Petersburg Borough: Harbor Advisory Board Meeting

Roll call. Scott Robert. Here. Wally McDonald. Joel Randall.

Here. Don Spiegelmeyer. Here. Casey Knight. Here.

Andy Kittums. Here. Dennis Cardenas.

Okay. Right, so it's the May 27th, 2026 meeting for the Harbor Board. Item 2 is approval of meeting minutes from the last meeting we had, and everybody get a chance to take a look at them and entertain a motion to approve. Motion to approve the minutes. Second.

Okay, we got a motion and a second. Spiegelmayer and Randrup second.

Um, without further discussion, we just do all in favor. Aye.

Motion passes. Um, item 3, amendment and approval of meeting agenda. Anybody— everybody get a chance to take a look at it? Any Amendments at all?

Hearing none, entertain a motion to approve the meeting agenda. Motion to approve the meeting agenda. Second. Motion, Spiegelmayer, and second by Member Randrup. All in favor?

Aye. Aye. Okay. Item 4, persons to be heard related to the agenda. I think John Murgas here.

Good evening, everybody. Taylor and I are looking forward to the new Scalbay ramp, albeit with some fear and trepidation. I hope this Harbor Board can provide some guidance, oversight. Lots of talent here, lots of users here. We appreciate your time.

The present ramp and the leases at Skow Bay continue to work out well for us and the fleet, except of course for the seiners and the larger vessels. But I mean, I'm here to put in a pitch that the borough use caution and keep all options open as best possible concerning the existing ramp. My fear is that the present ramp will be decommissioned too quickly and unnecessarily be blocked by the planned placement of a light pole and an electric box that's the dead center of the ramp approach. And on the handouts that I gave you, it's— there's an arrow there that marks where those are. And any opportunity I have to put a pitch in for moving those boxes, those two items, just a few feet off the dead center of the ramp approach would really be appreciated.

Of course, after that, we're all looking forward to a harbor facility there, and that would just cover all that stuff, but that's several years down the road. In the interim, It could be pretty nice to have the option of using that ramp. Uh, we— there are, um, some benefits to it, uh, on extreme windy days. I think it's going to be better protected than the new ramp, and so it could come in handy there. We won't know, but it'd be nice to have that option.

The existing ramp, as everybody knows, is a progressive slope. It's not continuous, it's banana-shaped, and the— that often does help us with some particular vessels that have a fairly deep draft in their bows, such as the hoquiums and some of the older yachts that have a an unusually deep draft just in the bow. Because the new ramp is a little bit steeper, we would have to capture that with only the bow first, and it's kind of hard to explain, but it'd be— it's fairly tricky to raise the arms to stabilize it if the stern is still 2 or 3 feet above the keel, uh, where the keel's above the trailer. And so, um, the majority of boats, the new ramp is going to do really well, we, we hope. Uh, but you know, always some questions there.

It's going to be a learning experience. Uh, the, there's a whole host of options where it'd be good for the borough to have those options to use the existing ramp. I think there's a potential for a new industry of derelict vessel demolishment using that ramp and the adjacent property. A lot of times we get vessels that want to come out just for a couple hours, they stay in the trailer, somebody— they may want to just change a prop or, go back in the water very quickly, and it would be a little bit awkward when it's busy to be blocking the new ramp where the older existing one would really be handy for that sort of stuff. And we often do, during the peak periods, we'll use both of our trailers and the one that, the old standby gets lots of use and still works great.

That one we use extensions for, it's not self-propelled like the new one. And the old ramp, the slope of it and its placement and the ramp, the extensions take up quite a bit of space and we wouldn't want to be blocking the high activity of the new ramp with those extensions.

Um, that's about it. There's, I think, a lot of other possibilities of using, uh, that old ramp until it needs to be decommissioned for a harbor or something like that. But again, I think you can see pretty clearly where the two items are that would block that ramp very much, and it just— it's these guys right there. And if they could just be moved 10 feet even, it would give a clear approach for that. And I brought this up to the, the planning people on the, for this project about a year ago, and also to Dick Somerville.

Nobody's really commented on that. But I'm just going to keep always begging for having that ramp available. I think it's just a really good option. That's it. Thank you.

Maybe this could be put on a discussion item at some meeting too. Thank you for your testimony. Thank you.

Any other persons to be heard, related or unrelated, online or—. Real quick, um, this is something I brought up at the Borough Assembly and, and also I think at our last meeting is, uh, or your last meeting, just the, um concern of the fleet with the project. If they bring their— get their boats out of the water, getting them back in. Now, it's not always about me, but particularly this one is about me because I'm gonna have two boats out there and I want to be able to get them back in using the existing ramp. Um, I don't know where this is going, but I've heard quite a bit about this.

There's some apprehension. They just people want assurances that if they get their boats out, they can get them back in in the spring. And I just can't imagine a scenario where the amount of fishing boats, the lodge boats, even people's personal craft wouldn't be able to get back in. So it's just on people's radar and they're driven by a little bit of distrust and some fear. That's it.

You mean if— well, that while construction's happening, that's what—. Yeah, okay. Yeah. And, um, real quick, that ramp's saved my ass several times, so I'd, I'd like to see it, uh, continue. I don't know if we can do that or not, you know, in the future, but to have two ramps there would be pretty, pretty sweet, and it could be, um, real important, I think.

So that's it.

Thank you. Yeah, hopefully we can make that happen when, yeah, while construction is happening, boats can go back in. Hope, I mean, yeah, all right. Uh, so any other unrelated, anybody online or anything like that?

Um, then moving on to—. What?

Sorry, I got two people on, so no one's raising their hand. All right, so moving on to item 6. Harbor Master report, spring 2026. Sure, Harbor Master's reports. Maintenance, North Harbor season cleaning and upkeep.

We had Rockton Road Marine replace wood under the outer float UHMW wear points, um, on the— that's the face of, uh of the, in the North Harbor and the end of Sea Flow. Quarters that had gotten damaged last winter, we had one, the most recent one, we had the Savage tie up in the wrong spot, took that big boat and misunderstood and they put it in a little 40-foot spot, which is a little big for that, but it scrunched up some UH and W and luckily Jimmy was able to work that in. And, um, oh yeah, maintenance notice, a flotation issue where he thinks sheet ice pushed out a tub on float 2, on the very outer finger float, just on the very end. We could see where, uh, a tub got pushed and it's got a little, little angle to the float now, so we're going to have to address that issue. There was a lot of thick sheet ice.

We had a 300-foot sheet ice that went along Ocean Beauty and cracks the piling there and worked its way to the North Harbor, but a lot of it passed along the outside edge, but some of it still went into the North Harbor and worked its way under underneath the floats and out. Middle Harbor season cleaning and upkeep, parking lot is filling up with harbor supplies. Yes, we don't have more storage anymore, so we're putting it in Middle Harbor, so where we could, the only place we could use it. South Harbor season cleaning and upkeep, we are Still on the list for Rock and Road Marine Division to maintain the piling collars and hedge rip repair work. There's a number of, on the C float, D float.

Repairing the outside corner, replacing wood under the UHMW float sections. Petro's float had the same issues and they had some work done earlier this spring. So we're able to split some of the costs when they worked down at the end of C float and North Harbor. So we were able to split the mobilization costs there, save a little bit of money. Green Dock, Arno replaced 4 pilings this spring.

Along the front, there was 4 pilings that were cracked, broken, so we got those replaced. Continued to work on the tops of the rest of protective life of the upper portion of the pilings. Top of pilings, they get water intrusion down in the top of the— so they try to put a mortar tar or whatever on top of pilings with plywood just to keep the top of the pilings from rotting out.

The roto-seal on big crane continues to give us problems. Pits and Rudder are overseeing the fix and replacing parts as needed. We ordered— we had the old roto seal that's been worked on several times. It just, when they turned it on lathe, it gets a little more slop in it. So we ordered two new ones.

Of course, those are pretty much custom pieces that have to be built. So we got Mike and Jason to build new one. And then so while we're at it, we got 2, so I'm sure 2 will be fine. One lasts for a long time, so this will be new. I'm sure we won't see any use or issues for the next 20, hopefully 20 years.

We'll see, but we got a spare one. Drive down busy. The 30-day parking continues to get reduced again as Skow Bay project progresses and maintenance supplies get relocated. To the approach. Well, the harbor has given up on 14th Street or 13th Street.

It says 13th, but I think it's 14th Street pole yard, support fire department's burn tower and training equipment to move out of Skow Bay. Yeah, we got Jimmy, no, Sig, I think maybe it's Sig that's supposed to get a lowboy We got 70-foot pilings that are down at Skow Bay Turnaround that need to come out of there and get relocated to the drive down. We got some pile of wood pilings there right now, and we'll add our steel pilings to that.

And so we'll— we keep those there along the water so Jimmy could grab them really easily from the crane from the waterside and just yank them off and put them on the barge. Skow Bay, continue to monitor area daily and maintenance as needed. We are standing by the agreement from MRAD to authorize a spending package and finalize the bid packet. Communication is occurring through the Harbor Department now, and project management will occur jointly with PEDC and the Harbor, with the understanding that upon project completion, operations of the boatyard will fall under the Harbor Department authority. Staff is starting to formulate ordinances around these future operations by working with the borough admin and finance to come up with policies, charges, and budgets.

We're exploring other similar operations to aid in policy development. Staff continues to work with delegation to seek funding for a basin and new harbor. There has been recent excitement coming out of Senator Sullivan's office concerning the build of a new Coast Guard buildup of the U.S. Coast Guard all across Alaska. Though Petersburg is probably not a good fit for the new Arctic-class cutters, icebreakers, we are a great option for the smaller-class vessels and continue to support the idea of relocating vessels that frequently anchor up south of town, which is in Skow Bay on the other side towards Mountain Point. We see them on the AIS.

Laying there a day or two on the other side, they just anchor up there and I don't know what they do, but they're just hanging out there during the wintertime. We're a great option for smaller class boats. Continue to support the idea of relocating vessels that frequently anchor up south town. Oh, I already read that. I had P&D update the 2022 pitch I made to the U.S. Coast Guard Admiral along with Mayor Lynn and Borough Manager.

I held a virtual meeting with the 10-year U.S. Coast Guard planning team in early April. We are working together to plan the delivery of the new 120-foot buoy tender designated for homeporting in Petersburg in 2032. Miscellaneous, the waiting list still continues to grow. The new language making changes to the permanent moorage contracts concerning inactive vessels has reduced the waiting list numbers. Staff continues to monitor approximately 30 or so inactive vessels and will be sending out a second round of contact letters to individual boat owners that fall into this category.

So March, April, last April beginning, started billing out for those. It's essentially doubling their mortgage. We are working with Alex Schrammich to clean out all the underwater underwater potable water and fire lines. We just recently had him do last week, or recently, he did all of Seaflo. So we got that all clean.

It's a lot of, you know, since 2020, no, 2002, 2003, since we put in that system, and not much maintenance, but there's been a lot of buildup on those lines, especially the jumper hoses for the potable water stanchions. You get so much buildup, they get a lot, so much drag that pops those hoses off the main line. So we've been having a lot of issues with those such, those jumper lines and the corrosion of the main water line. Those of you who have been down in the South Harbor, you guys have probably seen the water being shut off. We got shut off tomorrow, getting it shut off tomorrow for a joint that we need to get replaced.

When they put in the new water lines, they used galvanized steel and bolts. So now we're— I've been buying stainless steel split flanges and stainless bolts. And that's pretty expensive at about $300, uh, $250 to $300 or so, depending on the size of the diameter of the pipe. But it's pretty expensive when we start blowing through all that stuff. So hopefully next time we do a water line, they'll put stainless in.

So let's see. April 1st, staff went public with it with 2025 tour ship schedule. Last year's numbers resulted in 97 stops for the season. The 2026 schedule has 84 stops, which includes the February announcement from Ellen Marine of their suspension of their overnight excursions. The success of doubling ACL stops from previous seasons have continued this year and resulted in 16 overnights at Seafloat,, which will change the availability and moorage for our tender fleet and larger yachts.

Recent word came to the borough that the application for conveying approximately 8.8 acres of DNR tidelands at Papke's Landing is ready to transfer. The borough is just waiting a formal letter to transfer of DOT's dock ownership to the borough before conveyance occurs. We expect this summer to change out the Harbor Office's 40-year-old boiler and heating source, so wait for warmer weather in July to perform the project. I walked into the boiler room just to look at things and all of a sudden we got a nice little leak now in one of the boilers. So I've been working on getting that replaced this summer.

So no matter what, it has to get done this summer. So we got— and the main boiler for the heat. So I'm talking about the hot water is leaking and the boiler is leaking out of the bottom. I don't know, the seals are going out, I think. I don't know if Pete Hicks put it in, but I know he put in the hot water tank, so that's been a while.

So you expect the summer to change out the— Harbor security boat operator is getting more frequent use these days. The Water Department asks us to transport them monthly or so to and from their outflow sites, transport groups to and from Cooper Nof and Cooper Nof Days and Kinderskog. These groups pay for fuel and operators' time to offset the harbor budget expenses. That's it.

Any questions or anything? Comments? One comment that I have about the Papke's Landing transfer thing is that it seems like that's kind of happening, and we might have to have a discussion or something about what, what the Harbor Department's going to do when presumably we're in their hands, in our lap. Yeah, we're going to have to think about, uh, well, if we have to monitor it, then, you know, that'll be extra cost. We'll have to have another employee, we'll have to have more equipment, snow blowers or power washers, I'm not sure, but at least snow blowers and another vehicle.

We can't keep us vehicleless here in town, so there will be additional costs, right, such as that. Yeah, so that's gonna— and it's— I mean, it sounds like that's happening kind of this summer-ish or something like that, or is it just up totally up in the air? Yeah, I don't— I don't know the exact time. I haven't been prompted on it, so I think we could have an entire meeting probably on Papke's. Probably a lot of strong feelings on it too, as well as people want to see it.

But also we have to go through exactly that. That dock is in, of course, horrible shape, as everyone knows. And then the shenanigans— yeah, I got to use that word tonight— shenanigans that go on out there. I mean, I family cabins across the way, I get to see everything that goes on at Papke's. And so there's a lot of that that'll have to be dealt with as well.

Um, it still kind of goes without saying that, you know, that people can tie things up and park things there legally as they want to, and that is happening a lot. So, um, where we go with that, I'm not sure. But yeah, that could be a long discussion on PAPGs as well. So thank you. Through the chair, should I say, through chair or whatever?

Thanks. Sorry. Uh, yeah, any other—. I agree. Yeah, ball of worms itself.

Yeah, the other, uh, I know it's something that I don't know if you call it missing, but, uh, just the, uh, ACL, the American Cruise Lines lease agreement. Is that kind of in the works? Are they, uh, negotiating that? Or— I forgot to ask about that. Yeah, I don't know where we're at.

I don't fit in on that one. So yeah, um, I think we're pretty close on it. I meant, they, you know, they, they would like to start on it this— towards the end of this year. So, well, they're gonna have to start out the end of year in order to make, finish, you know, finish construction by next season because they got more vessels planned. So, you see, I'm in Japanese.

That's all I got, uh, unless any further questions. Thanks for using stainless galvanized. What were they thinking? Yeah, you know, Yeah, I know, I always come across that when, like, with the new North Harbor, they had extra flotation billets and they were strapped up with that plastic strapping, and there's these clips or these that hold the ends together up underneath the dock. They use— they're not stainless, they're zinc.

So after a year, these things start popping off and those those flotation boats, you know, Casey, they start sliding out in the waves and so we try to kick them back in when, you know, when there's a boat there, but we have, we got all these billets, these billets that are floating out from underneath and those are the, they sit a little bit higher out of the water so if there's any weight or loaded and when those touch water takes up the, takes up the flotation for the dock. So, but now I don't know how many we got. You probably look at one of our container vans and storage and count up how many are sitting on top of them. So we got quite a few. We, you know, there's no harm in having them gone, but kind of a, maybe it's a design flaw, you know, I don't know.

$2 Part. Yeah, well, it's contractors, you know, and they want to make a profit. So, you know, just like on the main water lines, just so you guys know, on the jumper hoses you'd expect a hose barb on the bottom coming off, then it goes to the jumper hose up to the water pistol. It's just a straight slip joint. It's just, there's no hose barb.

So all over time, it just got a wiggle, wiggle, wiggle with all the seaweed and stuff on and then pops off. Then we got to hire a diver. Now hire a diver in the middle of winter, they're not no $200 divers anymore. They're middle of winter, they're $500 an hour. So that's where you probably in my budget, had to pump up our, uh, repair and maintenance because, uh, because of our waterline issues.

So it'd be cheaper if we get rid of the sea lions. That's all I got to say. That's why I'm so expensive. Speaking of unfinished business, uh, there is none, I guess. Uh, new business, uh, you got the harbor budget here for fiscal years 2026 and 2027.

Um, everybody got a chance to look over that? Any questions or commentary? Um, couple things. How bad did the, uh, snow removal ding on the budget this winter?

I know we got hit way late with all of that.

So what's that?

How bad did the, uh, snow removal budget get blown out of the water with this late snow and heavy snow this winter? It wasn't that bad. We were able to stagger our employees by like, okay, you will, you know, take your time, you know, go home, and you'll put in your— the rest of your 4 hours that later in the evening we'll watch the weather forecast real close. So then they'd run the snowplows through there, through the docks, run through at least before midnight. And then the guy, poor guy on the graveyard shift, he'll be walking behind a snowblower, and then by 6, about 7 o'clock when the guys come back in, they'll hop on the snowplows and start in again.

But it wasn't that bad. It was— we were able to make it where it didn't hurt that much. Nice work. Credit card fees. These days, you know, a lot of places now, oh yeah, you get charged if you're going to use a credit card.

I see that's $31,000. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, it's— I remember creating a budget for 6 in the early days. Now it keeps going up. So there's— what about adding that if someone's going to pay the credit card? You add 2.5%.

Stores are doing it, gas stations are doing it. Yeah, we know, that's, that's everybody.

Yeah, it's, it's much more common than it ever used to be. Well, maybe something we have to discuss there. So yeah, if you go abroad, they charge it automatically, automatically on, in addition to your, your—. You just expect to pay it. Okay.

There's, uh, in the 20— in the new proposed budget, the, uh, oh, office maintenance is $65,000. Is that the— is that the boiler? Yeah, that's replacement. Yeah, that they're— that extra 60 or whatever. Yeah, yeah, it's, it's not going to be— you know, we put it up there because we have no idea where searching around for guys to do it.

I asked 3 guys, and finally getting around to getting a hold of me. You know, you have to bug them. You know how it is in town. You just trying to find help. It's hard to get somebody to do anything.

So I'm hoping it'll fall half, you know, placing the— it'll be an electro boiler. It won't be a standard A3 boiler, oil burning, it'll be electrical. And the power and light, they have to upgrade the transformer in that sector. So they're going to upgrade the transformer so we could handle another 200-amp panel in the boiler room for the electrical, electric system. So, um, we met with, uh, Carl and Steve about that.

They came to the office and looked things over. We've even looked over, um, heat pumps, but the build— with building design is not feasible. So the electrical— electro boilers was the next feasible, um, uh, option for us, and which is Everybody agrees to, because the price of oil these days, we'll go to electricity.

So the two big, you know, capital outlays, I guess, are the seafoam stall replacement and the drive-down approach paving for this new year. And so I was talking to glow a little bit today, and I'm trying to kind of wrap my head around. So that sea float stall replacement sounds like she is hoping to get matching funds for half of it, right? Uh, so the— but matching grant funds, matching grant funds. Yeah, so the, the $1.3 million is hopefully $650,000 is the—.

But she's got to write that in You might have to ask for details on that, but yeah, yeah, for— yeah, the, uh, we were hope— the original plan was for the paving this year, but then those other projects were slated for next year, so we push it back. You know, we wouldn't really necessarily save a lot of money, any much money for the demo because all the— oh boy, all the gravel. There's specific gravel you have to bring in. I can't remember how many yards I don't know if it's $20,000 or I can't remember the number, but it's quite a bit of gravel for the paving. And so, but with the other projects that need the road work, you know, paving done, will be next year, fingers crossed.

Next year is in 2027. Yeah, sometime. Yeah. Yeah.

But, uh, yeah, it said, uh, for a 30-foot wide. I was hoping to get a little wider than that, but I don't know how much more, you know, if we could get it to 35 or 40, but right now it's set at 30, so be a little stricter. Anything's better than what we got now.

Replacements for those first few near your boat. You're going to get a new float, kiddums. So I think, I can't remember, first 4 or 5, 5 finger floats or something, something like that, they'll get replaced because the concrete's balding. We keep concreting that surface and they just you know, just from use, they're just breaking up all around the repatch. So, and those, uh, and the rebars rusting out in them and everything's getting soft.

So it gets bad when they're pretty good, they're good now, you know, for the patching, but when these, you know, when they start breaking through, you know, we don't want anyone to twist an ankle. Or whatever, break a leg.

So, so yeah, so those two. And then, so talking to Glo today, so there's one thing right at the bottom of the, uh, of the, uh, capital outlays is a South Harbor electrical assessment. And, uh, that— so it only— it's, it's, you know, only $10,000, but talking to her, it actually kind of sounds a little bit scary as far as how much money it might end up being, depending on what they say after they assess. Like, it could, you know, several million. It could be a lot with the new codes that are coming out.

All the harbors around Alaska are kind of in a scramble trying to figure out how to— especially I saw Mark Morris, electrical engineer from Juneau, a few days ago, just brief talking. He said he's trying to figure out how to design, electrical design these harbors the way the codes are designed. You know, right now we have, you know, these big thick cables that go jumping to each electrical pedestal in series. Now he's thinking, you know, that won't— something about the leakage or something. He says now he'll have to come up, think about maybe a central box for the breakers and run a single wire out to each stall.

So kind of, I don't know, he's brainstorming to see what kind of other designs he could come up with. So it'll be different for the future floats that come out.

Well, any other questions or comments?

Go ahead.

We'll have to ask a little about that one. I don't remember. That might be the, uh, part of the project that we got coming up. I'm, I'm not very well versed in the cowboy thing.

Apparently that's something that didn't happen last year and just getting, getting moved on to this year. Yeah, well, how about entertain a motion to approve and send an approval up to the assembly, uh, for the budget?

Go ahead, Bob. I, uh, I had—.

Can you go over to the podium and we can get you on a mic?

Introduce yourself. Bob Martin, Harbor user. Um, I was looking at the 65% engineering drawings for the sea float, finger float replacement, and I don't recall that coming before the Harbor Board. And if you guys look at— if you looked at the designs and stuff, it's It's staggering how much it costs. So $1.3 million for 4 of them.

And even if we get matching funds, I just, I just wonder if we need to look at that, make sure that's the way we want to go. Personally, I don't, I don't have enough confidence to, to be very excited about it, but if you guys look at it and look it over, I'd feel better. So thanks.

I'd like to comment with, you know, you just can't, when you're designing a float, you just can't tie two logs together and throw some boards on it. Everything has to be designed, you know, it's a public float, so we have to design their standards with the state and, you know, there's standards that we have to do. For these floats. So of course you have to go through the design phase of all these. To me, what needs for us, and so nothing's cheap anymore, so that's why it comes up to that cost.

4 Of them for what, $300 grand each or whatever it is. So yeah, I was— You know, just, just based on that fact of needing to have it designed specifically for public access for code, and that's why it costs so much.

So, and PNND has been working with us on that.

I mean, me not being an engineer, I don't—. Yeah, uh, don't know what Well, we're lucky though, you know, with the old North Harbor that lasted 50 years. You know, once the state designed these floats, especially like the South Harbor, the pilings had 25-year life, then they handed over to us, of course, it's right at that life expectancy. So yeah, you could amortize it out longer, but you know, push it off to the next set of people, just like Social Security. I don't know, but you know, we need to keep up with these floats.

These are— South Harbor is already pretty old. And so we need to— a lot of action out there.

What? Oh, nose break.

So yeah, you know, we just got to move along. I mean, as the harbor gets older and we just can't build a brand new, take an old one out, put a brand new one in. You just got to piece it all in, I mean, you know, by sections. When do we got to start doing the next section, I guess, is it when we get money? I don't know, I mean, you know, match as grants come available, matching grants.

It's all we can do. Unless we got $50 million laying around or plus.

Well, uh, to try to move along, uh, entertain a motion to say something about the budget to the assembly, to entertain a motion to approve the budget for the assembly.

Yeah, I'll make a motion to assembly So yeah, I guess, yeah, the two big, two big outlays are the, that our paving project and our, and our finger float project.

As far as the just the operating expenses go, you just, If you take the operating expenses minus the depreciation and you compare that to the operating revenues, it's right there where it needs to be. So we just—. It's approving the spending on the pavement, which we've already kind of voted on last time. And then the finger float replacement, which— it's a good point. It does sound like a lot of money.

But is there any other option? It's, you know, is there any other option?

I'm not, not sure that there is. I don't know. What is the other option?

How many, how many engineering firms?

I don't, I don't know enough about that. I mean, where did you, you get that? You got all that information from Glow at 65%?

With the hope that we're going to be getting matching grant funding, I'm in favor of it as much as one can be.

Uh, need a new— Lawyers aren't cheap either. You need a new float? Yes, I've fallen through my float. I've had 2 crewmen jump off the boat to tie up and wipe out on the rebar that's sticking out of my float. And yeah, I've expected lawsuits out of both of them, and luckily they haven't happened.

But so, yeah, one lawsuit will wipe out that hesitancy for this budget for that new float.

My understanding is those 5 floats came out of the North Harbor, right? They weren't part of the original South Harbor build. Or Middle Harbor. They were recycled. Yeah, yeah, they were, yeah, repurposed from another harbor just to save a little bit of money, and it's done that.

So, so if they would have done it when they built the original South Harbor 25 years ago, they could have— they probably could have done it for less than $1.3 million. Oh yeah, it'll be a third.

It's in there. Other commentary? Yeah, I got one question on the American Cruise Lines million dollars and where, where is that coming from? That was, that was, I believe, last year, uh, there was some setting aside of a million dollars if we were going to partner with them. Is that And then that, since that fell through, that's not there anymore.

That's what that is, this year's budget, right?

One thing I think the public might want to be aware of, if you look at the fiscal year 2023 versus '24-'25 and the predictions of, uh, fish tax that the harbor gets has fallen significantly. So yeah, that was, you know, shot on the dartboard. But, you know, as time moves on, you know, every lot— things got a little more optimistic as we moved into this season. We're formulating this back in December, so we're like, I don't know what's going to happen, so we just kind of put a number out there what we thought would be best, but hopefully everybody gets rich this summer. Oh, I know that, um, the, the can pack that we hope to pack is, is larger than, than it had been in the last few years.

And with us closing Craig, um, that basically— and, and we We got every cost recovery in Southeast, so that fish is, it's going to be a lot of it, especially with the product form they're looking at doing, that kind of splits it between Ketchikan and us as far as what specific product form they're looking to do with the chums from the, from the cost recovery. So hopefully we'll see a larger, a larger pack out of Petersburg this year. Raw fish tax accumulate on cost recovery? It does, it does, it does not. Well, yes, it's a lower rate, it's a lower rate, and the, the 25% coming out of, if that winds up happening in Hidden Falls.

Cases here. I mean, that's, that's a larger pack than we've done in the last 5 years.

So vote on the motion. Yeah, let's vote on the motion. Do a roll call. Budget to move on to the assembly. Uh, Casey?

Yes. Daniel? No. Um, Scott? Yes.

Andy? Yes. Joel? Yes. Don?

Yes. Wally? Not here. Motion passes. Hope Glo can explain that $400,000.

Might put a side note there, have Glo explain that $400,000 when she gets there. I'm sure she has a good reason, hopefully. Good. Seems like a lot just to say yes and throw it out there, but I'm kind of confused as to why it's still in there. Yeah, she's not here tonight, and I do— she's not here, and I have faith that it's there for a good reason, but She's versed in it, not me.

So yeah, will this move to the— will this move on the Monday meeting, or no? No, because it'll have to be the next one because it's got to be posted.

Okay, moving on. Communications. Any communications?

Item 10, discussion item, stray electrical currents. Yeah, so that was brought up by me. I've—. And you guys are all harbor users, you see it. I've had several, especially the larger sanders on Sea Float and some of the tenders on D Float, saying that their inboard zincs are disappearing out of higher rate in the last 3 years than before, and it's been, and it seems like some of like that area, that lower part of C and D float is getting hotter.

So I don't know if you've seen that, Annie. I know you're a little further out there, but it's significant enough that I've had no less than 4 boats come to me and mention something to me. So I thought I would bring it up here. I'd put it up and, you know, at least get it on paper and see if anybody else is experiencing the same thing. And I don't know, I assume it's all because of grounding and maybe the grounding straps are corroded.

I mean, I don't know anything about it, but I'm just throwing it out there that, you know, it seems like it seems to be getting a little hotter and Seafloat seems to be the area that that is accumulating that. Hopefully with the dock cleaning, you know, you'll be able to inspect. I know one, I asked him about the grounding on when he first started, he said there was a, well, one of the grounding wires that went down, he said it was big, a lot of growth on it, you know, down at the bottom. So I'm not sure if he cleaned that off, but we're aware of, we're aware of those grounding straps. I didn't want to make a big thing.

I just, I just, I just want to make sure I brought it out in front of him. And maybe that's it. Maybe it is just, you know, heavily, heavily, um, laden with biologic material and it's not able to do its job.

Other comments on that?

Okay, entertain a motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn. Thanks, everybody.