons to actually get library cards is a really good one. Um, I had a whole list of them and I forgot them all. Um, let's see what else. Um, also I will say that we've had a bunch of procedure— we have a bunch of procedures in place. So the way we handle circulation, for example, but actually having a policy that we can refer back to when we actually make policy changes or procedure changes is also a very good thing.

So just being able to be more flexible and being able to respond to community need, I think, is the most important thing to me.

Thank you very much. Any further council discussion? Seeing none, please call the roll.

Vice Mayor Askin? Yes. Council Member Petty? Yes. Council Member Kusena?

Yes. Council Member Sonnart? Yes. Mayor Naxted? Yes.

Council Member Daniel? Yes. Council Member Groomey? Yes. Student Representative Bowling?

Yes. You have 7 yes votes. Ordinance number 3544-2026 is enacted. Thank you. We are now on item E2, Ordinance number 3545-2026, increasing estimated revenues and appropriations in the general fund— in the, in the general and senior center Improvement Capital Projects Fund to provide supplemental funding for the Senior Center canopy roof replacement project brought to us by administration.

And this is being done through KMC 1.15070, which allows an ordinance making, repealing, transferring, or otherwise changing appropriations to be enacted on the same day as introduced. And, and from what we've read here, that this is a time-sensitive issue. We have a construction project underway and the season's ending soon, so that is why it's before us like this tonight. So I'm looking for a motion to introduce. Vice Mayor Askin.

I move that we introduce Ordinance Number 3545-2026. I'll second.

Moved and seconded. Clerk, please call the roll. Council Member Petty? Yes. Council Member Kucena?

Yes. Council Member Sonnart? Yes. Mayor Naxted? Yes.

Council Member Daniel? Yes. Council Member Grimme? Yes. Vice Mayor Askin?

Yes. Student Representative Bowling? Yes. You have 7 yes votes. Ordinance number, um, 3545-2026 is Introduced.

Thank you. Now, uh, pleasure of council regarding a motion to hold a second reading. Is there a second? Vice Mayor Askin. I'm—.

I move that, um, we conduct a second reading of Ordinance Number 3545-2026. I'll second that and request unanimous consent. Unanimous consent was requested. Are there any objections? Seeing none.

The second reading has been unanimously approved.

Ordinance number 3545-2026, increasing estimated revenues and appropriations in the general and senior center improvement capital project funds to provide supplemental funding for the senior center canopy roof replacement project, brought to us by administration. So now, um, pleasure of council in regarding a motion to enact. Vice Mayor Askin. I move we enact Ordinance Number 3545-2026. I'll second.

Is there anybody from the public that would like to speak to Ordinance 3545-2026?

Seeing no one, bring it back to Council. Uh, City Manager Eubank.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of Council. Again, I'll, I'll kick this one off and we'll defer any detailed questions to Mr. Fry.

During the investigative stage of the design for this roof replacement, um, the joists for the roof were examined in a limited number of locations. Holes were drilled, cameras were used to get up in there. Once the canopy was removed and truly exposed these joists, the joists up in there, there's significant damage well beyond what was originally thought as part of the design. This change order— a change order is needed to replace all of those joists. It's also going to, I believe, replace the metal that is adhered to it because it's likely to be damaged or destroyed during removal since the joists actually have to come out.

And as Mayor pointed out, we are requesting this on a double reading like this because of the short construction season. The construction, the canopy is now open and the contractor would like to get in there and get it finished and buttoned up before winter here. And I would defer any other detailed questions to Mr. Frye. Council questions? City Council Member Daniel, go ahead.

Thank you, Mr. Naxit. What state are we in now? Is it just covered, tarped? Do I stop construction until this is approved? Where are we at?

Uh, yeah, it's tarped off right now. They demolished the— removal of the sheathing was part of the construction project, so they removed all the sheathing and it's currently just tarped off at this point. Um, we've just been reviewing submittals and getting ready to authorize the change order to continue the work.

Approximately with this change order, when would the completion date be?

I want to say October 30th was the deadline, but that might be off by a few days.

Any further council questions?

Seeing none, clerk, please call the roll. Council Member Kacena? Yes. Council Member Sonnart? Yes.

Mayor Naxstedt? Yes. Council Member Daniel? Yes. Council Member Grimme?

Yes. Vice Mayor Askin? Yes. Council Member Petty? Yes.

Student Representative Bowling? Yes. You have 7 yes votes. Ordinance 3545-2026 is enacted. Thank you.

Next we have item E3, Resolution 2026-61, authorizing purchase of 2 police interceptors using city fleet Replacement Fund and the State of Alaska Equipment Fleet Contract brought to us by Administration. Pleasure of Council. Vice Mayor Askam. I move we adopt Resolution 2026-61 and request unanimous consent.

I'll second. Is there anyone from the general public that would like to speak to Resolution 2026-61?

Seeing no one, I'll bring it back to Council. Council discussion. Manager Eubank, did you have anything more on this for us? Yeah, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just, just, I, I just want to point out, so annually the city adopts its fleet replacement plan as part of that budget process.

These two police cruisers were scheduled for replacement in that plan. The plan estimated replacement costs for these totals $120,812 for the 12 units. As council can see here, this, this replacement is going to be about $152,000, so a little over $30,000 difference between what was projected and what actually is. I did have this conversation with the finance director today. After review, they are confident that the plan does have the capacity to sustain these two purchases, but would like to caution that, you know, that plan is reviewed annually and it may require, you know, increased contributions in future years as a result of these escalating prices for vehicles.

So, um, and I'm happy to try to answer any other questions. Any questions on the police cruisers? Councilmember Daniel. Thank you, Mr. Next. I had a quick question for Police Chief.

And maybe City Manager Eubank, um, are we doing the upfitting ourselves? Would we have to get that sent off somewhere? City Manager Eubank. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Mayor, Councilmember Daniel. Our city shop currently is doing the, the upfitting.

Um, it's something I think we, we have in the past. My experience here at the city, we've traditionally done the upfitting ourselves. We did for a short period of time source that out. I think, um, I know our city shop prefers to do it internally. It makes repair, future repairs, much simpler for them because they know where everything is since they're the ones that install it.

It is something they work in in their schedule. I do think potentially it does take a little bit more time sometimes than if we did it through Alaska Safety or one of the other vendors in the state that does this type of work. But we currently are doing it in-house, and I'm comfortable with them continuing to do that as long as they have the capacity.

Thank you for that, and I, I appreciate that we can do that work in-house, and, uh, I think it's another value add for our citizens. Thank you. Any further discussion? Council Member Petty. Thank you, Mayor Nextad.

Um, City Manager, uh, After this replacement, um, when is the estimated time of the next replacement of vehicles? And I know that we had previously been utilizing— um, we were thinking to use, um, trucks in our replacement. Is that the case for these replacements so that those trucks, after their, um, designated time for the force, could be utilized in other places in our community? You know, not in our community, but in the city's fleet. When is the estimated time that we'd need other replacements?

Is that known? City Manager, you think? Yeah, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Council Member Petty, I don't remember specifically for these two units. You are correct, we do have a blend of our scheduled replacements.

Some of the vehicles the police are using are pickup trucks. Those stay with the department a shorter period of time. I believe 7 to 8 years is what's projected, and then they rotate to another department like Parks and Rec where they get significantly less use, mileage put on them. So they last— our typical replacement is around the 15-year mark. I, I'm not sure exactly what our replacement is on these specific vehicles because these are going to remain at the police department department for the duration of their existence.

So they'll be there 100% of the time. They average, I'm thinking, around 18,000 to 20,000 miles a year on a police cruiser. So really, mileage is what racks up and, and determines the life of these vehicles, uh, in comparison to those pickup trucks where we leave them there for 7 to 8 years and then rotate them to a department that puts far less miles on them. So these are Um, just the, the Ford, um, they're not pickup trucks. These are just, um, the cruisers, and, uh, we'll stay at the police department the entire time.

Finance Director, do you know the life expectancy of these cruisers? I believe we have these for 15 years, but, um, the one of the other things is that we look at, um, like these would be used like the, the temporary officers that we have during the summer. So sometimes they're you know, kind of cycled out, but they're not used as much later in their life.

And a follow-up with these replacements, what percentage of our replacement fund will be remaining? Is that known?

Uh, Mr. Mayor, thank you, Mr. Mayor, Council Member Petty, I don't know that number off the top of my head. But perhaps I can get the finance director to send you that after reviewing the budget. Thank you.

Councilmember Groomey.

I want to point out 3 things, um, City Manager, that you have mentioned just in the last couple minutes we've been talking about this, um, that I think are important to highlight in regard to, um, city— our city's fiscal responsibility. The first is that we have and utilize a vehicle replacement fund. So we're planning for a rainy day, like a Christmas layaway fund almost, if you will, that we are— you are using existing staff that we already have and are paying for to outfit police vehicles instead of outsourcing. So we do pay for staff. We are not paying actual funds out if we were outsourcing it.

And then thirdly, we— you continue to look for ways to recycle these vehicles in every possible way that you can after their use for active police work isn't suitable. We're shifting them to TEOs. We're shifting them to Public Works. We're looking for ways to continue to use these things. 15 Years for a public service vehicle?

I mean, yeah, I think— I mean, there's a lot of people that don't drive their own vehicle for 15 years, and they average a lot fewer miles than police cars do. So I just wanted to take a second to highlight those 3 things that you mentioned in our conversation here that, um, are indicative of our city's continued fiscal responsibility.

Any further discussion?

Seeing none, unanimous consent was requested. Is there any objection? Seeing none, Resolution 2026-61 is adopted. That brings us to item E4, Resolution Number 2026-62, authorizing a contract award for SCADA design and installation services, brought to us by Administration. Pleasure of Council, Vice Mayor Askin.

I move we adopt Resolution 2026-62 and request unanimous consent. I'll second. Is there anybody from the public that would like to speak to Resolution 2026-62?

Seeing no one, bring it back to council. Council discussion? City Manager Eubank.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of council. Um, so Resolution 2026-62, uh, will award, uh, SCADA design installation Services. SCADA stands for Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition System. Thank you, Google.

I want to point out to council, this is pretty— this is a non-traditional, I think, resolution for us in the sense that the actual award we're asking you to approve tonight is only $20,000. The typical minimum threshold for council is $35,000. Um, the reason this one is being presented to you in this way is I think we're using a, a bit of a non-traditional procurement methodology for this, in that, um, the, uh, request for proposals that went out asked for, um, proposers to propose on working with the city to evaluate our current system and propose a plan for upgrade. Um, that's all that's being awarded here tonight. We do expect beyond that, once they have— and we have approved the plan for upgrade and negotiated a price for that work— to have that back before council by change order, which will absolutely push this over the $35,000 limit.

So I wanted council to be aware The project itself, we haven't been able to, you know, internally get our arms wrapped around. We do need assistance with that. So this is a little different model than we typically use for our procurement. And I just wanted you to be aware, like I said, of how— why we're doing it this way and why you're seeing a resolution for only $20,000. Subsequent change orders, like, will be for several hundred thousand dollars.

And will, uh, show up on the PO list for consideration. Um, but I wanted to give you that heads up tonight before you, um, move for approval of this.

Councilmember Gremmie, can you in one or two sentences, uh, explain what the project is? I mean, the, the resolution and the memo say, um, the system, the project, the system. So I think it would be helpful if we had just a Cliff Notes version understanding of what the system and the project are. City Manager Eubank. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Mayor, Council Member Girmay.

This is where our Public Works Director is going to shine. Thank you. So essentially, this is kind of the brains behind our water system. The SCADA system basically helps run the water plant as far as, you know, seeing demand on the water system, knowing to turn the pumps up higher to meet that demand. It helps do our treatment and filtration system over there.

It programs when we're switching over to pumps at the reservoir, when we're open and closing, so when we're filling and draining the reservoir at the airport, all those kind of things that go on with the water system itself. In addition to that, it is also— helps capture a lot of data about the system so that we can see all these pressure drops in the system and all these things that are being captured instantaneously. We can see trending over the year for how how much gallons we're using a day, year, all those types of things. It's also an alarm system so that when we see, you know, like a pressure drop in the system, whoever is on call is getting that notification from this system so that we're being notified. We can see power outages, you know, if the generator fired up, all those types of things.

We can see those remotely on computers or phones to be able to capture all that. So it's a lot of the brains behind the entire system. And this would just be for the water system that we're working on this now with potential to roll this out. We have existing systems for wastewater and the lift stations, but we want to start at the water and redo the system and then kind of branch into redoing the other systems as well. Thank you.

That was very helpful. Thank you.

Any further discussion? Councilmember Daniel. Thank you, Mayor Nexted. Two things. One, where are we at now?

Like, what is our system like now, I guess? And what are we trying to accomplish is upgrades, modernization, cybersecurity, which I hope is a huge part of this because SCADA and PLCs are not very secure in nature. So I'm just curious where we're at now, where we're trying to go with this, and then I'll ask my next question after that. Mr. Frye. Thank you.

So a lot of it is modernization and cybersecurity. We do have a lot of existing PLCs throughout our system. A lot of the system at the water plant right now is 10 to 15 years old. A lot of stuff, SCADA components start aging out around 10 years. Components that tie in over at the public safety building and the water reservoir are older than that.

The main issue we have is that a lot of it has been added on and added on over the years, so we don't have a lot of great combined information of the entire system just because it's been scabbed together. So a lot of times when we have people come to work on something, it's, you know, "Well, I can fix this but I can't fix this." And it's— it just creates problems trying to— so the goal is to redo the entire system so we're kind of starting fresh with something that any consultant can come in and work on for us and see all the we have all the history and knowledge of how it was programmed and how it's all set up and where everything is going so that it can be operated better in the future, if that makes sense. We are anticipating a new software program, most likely, than the one we're currently using. Okay, thank you. That makes a lot of sense, and I really appreciate that approach.

And the second part to this is, um, this is just the award for the— basically the consultation and the design and the help to figure out what we need. Are we—. After we go through this process, is it going to be the same company that will do the actual project, the bigger piece of it as well?

Yeah, that's the, the goal of the project and the way that we're doing this. We, we felt that we would have spent a lot of money trying to have a consultant design a SCADA system for us, and a lot of times you're going to get a company like this that's involved in doing that design Once we have them involved in the design aspect of it, it essentially eliminates them from bidding on the construction of the project because they would have an unfair bidding advantage doing the design for it. Um, so we're essentially looking at this as more of a design-build project, as you will, that we're getting a design and construction consultant on board with one project. Um, and we do have a consultant that's been working with us on our water and sewer projects that we plan on involving as far as reviewing the construction costs and plans to make sure that construction costs are going to be reasonable compared to what they're seeing on other similar projects.

Good questions. Any further questions? Unanimous consent was requested. Are there any objections? Seeing none, Resolution 2026-62 is adopted.

That brings us down to— we have no unfinished business. Um, we have a discussion item of Council Member Gremmie, um, regarding, uh, council, uh, employee review, um, consultant. Council Member Gremmie, we discussed this, um in the budget planning stage, and it was ultimately included in our budget. Um, and I'm bringing it up now because evaluation time is in the spring, and as winter hasn't even really started, I know it's hard for us to imagine the spring already, but I think it's going to sneak up on us quicker than we're ready for. And, um, and this is a good time, I think, to get this ball rolling.

The—. As I've heard from my fellow council members, because this was my first year going through the evaluation process of the 3 employees supervised by the council, the process has improved in recent years. But I would argue that The process remains cumbersome, unstructured, difficult to navigate at times, and in my opinion, difficult to defend.

Having a consultant review our process and give us recommendations on what we're doing right, what we could consider doing differently, I think is going to be better for us in our ability to supervise these 3 employees, and it's going to be better for the 3 employees that are supervised by council to, to continue to meet expectations of council and, and do their jobs well. Um, having this evaluated, this process evaluated by a contractor, was suggested at the recommendation of our HR director, Mrs. Randall. Um, and the I spoke with all 3 employees previously that are impacted by this, and they were in agreement, um, with going down this road to seek some suggestions or evaluation of what we could consider doing differently, um, moving forward in this evaluation process. So I think for all of those reasons, we need to push— get this ball rolling and have our pro— start the process of having our evaluation process evaluated by an outside consultant, as we budgeted for, uh, and for this budget cycle.

Any further discussion? Councilmember Daniel. Thank you, Mayor Naxted. A couple things. First of all, I, I agree we should definitely take a look and see how we can improve this process, and have another outside entity would be nice.

Do we, do we have— and this might be for Ms. Randall— do we have timelines? Do we have a contractor already lined out? We need to find somebody still? I guess maybe where we're at. Ms. Randall.

Thank you. Um, I have spoke with a consultant to get a— um, when I got the quote, um, she didn't give me the exact timeline, but she did kind of give me a list of how she would go about the evaluation. If you want to know just real quickly, I printed it out. It's, um, she'll review the existing tools, she'll interview the council members as well as those being evaluated on the effectiveness of the tool, the current process to determine what's working, what could be working better. She's going to update the tool and process to incorporate identified changes including best practices, um, and review that with the decision makers.

And then finalize the tool and the process. So I think it would be a big assistance to the council to work with a consultant. Thank you. And a follow-up for you: do you feel this would be a sufficient— this is sufficient, or do we need to go deeper, or is it too early to tell what this particular process— I don't know, it's kind of a loaded question, sorry. Thank you.

I think that it's kind of early to tell. I think that it's what you ask of the consultant is kind of what result you'll get.

Being able to give your input will help to develop the tool.

Thank you.

I forgot to mention too, I think that's part of what I would ask us to determine today is how we want to proceed, whether that would be with a small committee or, you know, what we want to do moving forward with this.

I'll just start by saying I think I really appreciate the efforts that have been made by the council, prior councils, and especially Stephanie, her work on this process. But I agree that This is a really good opportunity to make that better. If you have that chance, why wouldn't you? I would advocate for getting feedback from all stakeholders, city council members, and the 3 employees and HR. And yeah, I think for efficiency, maybe a small committee would be best.

And as the other person who brought this up, I would be happy to be on it, so. Very good. Back in the budget cycle, I concurred that any processes we have can be improved and this could be one of them and that I'd hope that Council, a committee would take the bull by the horns and flesh a lot of this out as we move forward and be here today basically with some ideas and Well, we're here today, and, and, uh, so perhaps the first step to do is to decide who's going to be on the committee. It sounds like Council Member Gremmie would be. Yes, and absolutely.

And, uh, and Zavala. And do we have— do we have a third for the committee? Council Member Petty? Uh, no, I won't be on the committee because you put your light on that kind of commission. Well, I, I I had my light on some time ago with a question for our HR director.

Sorry, I missed it a long time ago.

Duly noted. Ma'am, how was this consultant chosen, and what is their field of expertise, and what do they bring to the table?

Uh, thank you, um, Council Member Petty. Uh, she was recommended to me. Um, she's a consultant with Workplace Solutions Alaska. Her experience is, um, with all things HR, and, um, she's been doing this for a while. I, I, um, she was referred to me.

So, and, and where does she, uh, come from? I mean, where does she live? Is this in Fairbanks, Alaska, um, California? I, I do not know her location, her current location.

Uh, could you provide that for us moving forward? I certainly could. Yes. Thank you. City Manager Eubank, to kind of follow up, it was a question I wanted you to answer anyway, was, uh regarding the procurement of, of an individual or a company, um, with such a small amount, what our city procurement requirements are.

And, uh, and, uh, is that a— is that a council consideration?

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, I believe the thresholds here, um, as far as what is in code, just allow us to select the vendor. I, I think our internal policy requires to get 3 quotes. I believe I gave Ms. Randall, Ms. Cosgrove, Ms. Cosgrove, right? Is that his name?

I believe she used to be the HR Director for the State of Alaska. So she has not only a lot of HR experience, but a lot of public sector HR experience as well.

I met Ms. Cosgrove in Sitka at a conference and heard her credentials, spoke with her briefly about the project that had come up during the budget process, and then put her in touch with Ms. Randall. So that's what I can tell you about Ms. Cosgrove as well. I graciously appreciate that added information so that we can move forward and make, uh, informed decisions. Thank you.

Council Member Petty, does that pretty well answer your question that you had? Thank you, Mayor. It did. Okay, I appreciate it. Sure.

Vice Mayor Askin was next. Um, I'd like to serve on the, on the subcommittee if that's okay. Okay, well, that would make 3 of you. Thank you. I just wanted to say I did a quick Google search of Workplace Solutions.

Mila Cosgrove is located in Juneau.

Okay, any further discussion? No direction, just so that the committee here, perhaps you could keep us updated on your progress and when you think that we might need to have an executive session or whatever is appropriate.

Thank you. Quick question for the clerk, if you just provide us guidance on how we should and could meet without breaking any rules. Actually, there's only 3 of you, so if you need the conference room, just give me a call and we'll make sure it's booked out for you. Library conference room is available too.

Council Member Gremmie, um, I just wanted to say I will follow up with Mrs. Randall and figure out what the next steps are on that end, and then I will make sure to keep the subcommittee apprised, and then we will absolutely report back to the council, you know, as often as we have something worthwhile to report. Thank you. Thank you for your consideration in this and getting this moving. I appreciate both of you volunteering to assist with this. Yeah, and I think it's probably best, you know, once you guys do come up with— if you have some comments or you want something to be fed back, that it be fed to the clerk's office, if that's okay, Kelly.

That way, you know, it's filtered. We will have lots of questions for you, Madam Clerk. Okay, okay, very good. So now, no further discussion on that, we'll move on. We have a discussion item, scheduling a Board of Adjustment hearing, brought to us by the clerk.

Open discussion. It's brought by the clerk, but I think we're probably looking to our city manager here for— Madam Clerk, maybe you're the one that would have kind of an idea when we would— I don't know how voluminous the paperwork is and what kind of time we need. And I mean, there's an end date, but go ahead. Thank you. So the appeal— so this time restriction on this, our code requires that when we receive an appeal that the council or the Board of Adjustment has to have the hearing within 45 days.

Under special circumstances, they can take it out to 60 days. This appeal came in too late to make this packet, so the information was in the, um, laydown tonight. The 45-day date is Sunday, October 25th. Code allows us to go to the following business day, so Monday, October 26th is the 45-day period. Generally, in the past, council has scheduled these on the same day as a council meeting, early in the day.

That does not have to always be the case. In that time period, Wednesday, October 7th and Wednesday, October 21st are council meeting days. The 60-day date, if there's extending circumstances, is November 9th. I would like to let you know that there is a council meeting on Wednesday, November 4th. However, during that period is elections.

And October 19th is a recognized city holiday. October 20th through November 3rd is absentee voting outside of these chambers, which has not prevented us from having a Board of Adjustment hearing in here during absentee voting. We just close the doors. However, November 3rd is Election Day, and November 5th, 6th, and possibly the 9th, these chambers will be used for canvassing the election. For sure on the 5th and 6th.

If there is a large number of ballots to be canvassed, we will be continuing on the 9th in here. Madam Clerk, when would the soonest time that we could have that? So we know when the end is, how about the soonest? And maybe because of the noticing requirements, we have to mail notices 15 days prior. Trust me, they're ready to go if you guys choose to, um, send those as soon as possible.

The soonest date would be Monday, October 5th. With us mailing the notices out this Friday.

7Th works for me, before the meeting.

On the 7th?

How early would that need to be? The hearings generally go 2 to 3 hours. There's opening statements by the staff, then there is a staff report. We have public testimony testimony that's open for 5 minutes to speaker, then the appellant gets 30 minutes to present their case, the appellee gets 30 minutes for theirs, and then they get 15 minutes for rebuttal each, and then 5 minutes. So they generally can be up to 4 hours, but I've seen most resolve within about 3.

I'm gonna— yeah, I'm gonna be that guy. That's a lot to do on the same day that we have a council meeting. Um, is it— I mean, is it possible to look for a different day after— I mean, after the 5th? Or, um, I know you rattled a lot of dates where there's a lot of things going on, and I'm sorry I didn't keep track of them all, but it just would have to be after the 5th and before the 26th is what I understood you to say. So I mean, that if we wanted to stick to a Wednesday, that would leave the 14th.

We don't have to do it on a Wednesday. We could do it first thing in the morning, you know, for that matter, during the day too, or at noon, or on a weekend. Yeah, I don't like any of those ideas. That's the thing, is we could, you know, and it would be, it would be nice to be able to do it while staff is here and not have them come in at special times.

That's—. Yeah, I mean, if we picked another afternoon or whatever, I don't know, about the 6th, that's Tuesday, it's the day before, and that works for the clerk. I will be traveling and I will not be here. I would be available on the 19th and after.

I have a 3 PM on the 6th, but I can move it if I need to.

Say again? I'm good either day. Okay, okay, you're good either day.

I'm not sure we're going to be able to—.

Microphone. Your microphone. Oh, sorry, I think I had it going on and off. So thank you. So, uh, uh, how about this, the 6th?

And, uh, um, we could do it at about 3 o'clock or 2 o'clock. Do you think it's going to be a 3-hour—.

You know, I mean, that's a decision of the council. Well, I guess I would— I mean, I think you're getting ready to ask the same thing of Madam Clerk that I was. What, what is going to also work with city staff so that, I mean, you guys aren't unduly interrupted either?

Either can work, so 2 or 3 will be fine. How about we make it 2 o'clock? That way we've got, got the time and then we're not going to be going over late.

Mr. Daniel? Oh, I'm good. 2 O'clock is perfect. Okay. Councilmember Sonnott, I see you got your hand up.

Thank you, Mayor Nexted. So my question is to Madam Clerk. Um, if I am not back by then, will I be able to zoom in on the BOA? Thank you for the question. Because the matter is a quasi-judicial matter, Participation through Zoom is not permitted because you're not receiving and hearing the evidence in the same manner as the rest of the board.

Thank you.

Good question. I forgot about that.

Do we want to push it back then, or do we want to leave it at that date?

Well, if we move it back, it starts interfering with the other things. It sounds like Council Member Petty is going to be gone, and I'm not sure— I don't want to speak for Council Member Sohnert. I think her return is still— maybe I missed that. Mary Nax said I— if pushing it out closer to the meeting on the 21st would, would not affect us if when absentee voting is going on, we just close the door, the, the election at that point will be in, in go mode. Ballots will be done, voting will be started, and in the weeks before that we are in a big push getting ballots done and everything prepared.

Very well. So we're going to take it out toward the 21st. 21St is a meeting night. Yeah, it's a lot, but, uh, um, it's the 19th or the 20th then, or is that what you're thinking? Are you wanting to do it ahead of the meeting?

I'd do it ahead of the meeting personally, but, uh, it kind of depends on council. I'm fine with either afternoon of the 20th or afternoon of the 21st.

Councilmember Petty, would you be back by that time? Yes, sir. Okay, that's a plus. Available. Thank you.

I'm good with doing the whole— the night of the meeting. My preference would be the 22nd if the other days don't work, but we can make it happen. So I'm with you. You prefer to do it on the 21st? Yes, just do it.

I know it's a long day, but then it's all done. So could we have the meeting begin at 1:00 so if it— so that we give everyone plenty of time so it's all taken care of if we do it on the meeting night? Well, sounds like 3 hours is adequate time typically, so that would take us up to 5 o'clock. That would give us an hour at the end for over— and by the way, if we had to stop for a meeting, we're going to stop for the meeting and then we would resume afterwards.

So, you know, 2 o'clock on the 21st?

My preference would remain doing it on different day, but if the majority would rather do it on the 21st, that, that's fine.

Okay, hands on the 21st.

Okay, how about the 20th? Okay, looks like it's the 21st. And by the way, both work for me too, so that kind of knocks everything out in one night, so It's the 21st at 2 o'clock.

And Madam Clerk, when can we expect to get the materials? So with this, the notices will go out, the packet, the evidence materials will be due from the appellant and the appellee 10 days prior to the hearing, and we will get that out to you at least 7 days before the hearing, depending on the volume and the assembly required. Thank you. For those that haven't done that, that's a bunch of homework to do before the meeting.

Thank you very much.

So that brings us to an action approval item 8, scheduling a special meeting of the city council, brought to us by administration.

Um, City Manager Eubank, this one is you.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of council. Um, as council is aware, we had, uh, significant erosion event in Old Town this year at the top of the bluff near Mission Avenue, or what was Mission Avenue, I guess, at this point.

The city engaged an engineer to give us a proposed design to provide us some, some fix over there. We just received that design. Part of this project includes relocation of an existing water Maine, uh, that's in that area. Um, Public Works approached me as soon as they got the design, requesting, um, or wanting to know how we could proceed. Um, and, uh, initial request was to do a laydown resolution at tonight's meeting, and informed him that those are not possible.

The next, uh, most probable is a special meeting request. So, uh, the Public Works issued a bid today for the work. It will be advertised for 2 weeks, the minimum required in code. We will provide— if the, if the special meeting is approved, we will provide the city clerk with a resolution and memo with blanks indicating who the contractor is that will be filled in by substitute at the meeting. This—.

The expedition of this is going to allow us, hopefully gain us a week to 10 days to try to get this work done before we could experience any freezing conditions that really could make the replacement of that or relocation of that water main problematic. The other parts of this job are going to try to redirect stormwater in that area away from this section where it's spilled over and caused a significant erosion. And Mr. Fry, do you want to add anything that I missed in that? So, uh, we are asking, like I said, for a special meeting on the 30th. Uh, it's being advertised now.

Bids are due on the 29th. Uh, that's again our 2-week minimum in code. Um, we'd have a meeting the next day to do the award. Senior Manager Eubank, uh, my sense of this would It would take less than 30 minutes, maybe closer to 15.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of council. I think if the administration does its job, it should go relatively quickly if we have the information there for you to make a decision. The reason for the question was, is if there's a block of time and it's going to take, let's say, 30 minutes, it doesn't have to happen at night, doesn't have to happen at lunch. It could be, or it could be first thing in the morning. So kind of working around everybody's schedule.

I can make it work whenever, but I prefer to do something like this either at the very beginning of the day or toward the end. I would like to request that we do it at the very beginning of the day because of scheduling conflicts on my part. What is the beginning of the day for you? 7:30. I'm sure 9 would be more appropriate.

It's a lot earlier for me, but I like 7:30 and most people don't.

So, um, Councilmember Gremio, I know you're looking at your schedule there because Wednesday the 30th, uh, I have a 9 and a 1. I can try and move the 9.

Yeah, I mean, I can try and move the 9. If we had the meeting at 7:30 or 8? No, first thing's difficult because I have beginning of morning— I have beginning of day stuff I have to get out. So first thing in the morning wouldn't work for me. How would a, like, a 4:30 in the afternoon?

Yeah, 4:30 would work great for me.

I will not be available.

Okay, noon, that work for everybody?

I mean, maybe we need to see what— I mean, if what works better for the majority and go that route. Miss Petty, do you need any time after? Would 9 o'clock work? For everyone, if I'm available. Thank you.

Okay, last suggestion I heard was 4:30 on the 30th, Wednesday the 30th.

Council Member Sonnart, is that going to work for you?

Yes, I can make either work.

Okay, okay, it is, uh, 4:30 on the 30th, and Madam Clerk, you'll send us out a reminder. Um, I move that we schedule a special meeting of the City Council on September 30th at 4:30 PM. BIA. Request unanimous consent.

Second. Unanimous consent was requested. Are there any objections? Seeing none, so moved. So that brings us down to commission reports.

We have Council on Aging. Council Member Askin. Thank you, Mayor Nexted. The council met on the 10th of September at 3 o'clock. Their chair, Ms. Craig, had resigned.

Patty Segura has been selected, was elected the new chair. They reviewed the repair required on the canopy that we addressed this evening, and they followed a work session with the plan for the rest of the year. The next meeting for Council on Aging is October 8th. Airport Commission, Council Member Sonnart.

Vice Mayor Askin attended that meeting for me, so I'm going to defer to her.

Thank you. Um, the Airport Commission met on the evening of, of September 10th, and, uh, they received an update from the contractor and the engineer that the— it's possible that the runway will be back in service by September 21. They had currently— they had before expected that wouldn't be available until October, and there was short discussion.

Thank you. Parks and Rec, Councilmember Gremme. Parks and Rec met on September 3rd, um, and we were visited by two members of the Kenai Peninsula Pickleball Club who shared with us that they, they are a large group and growing quickly. They have some grant money and have been looking for opportunities to build and build up pickleball courts around the peninsula. They've been scouting out places, and Kenai is where they would like to do this mostly.

They're centrally located, and they— we have the space and the opportunities that they're looking for. They are also working to apply for additional grants, but Using part of the money that they have, they worked with Kenai Middle School and their, uh, Mr. Dosko there, the PE teacher, and the leadership students and put together a couple of pickleball courts that the pickleball club is utilizing now, and Kenai Middle School students are using it through their PE classes. They're looking for additional opportunities in the future to work with the city and the school district in, in utilizing spaces for for, for pickleball. Um, and, um, Director Best pointed out that in the master plan, the one deficiency noted for our city in regards to our parks is, was that we didn't have any outdoor pickleball courts. Um, so he's looking for ways to, um, work with this group and the school district, um, to create more pickleball opportunities within our community.

And just increase the overall compliance, I guess, essentially, with the master plan that was developed, because we already have great programs in place. That was our one negative. So, um, he— we also talked about the Alaska Kite Association created a new chapter in Kenai because it has become so popular in Kenai due, um, in part to our Kite Fest that happens on an annual basis, um, and the Pumpkin Pumpkin Fest is on October 10th. Um, they had 1,000 pumpkins last year and will probably do that many or more again this year. There will be opportunities for people to volunteer, and our next meeting is on 10/1.

Thank you for the report. Planning and Zoning. That's from Daniel. Thank you, Mr. Naxted. There was no meeting last week, but there'll be one this coming Wednesday.

Very good. Beautification Committee— Commission. Council Member Petty. Thank you, Mayor Nexted. Yes, we met on, uh, September the 8th, and the discussion was around, um, new banners for the light poles.

And also they discussed the opportunities for the flowers for the upcoming year of 2027 and, uh, spoke about the Christmas lighting, uh, opportunities that we have. Our next meeting will be on October 13th. Regrettably, I'm going to need someone to cover for me. If anyone is available, I would appreciate it. Thank you.

What day was that? Um, Tuesday, October 13th. Okay, I'll check and let you know. Okay, thank you. Thank you for that.

All right, that brings us to report of the mayor. I have a few items. On Friday, I attended an impromptu sort of retirement goodbye for Mary Bondurant. I don't think I went to all of them, but that was probably the last one. But anyway, a number of city employees showed up and some throughout the day and, uh, and said goodbye.

And I heard Councilmember Daniel had been there too, so that was good because I came a little bit later. So it was nice to see her off, and, and she was excited, and And we do have our new airport manager here. And so welcome. And I'll be looking forward to meeting you more thoroughly there. And today I attended Alaska Recreation and Parks Association meeting, at least the very beginning of it.

It was held and hosted— it was held at the Kenai Visitor Center and hosted by our parks Recreation by Mr. Best down there. And I did some opening statements. And there were about 45 to 50 attendees there from all over the state and a number of vendors, another 10 or 15 folks. So the room was pretty well full. And they are meeting today.

They met today and they'll be meeting tomorrow as well. And there was a kind of a pre-meeting 2 days ago too. I wanted to thank the fire station for placing all the flags out on the lawn that they do every year for the 9/11. They call it the, the field of flags, and much appreciated. I like seeing that.

It's a, it's a very visual testament. And lastly, I want to congratulate, uh, Rep. Bowling for— Student Rep. Bowling for coming back for, for us for a whole nother year. We'll take you all the way up to graduation, I think.

Welcome. So that brings us down to administrative reports. City Manager Eubank.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of council. Um, I'll start this evening, uh, with staffing and recruitment. Um, I too want to recognize and thank Miss Bondurant for her, uh, I'm thinking it's almost 10 months of service as our interim director, um, while we filled that position. Um, it, it just really truly is a testament to, of Mary's, you know, commin— continued commitment to Kenai Airport. She worked there for over 20 years, um, and led that department and just sincerely, I sincerely appreciate her coming back and, and assisting and keeping that operation not only going but, but moving forward during that 10 months.

So thank you, Mary. We have some other new employees I'd like to welcome. Kristen Bonner as a police dispatcher, Melissa Earle as a part-time police administrative assistant, Jay Phillips as the IT system administrator, John Hammond as a part-time Parks and Recreation attendant, and again, Mr. Rick Johnson, who is here this evening with us, he is our new airport manager. We are currently recruiting for a police officer and a utility operator. Give council an update on Wildwood Drive.

The state has issued a change order with QAP, uh, they're the contractor who's actually doing our runway. They're actually also doing the spur highway job. QAAP will be repaving Wildwood Drive for the city.

The contractor has requested a detour permit from September 24th through the 28th to accommodate that work, so it looks like it'll be getting done this month. Looking forward to the improvement of what is, is the city's worst road. And I definitely want to thank the Alaska DOT for their work and assistance in completing this project. And on the runway project, Councilmember Askin, I do have— or Vice Mayor Askin, I do have a little bit more of an update. The update I have is they're looking at the week of September 28th for potential reopening of the runway.

Um, after the 30-day cure period of the asphalt on the new runway, they're in the process of completing the grooving, which is a significant amount of grinding. Last I knew, I think Public Works Director told me they were doing about 300 feet a day, full width. Um, we have 7,850 feet or so approximately, so there's a lot of grinding to take place. After the grinding, they still have to provide the, the painting and the markings for that runway. They're touching up on the remainder of the lights and things like that.

So the last estimate I had was the week of September 28th, it's likely for reopening, which is, is right on or even ahead of schedule. So I think it's been a great project. If we can just get some weather here at the end to cooperate, I think they'll knock that thing out of the park.

Again, we heard tonight about the proposed data center. Um, I just, uh, I'll reiterate again that I am, uh, working with the city attorney and looking at the city's options. Um, you know, at a minimum of providing comment, but potentially, um, filing a motion to intervene on the city's behalf as well. Um, I will stress, you know, a motion to intervene at this point, um, really is not— does not necessarily have to indicate opposition or support for the project. It can simply be just to preserve the city's standing in the process and assure we have a voice later on in the process.

So we will be discussing that and likely have something before you for the October 7th meeting. That is, um, well in advance of the November 2nd deadline, um, that is for those comments or interventions. Uh, regarding housing trends, the September issue of the Alaska Economic Trends—. This is a document I believe it's published by the Department of Labor—. Came out this week.

I think there's some really interesting information in there. The median monthly cost of a 2-bedroom rental increased 11.1% to $1,336. Um, this last year, it's the second highest increase among surveyed areas. That was for the Kenai Peninsula, not City of Kenai, but the Kenai Peninsula as a whole. Um, the borough added 215 housing units in 2025, including 24 new multifamily units.

Um, however, the estimated, uh, principal and interest payment of a median-valued home was $1,896. Um, that's an—. For me, this is an astounding number, which is a 98% increase, um, since 2019. So in the last 7 years, you've seen a 98% increase in the monthly premium and interest payment to own a home here locally. Um, uh, I will say that, that, that complete issue, I, I really would encourage council, if you have time, to go out and read it.

It is on the Department of Labor Workforce Development's website, and I'll ask Christine to send a link out to council, uh, to that document. I think it's definitely worth a read, um, and I think it also really does support all the work we've been doing trying to, um, you know, uh, get more development, more housing development here in Kenai. Um, seasonal hours, um, began at the Kenai Community Library and the Kenai Recreation Center. My note says here their winter schedules. I'm going to stick with seasonal because I'm not really ready to commit to winter yet.

Recreation Center is now open on Sundays from 11 to 5, and the library is open on Sundays from 1 to 4 through next Memorial Day. Some events Happening here, Kenai Center Senior Center is going to host a Waffle Friday on September 25th, 8 AM to 10 AM. The event's open to individuals age 60 and older, and the cost is $3. Uh, the Kenai River Marathon, hosted by the Kenai Chamber of Commerce in partnership with the city, will take place Sunday, September 27th, 9 AM to 4 PM. The race will begin and end at the Kenai Visitor and Cultural Center.

The Alaska State Fire Conference hosted by the Kenai Firefighters Association chapter takes place in Kenai on September 28th to October 2nd. You should expect to see additional activity at the regional fire training center and former Challenger Center. I would like to commend both Parks and Rec and our fire department personnel for taking on hosting both of these conferences. You know, they bring a lot of people. The fire conference in itself bringing over 200 participants plus vendors to the community for, for the extent of that conference.

And I really appreciate the hard work that goes into hosting those. And then, as Councilmember Grimmie already stated, on October 10th, the Pumpkin Festival will take place. I hope it's a great day for the community to come out and get ready for that part of the season. And with that, Mr. Mayor, I'm happy to answer any questions. Any questions for our city manager?

I guess I have one. It's a little early, but we haven't talked about the bluff for a long time. How's it holding up? And I think there's a final inspection period coming up, maybe it's next month.

Yep, it's scheduled for sometime in September. I can't remember the exact date off my top of my head, but the Corps of Engineers will be coming down down to do an inspection at some point. I plan on joining in on that walkthrough. So you're actually going to physically walk the entire length? That is, I believe, the plan for the Corps is to walk the entire length and make sure everything looks good for the 1-year warranty inspection for the contractor before the final sign-off.

Excellent. Thank you. If there's no further questions for the city manager, City Attorney Bloom, I see on Zoom. Thank you, Mayor Knoxstedt and members of council. I am—.

I don't have anything to report. I'm happy to answer any questions. Any questions of Mr. Bloom? Thank you for Zooming in. Thank you.

City Clerk Schaner. Thank you, Mayor Knoxstedt. Just remind everybody that October 4th is the last day to register to vote or update your voter registration. Registration to be eligible to vote in the November election. And we have worked with the fire department recently to update our mobile food vendor application process to include the fire inspection.

And that is when we send out our reminder notices of expirations of licenses, it will include the instructions on how to contact the fire marshal to get their, their letter also. And I'm available for questions. Any questions of the clerk? Seeing none, that brings us to item L, additional public comments. Are there any members from the public who would like to address the council at this time on any topic at all?

Anyone? Mr. Navarre.

Mayor Nexted, members of the council, Tim Navarre, 719 Sycamore and Kenai. Um, two things I wanted to— since comments were brought on the discussion for the council's employee evaluation, one thing I think you should look at and consider is AML and asking them. And then also in December there's the AML conference I think 9th through the 11th, that you can interact with other members of other bodies throughout the state and get a lot of good information. I can tell you from the past, you know, evaluating your employees is an individual kind of assessment, and no matter what questions you ask, it really comes down to your interaction over the year. And that's how you have to evaluate and defend it.

But I know that the director of AML knows, will be happy to, and maybe without spending money on a consultant and be able to actually get what other entities use. The other huge resource who I've used all the time I've ever been in public service is the Clerks Association. 'Cause they also have a tremendous amount of knowledge and information that can assist you in making a good decision and reevaluating maybe what you do or you don't do. Sometimes people might ask you how you do yours and whether it's a workable thing. That's how it gets better.

The last thing is on the housing issue, 100% Communities is hosting on November 9th from 10 to 2 a borough-wide conference on housing called Housing Gaps and Solutions. It's sponsored by the Kenai Peninsula Foundation and Bridges, just like that groups did the last 4 years with transportation, and that's been a huge success. And so I encourage council members and members of the administration to, to attend that. I don't think they've defined a location, but they finally did find a date with a facilitator that can— and so I think December 9th from 10 to 2, and I'm sure you'll get notice, but That's a timely subject, and I think you're going to see that yearly conference happen every year for the next 4 or 5 years, and I think you'll— it'll benefit everybody. So thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Navarre, for the information.

Are there any other members of the public that would like to address the council at this time? Seeing no one, that brings us to council comments. Student rep Bowling.

Good evening, Mayor Naxted, council members. I'd like to start by introducing myself for those of you who might not know me. My name is Joshua Bowling. This year I'm a senior at Kenai Central High School, and I look forward to continuing my work with the city. Now, a few important dates.

On Friday, September 18th, starting at 6 PM, Kenai Central High School will be hosting our annual homecoming parade. The parade will follow our traditional route, leaving AIH and traveling down Lawton Drive to the high school. After the conclusion of the parade at 7 PM, the Powderpuff football game will begin alongside the lighting of the homecoming bonfire. On Saturday, September 19th, the KCHS varsity homecoming game will take place against Houston at 2 PM. The junior varsity game will take place earlier in the day at 11 AM.

All the above events will be following our 2026 homecoming theme, which is Mamma Mia. Finally, I'd like to congratulate Student Representative Caroline Karpek for her appointment to the Council on Aging for a second term. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Gremme.

I hope that lots of community members will join us on Saturday at the homecoming game to cheer on our football team, but also the cheerleading team and the band students. The, the band really does a great job working working with CHEER to fire everybody up, and it's really great to sit in the stands. It's fun. And I wanted to say thank you again for the flags that were put on all the poles for Labor Day. I notice every time, it's one of my most favorite things about living in Kenai, but several residents mentioned it to me too over Labor Day weekend and just how proud it makes them to be residents of Kenai, where our flag was flying and celebrating and recognizing Labor Day for what it is.

So I appreciate the effort, the extra effort that city staff continue to go to to set Kenai apart. Thank you. Council Vice Mayor Askin. Thank you, Mayor Nixted. I too appreciated the flags and the field of flags on September 11th.

Welcome back, Mr. Bowling. It'll be a pleasure to work with you again. Welcome to Kenai, Mr. Johnson, and thank you to Mary Bondurant. And I think that's all I've got tonight.

Council Member Petty. Thank you, Mayor Nexted. I will concur with my council members for thank you for honoring our country by raising the flags and also commemorating the tragedy that happened on 9/11, 25 years ago. I graciously appreciate the fire department always honoring and remembering. Yes, my thanks goes out to Mary Bondurant for her continued dedication to our lovely city, and I wanted to welcome Mr. Johnson to the great city of Kenai.

A reminder for all, on this coming Saturday here at Millennium Square Alzheimer's will be the walk for Alzheimer's to raise money and funds. And anyway, I bid you all good night. Thank you, Council Member Kucena. Well, I guess I could just say ditto, but I'm, I'm not going to. I'm going to say congrats to Josh and Carolyn again.

Thank you both for taking time as students to participate in local government. I think that's It's a big deal. It's hard enough to get adults to do it. And so I think you are maybe the best model for both adults and our youth in our community to be involved. So I also wanted to recognize Director Best for his role as president of the Alaska Recreation and Parks Association and the conference that he's organized here, which you've already mentioned.

And so I'm thankful I get to go be a part of that tomorrow morning and hopefully, uh, get to congratulate Tyler and thank him for that in person. And then also, yeah, a big, uh, welcome to Rick Johnson, and, uh, thanks for taking a chance on us. I appreciate it.

Council Member Sonnart.

Thank you, Mayor Nexted. Just want to start with thanking Mary Bondurant for her above and beyond a service of duty to our city.

Um, and a thank you— well, and a welcome to our new airport director, Mr. Johnson. And a thank you to Vice Mayor Askin for filling in for me on the airport commission meeting. And good night to all.