City of Craig, City Council Meeting 10-1-2026

It's been brought to their level. That's why they're bringing it to the local level to try to get— and, you know, like I, you know, like I told her, it's just a dollar amount in the states. You know, this is definitely a state issue. So I mean, like, at Thorn Bay, I have my portable radio. I can talk to the dispatch center.

Go to Southside Thorn Bay, even in my truck, mobile, I can't, can't talk to anybody. You got to stay on the repeater on the south side. Um, yeah, we had covered— not only cover there, but it would actually reach down to Kasaan as well.

Yeah, AP&T's got a repeater on Kasaan as well as Sanahay, so we can talk all the way across the island. I could sit in my driveway and talk to somebody in Copper Harbor. I could run off the other repeater and talk to somebody in Well Pass.

Yeah, I mean, what just kind of dawned on me is these are the kinds of things that Powhatan can talk about, federal support for something like this. Yeah, if we're taking some stuff off of the state's, you know, plate from our calls not going in there, they're definitely going to be saving them time and money so they can allocate something, you know, down here as well. So, but it's definitely an island-wide problem that would be great for Powhatan to discuss. Where, where do Heidelberg 911 calls go to? Uh, supposed to go to Soldotna, but I have heard that they don't always make it to Soldotna.

They end up at some other trooper dispatch center. More likely, if it's busy like in Soldotna, they just automatically get transferred over, just like our, our phone lines at AT&T. Now you're going to call AT&T and you're going to get somebody in Tok. When, you know, instead of Craig. So it's just whoever's available next to pick up the phone.

All right, any more questions for RJ?

All right, thank you, RJ. Moving on to Oliver.

I know he's on vacation.

I just had one question. When he gets back, it says that Kathy— he met with Kathy PB. To discuss citizen concerns about Ralph James Park. I was just hoping that he has, um, Mori involved in that.

Oh yeah, yeah, just for his protection, you know. Like, you have a CTA put a light in there because it's really dark around that pavilion. There's a good— the back pavilion, the only way to the bathrooms, which is a good thing. Um, maybe that's her concern. It's soft enough.

She had other concerns because she actually had a petition. She was trying to get signatures. I kind of intervened and asked her to just take her down and give Oliver a chance. He's busy. I looped Oliver in.

Oliver looped in with Maury. So I think it should all be taken care of. Okay, I would just want somebody on this to be involved. I was able to dial in. Um, Kathy did give me a call after the hotline was in, so I'm aware of the you.

All right, this is Lori. Thank you.

I try to put fires out, whether it's fire department or other. We appreciate that.

All right, Recreation and Garden. Go ahead. I just want to, um, the Big Bear Trail You know, we've talked a couple years now, it really, you know, can use some gravel, just clean it up and upgrade. You know, it's not something that's immediate right now. Heavy use is over for the summer, but, you know, if it can get on the agenda for some time before, you know, end of May or middle of May next year.

We need to probably run out and take a look at it, just to see where we're at after all the traffic.

Interesting to see what we did on access permits this year.

I know that we got two people, one in a pickup truck, one on an ATV, driving out past the cemetery trying to see how far they can go out. So it might not be a bad idea to maybe put some barriers. We had the gate. Yeah, and the one— 3 people that I thought were actually state workers, so I guess that didn't surprise me.

They said they were lost.

Did you agree with them? Yeah, the cops are out here somewhere.

Graveyard wasn't a clue. They went clear past the graveyard. They were gonna go right through the trees out to where the picnic table was.

All right, any updates on the community garden?

Okay, aquatic— did you call on me? Yes, Don. Oh, recreation, and you're, you're on there. All right, Don, yeah, you're up. I submitted a, um, a written report and let me know if you have any questions.

Thank you.

Nope, seen you out with all the kids today. You're doing great. Yeah, it's good to see all the activity. Yeah, especially for the kids.

All right, thank you, Dawn. Moving on to Mandy, Aquatic Center.

See that we're staffed up to 5 days a week now, pretty much all day and in the evening time, so that's good. Seemed like there was a few issues that we're having at the pool that are going to need to have some attention.

The community storage.

Yeah, I haven't been in there. Swing on in, take a look.

Well, it looks like everything's going good at the pool though, except the high priority control system computers. Yeah, um, you gotta get Windows 11 on there.

Now, part of the problem is Doug Ward did some sort of Doug Ward finagle thing, and it's got— I know Justin and Ben Page spent probably the better part of 4 or 5 hours trying. It's a software issue to get it to communicate the way it's supposed to be. Buying a brand new computer isn't going to fix It's a different issue that has to be addressed.

All right, move on to the library.

Stefan.

Did say that she was proctoring an exam, she might not make it to that one, so we can pause. Any questions?

Nope. The grants, everything's, uh, good news on the library, so I guess we have no reading or correspondence. Consideration, resolution, ordinances are unfinished business. I guess we'll move on to new business. Library grant acceptance and appropriations request.

Move to accept and appropriate $7,000 from the state of Alaska, PLE grant, to the Craig Public Library. Second. Open for discussion.

Roll call, please. Josh Bennett? Yes. Chanel is absent. Shawna Thomas?

Yes. Jen Tergent? Yes. Millie Skidover? Yes.

Mike Kempnich? Yes. All right, thank you, Council. Thank you. Moving to approve the appointment of the new city planner.

I move to approve the appointment of the new city planner. Second. All right, good that we've been able to fill the position relatively quickly. Somebody, you know, appears to be eminently qualified.

No, no, thank you. Everybody sat on that committee and got that done in a timely manner. Um, all those in favor? Aye. Aye.

Perfect.

Moving on to council comments.

I guess just on behalf of the city of Craig and myself and the whole everybody, Millie, this is— you're going to be here the next meeting for canvassing, correct? Yes. Okay, we need you here for that one. So perfect. Um, but it's been an honor and a pleasure having your guidance and your knowledge with everything that you've helped me out personally with.

And, um, you are going to be missed, and you have a phone call key to the city whenever you need anything. We love you. Well, thank you very much. It's kind of a bittersweet moment for me because 27 years is a long, long time, and I never realized how long it was until This past week I've been looking back at things that grabbed my eye with the city. We've had more ups than we've had downs, but when we've had the downs, they've been really, really tough.

But it's been fun serving with all the people, different mayors and different council people. That I served with. My heart will always be here because I've been part of the city for so long. But y'all know where I live, you know my phone number.

I'll be coming over for some of Steve's cookies.

He doesn't bake, he is so bored. I mean, this man is really bored. He made cookies and I thought, oh God, here goes. I know what it's like when the grandsons are in the kitchen. He had flour everywhere.

He had black sweats on. They were white when he took them out. But let me tell you, they were the best damn cookies. And I'm not a cookie person. I wanted to eat just cookies for dinner last night.

He made a chocolate chip walnut cookie. They were to die for. I said, don't be doing this very often. Don't give me any baking ideas. I'm gonna have to start weight loss.

Yeah, Councilor Comer, I want to circle back to the pool. So if we do have an issue and there, you know, seems to be different kind of perspectives on how to address it, you know, I guess I would just— I don't know what they're going to be, but I would just ask that Maury work with our pool director and try to figure out what our next steps forward are to make sure that, you know, keep things functional up there. Yeah, absolutely. It looks like these are all technician-type problems that we've exceeded our expertise that we can deal with on some of these situations. So, um, it looks like their next step is they're reaching out to the right people.

So exactly, so Mori's on it. Mr. Mayor, I did read a little bit about the letter from the— what is he— carpenter teacher? Yes. You know, people have been asking for benches, especially elders, throughout the town. I don't know if we could squeeze any money out of our budget for the material.

But if they, they would— they're willing to make that, I think it's, it's a win-win. Absolutely. That'd be a good project for them. I did forward the letter both to Lori and Oliver just so they could all talk. Okay.

I was excited to see that. Yeah.

Any more council comments?

Snowed in Fairbanks today. Oh really? Yeah, grandson sent me a thing first. He sent me a picture first thing this morning. Hey, Graham, check this out.

Somebody in Soldotna was— I was on a Teams meeting with them and they said the same thing. They said, I'm staring at the snow right now. It's like, oh my goodness. Palmer got about a half inch. Yikes.

It's going to be a winter, winter wonderland.

Motion to adjourn. Second. All in favor? Aye. All right, thank you, Council.

What did you drive? Oh, me? Yeah, I don't know, just trying to get it under. Oh, I see. I got a.