Cordova: Harbor Commission Special Meeting of Tuesday, June 16, 2026, at 6 PM

Interpreted by the proposers as if they were a threat from the Audubon Society. Our comments were not a threat. They were public input, part of any public process. Organizations and private citizens make comments all the time on various proposals. Comments are in no way a legal threat, and I repeat, our comments were not a threat.

Last September at a Planning Commission meeting when the proposers were asking about a purchase of the Cheetah, I suggested that they might reconsider the dock at their Southville property. I am respectfully asking them again tonight to reconsider putting their dock by their Southville property and not by the entrance to the harbor. I am also respectfully asking the Harbor Commission tonight to discuss what they want the harbor area to look like in the future. Is the dock at the entrance the best location? Or would a Southville dock be a better location?

Please take that into consideration when you vote. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. Thank you. Anybody else?

Hey, it's Tyler Dillon, uh, 140 Prince William Marine Road. I would just like to also reiterate that she's one that said that if we weren't going to do it at the other— the off our lot, she suggested an alternative is what we're going after right now. So that's kind of funny that we're trying to get flip-flopped back and forth, back and forth. So I don't know, it's a little bit frustrating. I think that we're pretty far along in this process and we'll keep going with that.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Paul Swartzbart, and I'm here to speak to the acquisition of the harbor lot. I would like to see a little balance on our waterfront right now. What we have starting On the north, we have the Travelift, Northfill, Shoreside Petroleum, the Ferry Dock, Copper River Seafoods, Alaska Marine Lines, Coast Guard, Trident North, Ocean Beauty, North Harbor, Trident South, and the South Harbor. These are all industrial facilities.

I've, uh, when you travel around Alaska, Every other town, or from town, has some kind of park, some kind of facility where the citizens can enjoy seeing the boats coming and going. Now, currently, it looks to me like the city is laying out a little covered area on the end of the South Fill. At low tide, you're just staring at mud. Mm-hmm. It's really not a substitute for the jewel of a property that is being considered to be sold.

Once it's sold to the, to the processor, the city won't have any control over it. And really, there's no incentive for them to build a dock. I'm just going to— they could continue just to use the city dock and use, just use that for storage.

I've been a fisherman for 50 years here, and I'm all for the processors. I'm not against having the— giving the processors every break we possibly can. But we also have to have some balance in our town to be a healthy town. I've worked really hard at having our ski area, making our ski area a success over the years. And it's made a difference in a lot of kids' lives.

And I think that we should try to look for some balance here and find some alternatives for CAM 2's processing facility so it doesn't become an eyesore. Because although I'm not excited, too excited about turning Cordova into a tourist town, it's gonna become one to some extent. We can't stop it. It's a cherry ready to be plucked by the tourist industry. And where were these cruise ship people going to go?

Where were they going to do? Just walk down the middle of the street by AMC there? It's ridiculous. This would be— if we turn that into this area into a park, it would be a place where they could go. Watch the fleet come and go, and make Cordova a little less of an industrial waterfront.

It's just a small piece of property. I won't— so I don't want to go on and on, but that's all I have. And thank you for your hard work on the board here. I appreciate it. That's fine.

Thank you.

Thanks for being here tonight, guys. Um, I just want to appreciate that this is just a small piece of a larger plan here that's already been in works, that is already moving forward in process with full city council support. And so I watched your guys' last meeting. A lot of your questions were about where are the tenors going to type the stock, how's the stock going to be there used, and I hope that the illustrations here are helpful for that. And I just hope that the conversation just be about how we can move forward, but also sorry, a little bit behind.

So thank you guys. Thank you.

Anybody else?

Karen Swartzmark. I feel that this project is not the right place for CAM to this property. I'd like to see them revisit the South Harbor area. I feel that dock would interfere with the flow of the traffic in and out of the harbor. And also the navigational light that the Coast Guard has there.

I feel that this is a super, extremely valuable property, and to sell it for $350,000, I mean, you can— that's not a very nice house you can get in Port Orford for that price. I just feel like it's not— it's worth so much more than in the long, long view of the community and the tourists coming to town. And I just wondered if it— would you sell the property before they have all the permits for the dock, or do you wait for they get their permitting for that dock in the Corps of Engineers and then sell the property? How does that work? How does that process work?

'Cause if you sell the property and they don't get the approval with the Corps of Engineers, with the way the entrance of the harbor is just so close and congested there, I don't think they'll get their approval. And then what? Then it's just gonna be a fenced-off area with storage and just be blocked off to everybody. And I just want everybody to go down there and just look at that property and take in the 360-degree view. Mm-hmm.

Degree view that that property has to offer that the whole community could use. And I just hate to see it just locked up all winter and then, you know, used slightly in the summer and just locked up for the public all summer long. And so I think that's it. Thank you. Thank you.

Thanks, Karen. Anybody else?

Okay, um, and there's nobody else online besides Ryan. Eric, so, um, that drops us down to new business. So we have a letter of interest, and, um, we met last time on Fortune of ATS 2.0. I should speak in the mics just because people in the—. Yeah, yeah.

Um, so we have a, uh, letter of interest for a portion of ATS 220, and, um, I'll entertain a motion to discuss. I'll move to recommend City Council dispose of the posted portion of ATS 220, approximately 4,100 square feet in size, as outlined in Code, Municipal Code 7.40.060(b) 7.40.060(b) by 1, negotiate an agreement with the party who submitted a letter of interest to lease or purchase the property.

I'll second for discussion. Okay, so it's been moved and seconded. Um, I guess I have been looking at the provided materials. Last time we met, we had questions mainly regarding—. I'll just summarize them.

Is harbor— the access to the harbor and existing use of the City Dock are the two main questions we had. Anything that would impede safe navigation into the harbor and also the existing dock that the city owns there, the city dock. And anyways, I'll just— that's an introduction to that, and I'll let you guys speak to it if you have anything further to say.

Yeah, I think the illustrations do a good job of answering the question, at least for impeding the entrance to the harbor there. I don't, you know, Looks like it's not, it doesn't quite stick out past where the break, where that BTS, that track is there, land is. It doesn't stick out past the point as far as I can see.

Ryan here. Yeah, I, that was helpful. I wish that we would have had that last time, but I'm glad we have it now. I have other concerns as well. I appreciate information that Cantu submitted.

I understand they don't have tenders that are 30 feet wide. I think that if anything were to happen here in this sale, we should really consider a covenant or things to ensure that if it does go to private property, that we have things that are enforceable to ensure that we're not going to have, you know, 2 20-foot boats tied up outside each other and increasing the navigation through the harbor. I've also got concerns with lighting at night at Trident and at Oby— or Silver Bay there. It's difficult navigating at night with the dock lights coming off there. We use our sodiums a lot to counter that, and having it right at the harbor entrance becomes an issue.

The—. Everybody's aware of the Coast Guard lights, and that can be— that seems like it would be an easy fix. But I just have concerns on top of the city infrastructure that's still being used for that. I mean, it's 3/4 of a mile or so from, from that offload point to the processing facility. I think 3/4 of a mile, that's city roads that are being impacted for, especially if increasing production is part of the goal of this whole thing, that only puts more pressure on city infrastructure.

Thank you. We already, you know, I just, I have a number of concerns here. I don't think at this point all these drawings are there to satisfy me to be behind it. But that's what I've got so far.

Yeah, I also, Do a lot of towing vessel assist work coming into the harbor, and it's amazing looking at an overhead view how much— it looks like there's a lot of room there, but as you're moving through the tide, it's pretty tight. And coming in around that corner, and yes, we were We did talk about the possibility of a tender with like a ball picker outside or two tenders. So that's what we're coming up with that additional width. But, and it's— Yeah, it's close. I do agree with Ryan.

I wish there was something the city could do that we could do to encourage— obviously we don't have money to dredge a channel over there, but encourage that other side. I think it would relieve the problem much better for everyone involved. But yeah, anyways, I have to say that that triangle, though looking overhead, it looks like it comes straight off there. If you're coming around that corner, especially with a big old double, you know, big boat tied on the city dock, It really obstructs your view as you're approaching the harbor and obviously lots of tide run makes it really tricky. So trying to, I guess, keep our comments to that additional triangle and how much— obviously you're going to use as much dock as you have, so it's hard to say.

And I really don't want to dampen anybody's enthusiasm for making stuff happen, you know, building infrastructure, but this is a tough spot for, uh, I think for the harbor, the workings of the harbor. Anyone's their time.

Yes, I agree. You know, the building is right there in the corner all the way to the end. It is a good view to see, but when you have boats coming in, like you said, or trying to get out or in, especially during the summer, everybody's going in and out of the harbor. And on top of on the water, also on the road, You know, that spot right there, actually, there's a really nice sunset view for all of you that are not from Cordova or that are here visiting or even for us that live here. It's a very beautiful view.

You can see the ocean coming up and having the boats come in, like you were saying earlier.

But how that impacts that area, going in and out, you know, from that spot right now, especially when it's crush time and you guys are busy, especially I understand how fishing is, you know, transporting all the way to the other side, going down those roads. So yeah, I agree with both coming in. It looks like a really tight spot.

Especially if you have a couple tenders back against each other. So, all right, that would be good, Andy, that one. Okay, thanks, Soren.

Yeah, anybody have anything? Can I just interject one more thing there, Andy? Yeah, the, looking at, you know, I've been to a lot of different harbors throughout the state here, and Seward has a, as an example, has a lot smaller entrance, about 250 feet, something like that. The difference with that is it's not across the current like ours is, and there's the approach for this one wouldn't have a boat spinning around right at the harbor entrance. So that though it can be done, it doesn't make it any easier for that, and specifically getting boats in and out of the harbor.

So, I recognize that 500 feet does seem like a lot in the distance between Spike Island and this potential dock, but it's not just that distance. There's currents and then that navigational channel that is impeded. So I want to point that out as well.

Yes, I think it's a good point. And Valdez has a restricted harbor entrance, but again, it's— there's not a tide issue of a cross current there that's as much as what we got going on. And anyways, so I would love to see us get a really good dock in a really useful spot, but I don't think that's a good spot for the rest of the harbor users. So I guess that's my big problem. Yeah, I don't know, I haven't been a harbor user for a few years, but I do know when I was down at the old harbor there, having to give up, you know, share that dock, they were a pretty heavy user on that dock.

I would have rather seen them move out and clog the entrance to the harbor just to have access to that crane and load nets and stuff there. I think it'd be very beneficial to You know, it's the wear and tear on the roads is, it's already happening from right there all the way around. Now, you know, you're probably adding in a few hundred feet of road in there that's going to be additional wear and tear. I, I don't see the impact. There's a lot of harbors that just in this state, city, and the West Coast that have pretty sketchy entrances that definitely wouldn't rank as the one of the worst, but I don't know.

Yeah, if I— if there was other options, they would probably be better. But the Sea-Doo— see, I don't— there's— it's been a long time coming. They'd be with their own dock. I think it—. I don't—.

I don't see that. But I also don't run large vessels through there too. I guess that's my experience running a bow figure through there. I would—. It's not a big deal, but Yeah, that's my take on it.

I think I would, I would be in favor of it still. Anybody else have anything to say? Hearing none, I guess, Brandy, we can do a roll call. Andy Greg? Uh, no, has written email.

Ryan Schutze? No, has written. No. Derek Cohen. Yes.

Okay, um, we don't have any miscellaneous business on here. There is an audience participation, uh, section at the end. We're—. We still have time before the next meeting if anybody wants to say anything else. Anyone else want to come up?

We're—. Okay, um, then we only need one more motion, um, unless anybody wants to send closing comments. I guess we kind of had opportunity to say— I'll move to adjourn. Second. Second.

Okay, uh, anybody opposed to adjourning?

We are Adern.

This is— And—. Stop and—.