Houston: Regular Scheduled City Council Meeting 11.12.2026

Chairman Kahn. Deputy Mayor Brasel. Here. Mayor Kohl. Here.

Do we have a quorum? Okay, no.

Pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we just come to you now. Lord, we thank you for this day. We thank you for all that you do for us. Lord, give us ears to hear and wisdom and all the things that will help the citizens of Houston.

Lord, we bless you and praise you and give you great glory and honor. In your precious holy name, amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Okay, we have one little housekeeping thing, actually two things. One is, uh, I was not here to actually be sworn in last time, although I was— I did it before. But, uh, just so that the public knows that I took the oath, we're gonna do it. We'll do it again, but he did do it on November 4th. I have it right here.

I, Carter Cole, do solemnly swear to affirm and support and defend the Constitution of the United States, Constitution of the State of Alaska, the laws of the city, and that I honestly, faithfully, and partially discharge my duty as mayor to the best of my ability.

Okay, there was— brings us to approval of the agenda.

I'll make a motion to approve the agenda. A second. We have one item that we're going to have to pull because it was dropped off by accident. Um, Clerk, won't you up?

On the agenda, it states under new business resolution number 2627, and it got put out there, but it didn't get put in the packet. So we'll remove it and put it on December's agenda. There are copies over there if you wanna look at what it is. It's just accepting the COG.

Okay, so we're going to move that off the agenda because we don't have it. We didn't do it quite right. Um, nothing else? Okay. I, I do have one item for the consent agenda.

Is now the proper time to talk about that? Yeah. Okay. So the meeting minutes for, I guess it was the last two with the dates.

October 12th and October 19th. I didn't see them in the packet.

So maybe we can put them to next month. Really? Yeah. Oh guys.

Oh, okay. I thought you must too. Okay, we'll put those on next agenda.

All right, with the changes, moving the minutes from the consent agenda and removing resolution number 26, 27, and moving both to the next meeting. Is there anything else?

No?

Okay, roll call, I guess. No, we don't have to because Jason's not on. Okay, motion's been made and seconded to approve the agenda moving item 10A from the agenda, resolution number 2687, and the minutes of the previous meeting from the consent agenda to December's consent agenda.

Good. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries unanimously.

Okay, brings us down to Am I forgetting anything? No. State Legislature, Senator Rauscher.

Hey, Don. So this week was the RDC. I was at the agricultural forum they have in Anchorage right now. I was also at the Alaska Alaska Mining Association, and there are a lot of meetings that happened this week. So besides some community councils in the evening, the— I guess the, the big news for you all is that ADA is giving you 3,600 instead of 19,950 acres.

So I believe most of that goes through Uh, uh, what do you call it, Lake Zero Lake Road, there is, uh, how that accesses it. Uh, the, the takeaway is I want you all to read it. I think it's all important, so I'm not going to go through it all, but one of the major takeaways is if you want to challenge, it's $200. There's a clause in there that says you have to, you have to pay $200 to do a challenge. So, uh, if you want to, um, challenge the decision at all, if you were one of the ones who put in a comment or whatever, um, the legislature, uh, the Senate has We've kind of organized, okay, the House I can't tell you about, but I can tell you about the Senate.

Senator Gissel is the president of the Senate, and I believe there are 11 people in the majority now. She has pretty much, I guess, either interviewed or not the members that she wanted in there, and she has 10 of them now. So the members that are not in there are in the minority. There's 9 of us. So myself, um, yunt, uh, Senator Yunt, Senator, uh, Merrick is in the minority, Senator, uh, Burt Stedman is in the minority, Senator, uh, Bjorkman is in the minority, and, uh Senator Kathy Giesel's, uh, Tilton— Senator Kathy Tilton's race has not been settled close enough for that to be one way or the other right now.

So that, that, that has not happened yet. They're not part of the caucus yet, but the minority is pretty much established, and Senator Kaufman is part of that. Senator Kaufman will be sitting on Finance. And, uh, so will Senator Bart Steadman, and so will Senator, uh, Kelly Merrick for the minority. Now, the majority members, I do have a list for you so you understand who they all are, just so you get a better idea of, um, what will be going on this year.

Um, so, uh, Senator Lukey Tobin will be the Education Chair.

Community Regional Affairs, Senator Alvie Gray Jackson. Finance will be co-chairs Jesse Keele and co-chair Senator Bryce Hedgeman. Labor and Commerce, Senator Forrest Dunbar. Resources will be co-chair Senator Kathy Kiesel and co-chair Senator-elect Louise Stutes. State Affairs will be chaired by Senator Gray Jackson.

Transportation, Senator-elect Louise Stutes. Legislative Budget and Audit, Vice Chair Senator Gavi Gray Jackson. And Legislative Counsel, Senator Matt Clayman. Joint Armed Services, Co-Chair Senator Scott Kawasaki. Judiciary, Senator Matt Clayman.

So, uh, I think a lot of the reasons that we are now at 9 and 11 personally is that, uh, had to do with taxes, right? It's going to evolve around taxes, and those that didn't, uh, probably want to go to a high tax, uh, uh, legislation and agreement probably are not there. And that's why, uh, I think there's a, like, a big debate on whether or not the, uh the people in the communities in the state of Alaska can afford anything like a tax where it's an income or whether it's a sales to be put— that we're at another burden on what they're already paying for the high price of energy and education. So I think that had one of the big bearings on why that actually turned out the way it did. So that's basically the long and the short of it.

Now, Jonathan Cruz Thomas was— Tompkins was at the RDC and basically spoke that he was in favor of development of certain resources. Didn't really specifically call them out, but he did say things like willow. He mentioned the Willow Project and stuff. So I think that's probably positive. I know Senator Giesel is supportive of mining.

So I know that that's because she was at the Alaska Mining Association meetings that there were this week. So, and at the banquet. So that's pretty much the wrap up there. If you have any questions, I'd be happy, I can answer them. Anybody have any questions?

And because I have a cold, I think it would be best that I don't hang out with you all today.

Thank you. Okay, that brings me down to my report. I have a couple things. I did meet with the K'nik tribe yesterday, very productive. We will, we will have them at our next meeting, and one of the items that they'd asked for the city to help them with is they have a federal grant that they— replacing some culverts for letting the fish go through.

And one of them happens to be where we have a collapsed culvert right now at the end of Birch Road. It's been a problem. We've been trying to get it addressed for all of the last— this fall. And I think we got a pretty good deal that I'll bring forward to you guys in December. Basically, they want to be able to use some gravel out of our pit to be able to put back there, so it cuts down some of the haul time and they can get another culvert with the money they got from the feds to do two instead of not, you know, instead of one.

So, uh, and they're very interested in, uh, some future development here. Um, but anyhow, we'll let them come and speak and tell you what they have on their minds, and that'll be next month. And also, I'm— we're gonna— whenever Houston, um, has the mayor-manager meeting, we're going to invite them so that they can be, uh, in on that too. So that'll— that's kind of a new, new twist. Then the, um, I included a letter and I, I thought they did a very good job addressing the city.

And then I, my response I included, and it was a driveway issue. Apparently it had been happening for years and, um, the both sides of the communication in there, but it did spark me to get everybody in Public Works this book because that's what we're supposed to be addressing roads and stuff with. But also address— this was a situation where it was eroding their driveway year after year. They put more gravel on it, and I actually went there in the spring and looked at it, and we did some immediate work to prevent a lot of loss of his materials. And then later in the year, we planned a better fix for it.

Um, that process took quite a bit longer than we'd hoped, and they were a little bit worried that we were going to leave it through the winter, and that was never our intention, and it wasn't. And it's completed now for this year. We do need to put some D1 on the top through there to upgrade that whole area through there. But the drainage issues are now solved back in that area. So whenever we— we have to look at prioritizing any of the road maintenance we do.

We have a limited amount of funds, and that was a case where clearly you could see that there was damage being done to their property. They couldn't keep up with it. So that's one of the reasons why we selected that. And so I just encourage the public to look at that whole communication process. We tried to make it clear to the— to those folks, and we did, um, we re-permitted their, um, culvert at their roads and put in the ditches.

And I wish they would have had some photos to put in there. I have photos, I just didn't get them in the packet time. But that is ideally the way we'll go forward. And Public Works did a pretty good job at the end getting it all done, but there was some— they made a few mistakes along the way. And, and then by the end though, it looks nice.

And it took a— what we would classify a very limited access road or a mountain-type access road into making it at least the borough 20-foot wide. Um, it's, it's not a fully accepted borough road, but it is very close to being what you could have an accepted borough road. So anyhow, just some, um Information I thought was good for everybody. It's good for the public, and it kind of shows us— shows everyone what the department will be looking at and trying to do upgrades. And there was 3 big areas this year that were fixed because of either real damage to people's property or you know, unpassable conditions.

Um, that's about all I have. And then I think Parks and Rec have— you guys want to come up and—. Oh, sure.

Well, it's good to see everybody. I am the chair of— just newly elected chair of the Parks and Rec. As our last meeting last week, I'm excited to be back. It's been almost 6 months that we were without a quorum, and that's fine. Life has gone on, and I hope that there has been work done on the council's end to bring to the Parks and Rec Commission to give us, give us direction.

My direction is to— we have put an initiative forward, resolution forward, to identify, to take action to restore, protect, improve public access trails within the city of Houston. That means the lakes, the rivers specifically, The Hassler-Norris Trail System, that's one of my big things. And there is public access, or there is a right-of-way right here by the gas station. So I really want to look into that and get a downtown access to the trail system, which is that for everybody, the trail system is posted on the map over there, uh, the topographical map, and that's about 200 miles of snow machine trails right out of the Houston City Hall. So that's, that's top of my list of things to do.

We're going to have a, um, work session November 18th, 11 AM here, where we're going to talk about how to access or how to manage all of these accesses and kind of figure out what direction we want to go. We want to contact property owners, the things— we're going to ruffle a whole bunch of feathers through this process, which is just fine. Um, so I look forward to that. And when, as we move forward, we're not a big— there's a lot of work that can be done, and there's a very few amount of people to do it. So we're gonna, we're gonna look to our partners, our friends, the Massachusetts Health Foundation, subject matter experts, and on parks, trails, things, and how to get upward momentum with the people around us without having a Parks and Rec Department.

Um, if you guys have— if you want to contact me, I have a, uh, Houston.gov email. If you type in the name Adam, it'll come up for you. And, you know, if— but put in, put in your two cents on how you want to steer parks and trails, please.

And then I think you want to talk about a party. Yeah, I want to—. I'm going to talk about recreation stuff. Okay, fun stuff. That's good.

You know, when you guys brought me on board here, one of my things was for people to rediscover Houston, correct? So I came up with an event. I thought long and hard about it, and I came up with something that I'm really excited about. I'd really like you guys—. It's going to take some visuals, and each of you have this in your packet.

When I was a child in Palmer, we had these snow dump right down the street from my house. And somebody geniusly had gone and cut a pile of snow and projected a movie onto it. Oh, you've got them. Thank you, Charlie. Appreciate that.

I thought it was the coolest thing since sliced bread when I was a kid, and I'd never seen anybody do anything like that since. And when I thought about events locally here, I thought about the opportunity that the official Iditarod Start gives us. It's not a whole lot happening that time of year other than that big event. So I was thinking it would be really fantastic to have a Houston Snowbank Cinema Night the Saturday night that everybody after the ceremonial start in Anchorage and they're all coming out this direction to go to Willow to watch the official start. This would happen on the Saturday night before that.

Official start, maybe about 6:30 in the evening is what I'm thinking. And if you look through this, there's a bunch of notes here. The purpose is to rediscover Houston. The event at a glance would be that date. I was thinking we could project some movie, like Jack London's Call of the Wild came first to my mind, but something along those lines.

Get sound through maybe an AM or FM station. I assume that we can do that somehow. There are people out there with far more technical knowledge than I do, but I'm sure it's something that can happen.

I have two potential sites here, and I took a picture of each, and then I had my genius in my pocket create the images of what that would look like. One is this spot right over here, the gravel pit, the hill. The other one is right across the way.

And then let's see, benefits to the community, obviously for the visitors. That's what I want. I want people to go, oh, Houston, isn't that where that happened? You know, and local economy, we'll get some food trucks out there. Youth fundraising.

I thought this was a really cool idea is to to get, you know, out. You always see them at the entrance of Three Bears with their bake sales trying to raise money. Maybe they can help with concessions and keep that money for activities that they want to do. Uh, we still have the opportunity if we wanted to do it this spring. We still have the opportunity if we get our acts together, if I get my act together and organize some things well enough to get on the event for Ronde.

I did run schedule somewhere so that people know that it's happening. Uh, we could obviously charge a small admission for each car, to be determined.

Um, I've got proposed event names, and basically what I'm asking for here from you guys is ideas, good old Valley ingenuity, as far as how to build this thing, how to make it happen the easiest and most economical way. And if you see on the fourth page there, this is my— this is the extent of my engineering capabilities, but I think I try to keep it as simple and easy enough to understand. And of course, we're going to need somebody with a camper van. So on the next page is simply the lumber that would be needed. And if we do this, there are people again in this department that are smarter than me and could really help with this.

So basically what I'm looking for from you guys is excitement and let you know that this is something that we'll probably be talking about again on our 18th meeting, on the 18th this month.

I would love— I too just got my government emails today, so feel free to email me with any suggestions or people I should talk to.

There is a, uh, the cost. So we had discussed possibly buying a projector screen, but I did some research and you're looking at $6,000 to $13,000 for a screen that would do what we needed to do. So plus the novelty of the snow is just too much to pass up really. And on top of it, the projector I researched is about $10,000 to $15,000. So they also rent them locally.

There are two places that rent them. I haven't contacted them yet, but I'll come back with some numbers on that.

I actually found a grant I gave to Charlie to look at that I might— I think might be appropriate for maybe getting ourselves a projector that we can use in other venues in the future as well, just for the city. So that's what I've been working on, and I would love any feedback you guys have because I think this could be really cool.

Does anybody have any questions for him?

I think just my biggest question, I think it's a fabulous idea. Just right now we've got the El Niño going on. And if we compare this year to the previous years where El Niño was on the same path and stuff, we had no snow that February and March. I'm guessing you have a backup plan. I have considered this.

If you look at my cute little drawing of our plywood structure that would actually create the snow screen. Right. Well, if there was no snow to create a snow screen, we could always just paint that white. Okay, and use that as—. I mean, you know, we're in Houston, Alaska.

Let's like love the hokey, love the use what you got.

Uh, it's called creativity. Yeah, exactly, exactly. So, and I'm going to need that help and assistance, uh, to get this to happen. So I just wanted to present that as soon as I possibly could because I would love to have it happen this March.

Um, I also think it's an awesome idea. Good job. So just one thing I was thinking here while you guys were talking in your workshop on the 18th, um, maybe it would be a good time to reach out to those landowners for those trails. No, no, not yet. No, we need to discuss how we're going to make a plan to do that.

Okay, okay. We will identify the pieces of property, we'll identify the landowners, we'll identify the plan, how we're going to reach out to them, and, and what we're, you what we're asking for, what we're telling them we're going to, you know, whether improve the access and the things. And that— so we'll have a discussion about that with the next step of being—. Okay, so this is just preliminary planning? Yep, because this goes to the city council, um, as a resolution on your next meeting.

And then so we'll try to offer some good expertise for the city council. And that'll be our mission. I'm going to plan a meeting with the Hassler-Norris Trail Group as soon as possible. This will probably be held at Sioux City Bar and Grill, and we'll talk about the grooming plan for the winter. They have been keeping this trail system up as volunteers for 20, 30 years or more.

And they will love the help, and I think they'll love the planning. And I'm really excited that we have a piece of equipment through a grant that we're going to start working in on this. So that's another— that's, that's the other part that I really want to speak with the people of the city of Houston, the council, whoever can show up to the meeting about what our plan is for this piece of equipment coming in.

Oh, and one more thing. I talked to James Hastings today by text with Alaska Healing Hearts. They are the ones that leased our wood processor, and he didn't have the numbers in front of him, but he just wanted to say that they're going full steam with it and their program is running great. They're delivering wood to veterans and seniors, and it's been such a blessing for the whole community, supported by the Matsu Health Foundation, supported by the City of Houston. It's really an incredible program.

Thank you to everybody who's helped this.

Thanks. And along those lines, um, the— I was hoping to have that, um, report completed, but email was kind of a bugger today, so you guys will be getting it in the next day or so, um, with all the information from James. I think I put the amount that he delivered for October in my report somewhere.

But there's more information that we will be giving you. And, uh, 25 quarts. Yeah, so they're still going on it, and you'll get a sheet as of each beginning of each month. And, um, we've got an Excel sheet that we're using with him now, and it'll show all the hours and who they've delivered to and all that. But that'll just go to the council.

So that you guys can see that. That'll be, uh, I hope we can get it out tomorrow, but if, uh, if not, it'll be Monday.

All right, and then I think, Chief, you had something you wanted to—. Yeah.

Just to add to my, to add to my report, um, Mayor, members of council, one more item. I'm bringing it on behalf of Brenda McCain from Willow. She wants— she wanted to be here to present this information, but she wasn't able to make it, so she asked me to pass it on. The Matsu Borough is hosting a free basic CERT class later this month up in Willow. CERT trains everyday residents to prepare for the hazards we face.

CERT stands for Community Emergency Response Team. Willow has probably the most active CERT team in the Mat-Su Valley. It's a really great place to learn from. It also teaches them how to help their families and neighbors in a disaster before professional responders can reach everyone. The class covers fire safety, light search and rescue, disaster medical response, and how to organize as a team.

This class is a hybrid. So there's an online portion, there's 12 hours that has to be done online through the University of Utah, done at your own pace, telephone, computer, either is fine. It has to be finished by next Friday, November 20th. Then they have the hands-on portion, which is Saturday and Sunday, November 21st and 22nd, which are all-day classes. It's taught by the Burroughs Emergency Operations Center specialists.

It ends Sunday afternoon with a practice disaster exercise, and then a graduation ceremony and your kudos and paper. Um, some people take class because they want to join a CERT team, some people don't. Some people just want to take it to become better prepared at home, and that's perfectly acceptable to their program. If you just want to take a CERT class to learn how to be better prepared, it is great. And you do not have to be 18 to take the class.

Um, teens 14 and older can attend with a parent's permission. They cannot join the team until they're 18, but they can have the knowledge to use it at home during a disaster. And I do want to point out, we do have active members of CERT that serve on Willow here in Houston. It'd be great to have even more so that maybe we can stand up our own CERT team, as that is one of fire department's longer-term goals for the department. CERT came in handy when we had the earthquake back in 2018.

There were a lot of people going out helping their neighbors and helping their communities and alleviating the the impact on the local emergency services so they could focus on the more critical incidences that were going on. CERT is awesome. If you have, if you have the time to take the class, take the class. Help your neighbor. Be part of the solution.

There will be, there are flyers already posted online. I'm going to make sure I share them from the fire department page as soon as I get back to. Here's a whole bunch of paper ones if anybody wants some. Everybody wants some. Even if you don't want to take it, pass it on to people you know that might be interested.

So I'm gonna pass it on for Brenda. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, Council, have any questions of reports? I've got two.

Um, just real quick, I can't remember if we discussed this or not, but the $18,000 check to Alaska Mining and Diving Supply, what was that for? Snowbill. Snow, okay. And it's through the grant, Rasmussen Foundation. Rasmussen Foundation.

Yeah, it's the Rasmussen Foundation. Thank you. And my second question, being that we don't have a public works director still, the money that's allocated for the public works director's salary, is that being absorbed into public works budget right now, or what exactly is happening? Happening with that money? Well, I, I put on a temporary worker for a while to help, um, during summertime to finish up and get ready for fall.

And we're using it— well, it'll stay in the budget for now until, uh, we, um, get one. I actually had a new applicant put a put in the other day. I looked at it. I'm gonna, gonna interview them and see what I think of them. But so far we haven't had that many that actually applied, um, and I don't want to get us back in a position where we don't have a qualified person either.

So that's, uh, at this point, um Well, I actually— some of it went to the repair of some of the vehicles that were damaged from last year too. So that's that. We've got all the trucks up and running now. We've added some lights to it when they back up. So I think overall, I mean, I, I— we're ready if we get a bad winter.

So hopefully that's money well spent. Thank you.

Anyone else?

Okay, brings us to the next public participation, and we have public hearing under Ordinance Number 2622. Clerk, you want to read that in? Ordinance Number 2622, an ordinance of the Houston City Council to accept the donation and appropriate $1,425 from the Houston Alaska Chamber of Commerce.

Okay, we're open the public hearing portion. At, uh, 6:35. Would anyone in the public like to speak to Ordinance Number 2622?

Seeing none, we will close the public portion of the Ordinance Number 2622 at 636. Anyone want to make a motion? I'll make a motion to approve Ordinance 2622. I'll second.

Any discussion? Straightforward. Um, I have a couple of questions. Um, I was just doing a little research on the Houston Chamber because there's been some questions on, you know, the legitimacy of it. Um, I looked up some state records and this is what I found.

The Houston City Chamber of Commerce isn't actually an active corporation. This is what the records show. Houston Chamber of Commerce incorporated back in 2007 but was involuntarily dissolved at the end of 2015. 2015 After it stopped filing its required reports. So, um, the last officers that were on file were Roger Purcell as president, Ruth Blanchard as vice president, Rosemary Burnett as secretary, Nancy Salt as treasurer, and directors including Heidi Salt, Paul Zitko, and Rick Dilley.

Um, so I'm just curious if this is even something we should be accepting money from the chamber if their paperwork isn't up to date with the state.

And I also received a list of Chamber members or business members recently, and I had actually went through and called the majority of them, and there were a handful on the list that said they were not members.

So this is just what I'm finding. I don't know if somebody else has anything to say about it, but Uh, the only thing I would say is, um, their status at the state is they're a corporation. It really doesn't affect us from accepting the funds. That's something that they would have to deal with themselves. Uh, but the city isn't in— can be in any trouble accepting money.

Well, we have an attorney. What do you—. I mean, this is something I would have to look into to get further information because this is new. So I don't know. So maybe make a motion to postpone.

Okay, I would like to make a motion to postpone this ordinance. 26-22 Until the lawyers can look into this a little bit more. Thank you. Oh, second.

Sorry about that. Motion's been made and seconded to postpone Ordinance 2622 until reviewed by our city attorney. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed?

Motion carries unanimously.

And then, Clerk, you want to read in Resolution Number 2626? Yep.

Resolution number 2626, a resolution of the Houston City Council identifying main transportation corridors for future subdivision development and road planning.

Open the public hearing at 6:42.

Anyone in the public like to speak to Resolution Number 2626?

Seeing none, we will close the public hearing portion for Resolution Number 2626. 26 At 6:44. I'll make a motion to approve Resolution 2626. A second.

Okay, this, um, is a— and, um, basically was out of a discussion that I had with the planning board over at, uh, Matsuburo. Whenever we have, uh, whenever the city determines where they think a corridor of traffic will be needed, they'll look at it differently when they go to plat something. Um, you'll hear more about this later in the meeting, but it Basically, if we set up one of these corridors, um, they'll look at it a little more carefully than they would, let's say, if we were in a subdivision area. Uh, if in some of the— where we've said, okay, we think this is going to be a corridor, like let's say Hawkline, it's not developed yet, but if it gets developed out going west. They won't put a bunch of driveways on Hall Plain.

They'll— they will make roads that come off Hall Plain that tie into road intersections. Are much safer than driveway intersections, and there's less stopping and starting for individual driveways along a heavy travel corridor. So the purpose of this is identify that ahead of time so when they get to those areas, um, they're just a little more careful. They'll check the Public Works folks on our— for the city, we'll see if there's any major plans at the city, if— and they'll coordinate it a little better with the plating and what's happened in the past. So it's just a kind of a slow down before you just approve something.

Make sure what you're approving fits into what the corridor planning— and this can be revised at any point by the council, at any point in the future.

What does the city have in place right now for rules. I guess I haven't looked, but, you know, not much. Just— I'm just asking because on Miller's Reach there was that storage unit facility that went up, and there is an alternative road for a driveway. And I'm just curious, like, why the driveway for that business is on the main Miller's Reach when it could have been put on commercial drive. I'm just curious, like—.

Well, those are the things going forward that what we're doing by this. We're saying, hey, Miller's Reach is going to be a more traveled than your average side road like commercial. And that we would, if you're going to plat something in the future, take the time to make sure that that's— there's not a better way to get this platted than just putting a driveway along Miller Street. That's a good example of it though. And I'm curious, DeBergene, Korn, and Laray, those are pretty much already residential and everything, so how did those get flagged for main main corridors because just dealing with them with— I, as I do just in the fire service, how— I don't see how those could be main corridors.

So there's a lot of land beyond that hasn't been developed yet that could turn those into a much more traveled corridor. They may never. I was going to say, isn't part of Larray— doesn't the city not even accept part of Larray because I believe it's the far end of Laray the city doesn't— Chief, is that correct?

The far end of Laray, is that not accepted by the city?

I think there's a couple— Through the mayor, that no, so that extended portion of Laray is not in the road service area, but it's still in the city and it could be brought up to standard to be part of a bigger road. So it's like that section of Cherry Lake. Yeah. Okay. So yeah, I still, still don't see how that would fit as a main corridor.

Well, and we're kind of careful how the language you use. It really doesn't. It's just a check for them to go, okay, before we plat this, let's ask the city if there's anything that they're planning over in this area. And when they may, it may be at the time, no, we don't see anything in the next 10 years. Making this plan.

But it— we're running into a few things where they're, uh, if we don't have this, they're just blowing through things and going to cause problems for the city. Okay.

And you're right, I mean, if there's one of those that you want to take off, um, make an amendment, I don't care. I mean, it's just a, a list that I went through the city if I was the I'm playing the public works director also. So as I looked at those things myself, uh, that's what I— that's what, uh, generated that list. And I looked at the property that's yet to be developed, and I said, okay, that's a potential for a future corridor.

One thing that I'll just mention, just to point it out, like the, um, sections of some of these roads aren't within the city limits, so it's implied that obviously it doesn't pertain to that. Miller's Reach, the very tail end. King Arthur, the whole other side. There—. So, so the statement is guiding guidance, guidance, and, um, and for that matter, I think it's a good thing.

As far as my point about them, it's implied that it's not within the city or that this only applies to the city. Yes, it's just a technicality. I don't know if it needs to be written into here to specify that, but to any reader it would be obvious. Well, it was mainly— so your point is good, um, uh, but what it will also do is if the borough sees that the city is saying, hey, we think there's going to be development down here, it'll also make them be more careful what they're doing at the beyond our portion because it may end up in the city at some point.

So, um, another thing I think would be beneficial to add into these or into this ordinance— or sorry, resolution— um, would be to also put in designated parking areas for equipment. Um, you know, like, I'm just— from my experience with this construction on Miller's Reach and the neighborhood in the area, um, people were very upset because there were construction equipment parked in front of the mailboxes. They had a whole road they could have been using, they didn't, you know, things like that, especially with big trucks and equipment driving in and out. There should also be a route planned out for trucks because if you can avoid a really busy neighborhood as much as possible, trucks should be taking those routes. This is just something in the farming background with Custom Choppers.

They had 20 semis running back and forth from the farm and they had a designated route for these trucks, and they were always told to go, even if it was a 20-mile extra around the block, you know, to get back to the farm. It was the least traveled roads to keep the equipment and the people safe. So that was just a thought. I know most of the roads in town are dead ends, so that makes it difficult too.

Well, yeah, I— as, uh, as the city does grow, you're going to have more truck issues. And that's part of what this corridor process is, is as those develop, they'll develop to be able to take those larger trucks on them. And I think the trucks will naturally take a better-built road. At least I hope they would. I would if I was a driver.

But, uh, that's a— King Arthur is a prime example of that. That's why King Arthur is actually being upgraded with shoulders and everything so that the, that big cross traffic that you're going to get through the borough coming through, uh, Houston, that road will be upgraded to be able to handle that heavier traffic. And that's already part of the borough court, uh, traffic corridor. We're just, we're just kind of going along with that, saying yes, it's— we're developing it that way.

Anyone else?

But if there's anything on there where you think that, yeah, that shouldn't be on there or whatever, I— there's nothing there. I'm not married to that list. It's just what I went through the city and said, okay, I think these might be something we would want to have a second look at before it gets platted.

Like you said, it can be revisited at another time if you wanted to. So yeah, anytime you guys want to change this, it can be changed.

All right, seeing nothing else, go ahead.

Motion's been made and seconded.

To approve Resolution Number 2626, the resolution of the Houston City Council identifying main transportation corridors for future subdivision development and road planning. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries unanimously.

Okay, there's no public hearing for this one.

No, but you have on the audience comments.

What's that? Audience comments. Oh yeah, okay, it brings us to audience comments. Anyone have a— wanna make a statement?

Evening to all of you. I have plenty of comments.

I'm not here to complain, but I got a registered letter from you guys. If you could turn that on there. Yeah, very, very good. John McDonald, Houston resident. I'm curious, I got a registered letter that indicated me I needed to be here tonight about zoning, um, changes, relief on fees, and I'm in favor of it.

But so I believe I heard you say you're going to have it on December 18th, is that correct? I think planning— I think all that's at planning and zoning still. It isn't something the council is picking up yet. You sent me a registered letter. Yeah, well, it's, um, Charlie, you know about that?

So I think, uh, we just discovered a mistake in our packet. Um, we did send out a letter to everybody in the holding districts and everybody within 600 feet, but as I'm looking at it, I do not see it here in our packet today. But the date was scheduled for today for the public hearing. Um, this was just discovered about 5, 5 years ago. Okay, well, obviously, yes, you're on a communication breakdown, so thank you for your time, and I'm in favor of the—.

When you guys get around to it. Yeah, it's for the reclassification of the holding district, so we do apologize for everybody who did show up for that.

Hi, my name is Sandy McDonald, and yes, we did receive a registered letter, and it was considered what is called a public hearing notice, and it said that Resolution 2625 would be heard tonight, November 12th, at 6:00 PM, in regards to waiving of the fee for, um, anyone holding land that is zoned within the holding zone. So it does look It was not placed on the agenda for tonight, though I would imagine an expense to the city was— I would like to know what the expense of the city was to actually send out registered letters to all of the property owners and then to tell us it was tonight. And then, and it is also on the website if you check the website under public notices. It's listed there for this evening, but again, it is not on this evening's agenda. So, um, a waste of our time.

We are in favor of it, but, um, to be able to come and to be able to speak about it and to listen to your comments, it looks like none of you are aware of it. I did go to the Planning and Zoning meeting, which happened last month, they were in favor of it. They had a resolution that they had before them. It would be nice for the council to get a copy of that resolution and to see the amendments that they made. One comment that I had made, and online you'll see it, that the Planning and Zoning had amended the date.

It was to end sooner for allowing people to participate in this waiver, and one suggestion that I had made to the Planning and Zoning Commission was that this time would actually be extended all the way to the end of this fiscal year. It would be to the benefit of the city to have everyone who is in a holding zone to be able to rezone, but not everybody lives within the city, so to be able to contact them. And my concern also, which I have not researched, but I would ask the city to research as well as the attorney, because this has to do with zoning, that it may not be able to be passed as a resolution. Resolution. It may have to come forth as an ordinance because you would be waiving something that might be within the Houston Municipal Code.

So I'm not sure if a resolution would be appropriate, but, um, my— our main concern is that it's not on the agenda, but it did go through the Planning and Zoning and passed. Thank you for your time. Okay, yeah, I believe that the, um, if it's the item I think, they, they passed a resolution. I don't think it'll come to the council till they actually do their full public process. And I— is Charlie, uh, was that— that wasn't supposed to come to the council tonight?

It's on the website. Yeah, yeah, no, it's— that's, that's not the process that it should be under. I'll look into that. I apologize for any of the inconvenience it costs you guys because I was not aware of that. When I left the planning and zoning meeting last time, there was a process that they explained, at least what I heard, uh, that they would be contacting all the people and getting the input on it.

I think they were going to talk amongst themselves about extending that timeout.

I don't know whether they've done that. The amendment was made that evening and it was amended to extend it to March where it was originally January. So they did all of their amendments and the next process would normally be to forward it to the council for the council's approval. Um, yeah, I'm not aware of it. I'll look into what they normally—.

Yes, processes also when they pass something, then they write a report, a paragraph giving the reason for—. They're either in favor or opposition to whatever was presented to them, but they don't make final decisions. They—. Everything they vote on comes before the council, correct? We just didn't get— I don't know that they actually made that final decision themselves.

I think we didn't get it. I know I didn't get anything from the Planning and Zoning Commissioners, and I'll— but I'll look into it.

Yeah, just like this, this is what we all got in the mail. Belongs to our neighbor. But I mean, it says it right on top. Thursday, notice of public hearings, Thursday, November 12, 2026, at 6 PM, public hearing at a regular city council meeting. And also, there is normally not public hearings for resolution, only for ordinances.

So there just seems to be some concerns, process Well, I, um, yes, normally, but we, you, uh, we have a hearing tonight on another resolution because it affects the public in more a general sense. So anytime a resolution would affect a broad decision of the public, we want to hear from the public before we make a decision. Um, but I'll look into that. And there would be an ordinance that would have to pass to change the code to do away with that. So I am aware of that piece.

I just don't know why this piece went out. Not to claim ignorant, I was, I did have a vacation break. So some of this probably took place during that time, but I will look into it tomorrow. I'd pull it up for you guys now, but I can't. Can't get into any of the drives, the network drives.

So, sorry, resolutions.

Um, is there any— well, we're in public comment. Anybody else that has— yes.

Honorable Mayor and members of the council, I didn't know I was going to speak this on this today. I actually showed up to talk on behalf of the Houston Chamber of Commerce, and I'll just— I don't know if I can do everything in 3 minutes, but Houston Chamber was formed by former— started by former Mayor Tom Baird many years ago, and for years it was quite active. Former clerk and city councilman Elsie O'Brien Lisa Johansen was one of our big organizers. She would contact hundreds of businesses and got people from all over the Valley and they were quite active. And at one point we had close to 100 members and I don't know, $15,000, $20,000 in the bank and hosted a lot of meetings and most everything featured around the lodge.

That was the meeting, you know, we had senators and governors and business people and all sorts of folks that would come and be speakers. When Roger Purcell was mayor, he got active and took kind of over the chamber, and when things imploded, it kind of just fell apart. At about the same time, the lodge started closing. So Rosemary Burnett, a former city council member, took over as an association, as the the president just kind of as a holding pattern. And we really didn't do much.

We gave out a scholarship or two, and, you know, the funds had been depleted by previous groups. And then 3 years, we kind of kept it alive waiting for things to have the lodge to rebuild and then open, because that's when we would be active. And then about 3 years ago, I think the mayor who was and kind of in charge of Founders Day, decided that it was time for something like they do in Palmer where the chamber really helps out, and he wants the chamber to take a much bigger role in Founders Day, and he says this is really not the city's role. We should be doing, you know, facility stuff, and the local group should take over, you know, the entertainment and picnic and that stuff, and we'll take care of facilities and safety and that type of stuff. And I explained to him that we were kind of inactive, we didn't have a lot of members, we're not like Palmer, we don't have a big budget.

But, uh, I'd kind of been roped into it, so I said, okay, we'll try it for one year and we'll try and see if we can give you two. And so we continued with Rosemary as president for a few years, and, uh, you as an association, and we had a lot— not very many volunteers, but we had some, and some of them were, you know, loaned executives from, you know, Marty and Cheryl. And we raised money and we handled— we split up the expenses between the city, and it was a stretch. It was a real stretch, but we did it. And part of the agreement was that the city could only raise charge $10 for a fee to go collect for the vendors.

And so they asked if the Chamber would be the collection because we could charge more. The city ordinance says they could only charge $10, we could charge $100. So the city continued in the same role that they would collect all the vendors and stuff, but they would write the checks to the Houston Chamber and we would gather all the money up and then bring it back to the city and donate it. Last year we donated it to Parks and Rec, and this year Parks and Rec was inactive, and the mayor said, well, just donate to the city, we'll figure out what to do with it. So we put the money back in there, but we raised quite a bit of money and spent quite a bit of money on all the vendors and stuff like that.

And we've been working as an association, and we actually had a special meeting this year when we got the commissioner to come up here of transportation to make a presentation, which is like a big deal because one of the big things in Houston is the Parks Highway, which runs through town. And next phase— two phases are coming soon. And he came up and pledged that the new DOT was not going to just come in and impose their will on the city of Houston, that they would work in the beginning at the planning stage to decide what the road is going to look like, what the city wants in it, and they would then consider the city's request. Lance Wilson sent us a copy of what we distributed of Title 35, which says, hey, we're a city, we have special rights, and DOT needs to work with us. And then if they don't want to do what we do, then they'll approve it.

I'll approve it. So, um, that's the quick thing. If I could go 10 seconds more, we were hoping that the planning committee, you know, takes on recommendations to the city on what the city wants to do and continue that discussion on the highway landscaping sign ordinance and make any recommendations to additions to revisions to the comp plan. And then the city needs to decide what they want to do with Founders Day next year. The mayor is playing with new ideas.

As you know, he became— Founders Day became an Assisli holiday. But that also means paid time off and unavailability of some employees and a lot much, much higher burden financially on the city. And he's trying to figure out what to do with it and maybe change it around. And we're just sitting back and we'll do whatever the city wants. So no, we're not a corporation.

Maybe we should be incorporated or revise our paperwork. We had a deal when we fundraised, we sent out newsletters, and if you make a donation to to Founders Day, we'll give you a free membership into the chamber. So people may not have realized that we were including them. If that was the package deal, just make one donation and you're, you're good for Founders Day. We'll put your sign up and we'll also give you membership in the Founders Day, so, uh, or membership into the chamber.

So we will answer the mayor, attorney's questions, and if we need to get paperwork revised, you want us to incorporate, we will. We've just been working as an association and We got about $7,500 in the bank and we got a couple projects. Matter of fact, we just met with the former contractor, um, who still had $15,000 but he went broke and he, you know, left, left us, that worked on Bear Paw. And we asked him for a scope of work that needs to do. We have identified 3 grant sources to finish Bear Paw.

We need to know how much materials and work and scope of work needs to be done. I'm We'll leave it up. That's it. We're done. I'm sorry, but if you got any questions, please call me.

We'd love to have you join, help out whatever you can. We're small group. I'm done. Time's out. Sorry.

Thank you. Call me. Anyone else?

Christian Hartley speaking as a citizen, not in my capacity in the city. I just want to point out, um, be really careful about search terms, especially when making statements on the record. Um, Houston Chamber of Commerce was involuntarily dissolved. Houston Alaska Chamber of Commerce was not involuntarily dissolved. Houston Alaska Chamber of Commerce has a current business license, 108-2954, doesn't expire until July of 2028, and the incorporated portion of it, 107- 1286 does not expire until December 31st, 2028.

So the Houston Alaska Chamber of Commerce does have a current standing with the state of Alaska, which is listed as in good standing. I just wanted to make that statement on the record.

Concerned, or when are we going to talk about the potential 6,800 acres just north of the Little Susquehanna River? I kind of thought we were— I looked it up and I thought I saw it on the website that it was going to be tonight. Obviously it's not. Um, so when is— when are we going to address that? You're talking about, um, Department of Natural Resources, um, getting the 6,800 100 acres.

Yeah, I think they've already made their determination, hadn't they? Yes. Oh yes, they did. But I, like, I heard something about like a 2-year moratorium. I saw something out of the website, something about not within our city limits.

I just wondered where we were going to talk about that.

Well, you, you can you're welcome to talk now about it, but I'm not sure exactly what you want us to do. Well, I, as I said, I thought I saw that on the website that there was a motion out there or something like that, like a 2-year moratorium, no data centers in the city of Houston. And then today earlier I looked and I saw something where no data centers were proposed in the city of Houston. Well, that's correct. Um, Councilor— Deputy Mayor Brasel and I work together to create an ordinance that prevents the permitting or building or anything like that of data centers for the next 2 years while it goes— anything would go through planning and zoning.

They have to come up with the guidelines for anything like that that would come into our city. However, if I I think I know what you're referencing. And Deputy Mayor Brasel stated on Facebook that even though we created that for city limits, what's happening with ADA is outside city limits. So the ordinance the city voted in has no effect on anything ADA decides to do with that property because it is outside of city limits. So we've done what we can for the next few years to protect anything inside city limits, but we have no control at this point of what happens to that 6,800 acres.

We've— us and the public have made their concerns known. ADA or DNR went ahead and granted them the 6,800 acres, but we've put the ordinance in place to do what we can for the city to go through planning and zoning and come up with guidelines for our town. But we cannot do anything at this time about what ADA may do with their land. Well, ADA has said there is no data— there's nothing in the planning for a data center on any of the property that they were trying to get. So there's— well, I mean, Yeah, I mean, we have to go by what they're telling us.

And we've also met with them and they pretty much agreed that there wouldn't be anything happening even in those lands without having a discussion with the city of Houston. So there's, I'm, you know, not to dismiss any of your concerns, I'm not myself, I'm not concerned that they're going to do anything without us knowing about it. That would be pretty stupid of them at this point. Right, that's funny. Um, I just thought it was really hard to tell from— I got— because I made comments to, um, DNR and AIDF when before it expired, and they sent me an email with photos, but the photos are kind of blurry, but it looked like it was was directly north of Crater Lake and then across the little Susitna, then right up here on the near side of— as I said, I tried to blow it up or anything, I didn't think I put anything better here, but there's about a half a mile from what I understand.

I've dug up clearer versions of those maps trying to figure out exactly like the, the who owns what plot. There's just about a half a mile between the edge of city limits and the furthest and the closest chunk of that data transfer to us. And that half a mile makes all the difference as far as what we can do. Show me. Yeah, please do, after we're done.

Show me, because I, I'm not seeing it.

Thank you. We have more discussions. I surely would like to do Yes, if any—. If we hear anything at all, we certainly make it public. I— there, um, I— we have great interest in anything they would be doing in that area.

So, uh, just worried about the water basically and anything else that comes along. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Yeah, when you look that up, you get half the new map and half the old map. It's just not clear right now.

I thought I understood the way the new map looked, but they live right out there, so I mean, Sandy probably has it right.

So I don't think there's anything more to do other than the consent agenda, right? Is there any— give one last chance. Anyone else out there?

Seeing none, we'll close the public portion, uh, audience comment.

Brings us to the consent agenda, and that's after we removed the minutes to begin the next meeting.

Yeah, go ahead.

It's just an introduction. Yeah, it's an introduction. Make a motion to approve the consent agenda.

A second. Take the vote. Motion's been made and seconded to approve the consent agenda. All those in favor? Aye.

Opposed? Motion carries unanimously.

Okay, since the new resolution is moved to the next meeting Brings us back down to audience comments.

Anyone in the audience like to make a comment? Go ahead.

Honorable Mayor, members of the council, my name is Robert Hall, and I just make a suggestion to consider in the future. It's premature right now, but one of the good things about being the city is, and having our own planning and zoning authority, is this: we no longer have to go to Palmer. We can make our own decisions here within the community.

And if we're worried about what's going to happen north of us, I think I heard Ada or somebody say, well, we wouldn't object to you guys annexing some of that portion of the property or all of it into the city. It's not the time to make that decision to do it, but something to think about that if we want that. I tell you, I think you'd feel a lot more comfortable— you can't trust any government group, okay? But I think we'd feel a lot more comfortable with the decision that the city council would make on data centers than we would with the Matsuburo Assembly. And so you may want to consider annexing that in, or at least a big buffer zone of it, so that we would make the decisions and you wouldn't have to live with whatever recommendations the, uh, unincorporated areas that the Matsubaro Assembly kind of represents.

So something to think about. We are. Thank you.

Okay, anyone else?

Sandy McDonald. Um, my concern with, um, the city annexing more land is, um, we have to build roads, and I think the city of Houston has a major problem with caring for the roads that it has now. And If we add more, then we better take care of what we have. When you've been given something, you do well with what you have, and then you earn the trust of the people to gain more.

So that is my concern about annexing in more land. And if I may just show you the map, or I could just point it out. Right now. Um, the land that's where we live directly north of us was part of the 29,000 acres. That's that chunk, right?

That chunk. But there's a portion of that that they have a new map that they've printed, and we have land north of Zero Lake, which the northern border, which is also the northern border of the city of Houston into the Matsuburo or into Willow borders our property. So if I may, it's right here. Here's Zero Lake, and this is the property right here that we do not live there, but these two pieces of property right here are ours. Thank you.

Anyone else? Seeing none, brings us to executive session.

Um, We can either clear the chambers or we can try to go to my office and do this.

Okay, well, uh, well, first one, make a motion to go into executive session. I'll make a motion to go into executive session. I'll second it.

Motion's been made and seconded to enter into executive session. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Mr. Mayor, can I also make a motion to bring in, uh, Fire Chief Hartley for this first part of the executive session since he is mentioned in the correspondence that was forwarded to the council?

I mean, you can make the motion. I don't know if I'm— I think— I don't think you're going to need that. Can we just call him in then? Because I would like him to be in that portion of the executive session to ask questions, to answer the question. Yes, but I think he did put an email out too.

I— from Chief—. I know the emails are Okay.

8:17, 8:18.

Motion's been made and seconded to come out of executive session at 8:18. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries unanimously with No action taken.

No, no action. Okay, all your just clerk comments. Clerk comments. Um, well, nobody's here. We'll make them.

They might watch. Check out our sales tax form. It is fillable, it is self-calculating. It will not allow you to move to a different field without filling out the one previous. Um, you, you can't really make a mistake on it.

Um, the only thing is, is you can't pay online. You can fill it out and print it and bring it in, or mail it in, email it to us. And if you want to pay with a credit card, call and pay over the phone. That's something we're looking into, but right now that's how it works. Also, council members, do not leave after you— after we adjourn because you have pictures tonight.

And I know everyone forgot.

That's all I have. Oh, we also have a form Charlie made for planning and zoning items off a lot, and, uh, that's a pretty handy tool. Uh, speak on that. Um, it's, it's not currently live at the moment, but I will be posting it here pretty soon. Um, so it's basically a tool for, um, pretty much anybody who lives in Houston or who wants to come to Houston.

It Basically, it's a website that you go to, you click on what district you live in, and if you live in like an R1 district and you're like, oh, I, I want to open an Airbnb, I don't know necessarily if that will work, you click on your, your district and then Airbnb, or there's different selections for different businesses. It will tell you below whether or not that's acceptable. If it is, it tells you the reason why. If it's not, it will bring up code specifically saying what you need, if you need a CUP. And I can forward this to you guys too, so you guys can take a look at it.

There's a couple little kinks in there that need to be worked out, but it works pretty well, and it's really good for newcomers coming into the city who want to build. That's the main kind of tool that we're using it for. The few times that I've used it, I loved it. I mean, I'll have somebody come in the office, have some questions and I pop up their thing and it's got all the information right there for you. So, um, Charlie, when you get— make sure we get all the things up and locked and all that, uh, why don't you just send it out to all the council members?

Because yeah, it is a pretty handy thing to use. And at least get them the link so that they can get it and then use them as your guinea pigs. Yeah, we've even, uh, on a couple of our calls, we've even tested it using, uh, code compared with that, and it's, it's working great because it directly takes all of our code and processes it with your selections there. So yeah, it's a pretty awesome thing, pretty handy. Also, one more thing, I will be in— Charlie and I will be in conference, um, the week of December 6th.

He'll be back to do the meeting. I will be in conference through the 11th, and after that I will not be in the office until January 4th. So any questions or anything, any emails you'll be getting will be coming from Charlie. He will be the clerk in my absence.

Hey, um, well, you did a great job on the elections this year. I really I really appreciate what the clerks did there. That was amazingly simple for me this time. So we'll just start.

How about Council Member Courtney? What do you have any comments?

Yeah, I'd just like to apologize if I misspoke earlier on the chamber, but that was the research that I found. Um, on the state website. So I just feel like if we're gonna accept money, we need to make sure it's legit. Um, also, I would like to shout out a huge thank you to one of our community members, um, Mike Mitchell, um, Kingdom Cabins down here by Three Bears. He—.

Every time I drive through town, I see him out picking up garbage all the time. Like, that's just— he just takes a walk every day and picks up garbage. He, um, also keeps an eye on the little park here, the Rotary Park, um, next to the bridge, and make sure there's toilet paper in there and all kinds of things. So I really would like to say thank you to him and keep up the good work. Yeah, other than that I'm happy there's no snow on the ground yet, but anyways, have a good night.

Council Member Lewis, uh, thanks to everybody who, who came out tonight, especially the people who got the registered letter for hearing that wasn't on the agenda. So, um, you know, that shouldn't happen. I think that we, we should, uh, get that, uh, 26-25 on the December packet. And correct, notice whatever remedy with that.

I, from what I read about that so far, I think that's, that would be a good thing. I think it's important, so we should definitely get that lined up. So, oh, and the parks, definitely appreciate the parks for having some real ideas I love the enthusiasm and thank you to the staff for the reports. That's all I got. Okay, Council Member Johansen.

I'd like to thank everybody that came out tonight and also thank you to those who watch on YouTube because I always get quite a few comments from people about watching YouTube. So I appreciate you all. I'd like to say thank you to Parks and Rec. I would like to mention, he said the meetings at 11:00 AM. Hopefully your future work sessions, you'll consider that a lot of the council works during the day, so we're unable to attend work sessions that occur at 11:00 AM.

And a lot of the public out there that might wanna attend these work sessions, maybe think about having some in the later part of the day so other people can make those work sessions. I want to say thank you to everybody who came to the trunk or treat. I had to leave out of state, so I appreciate my fellow firefighters and especially Tanya from the Houston Fire Auxiliary for stepping up and taking care of stuff for me. Deputy Mayor Brasel, I heard quite a few comments about your, um, your trunk and, uh, and David Child's trunk. I guess you were combined, I think, or right next to each other.

And your name came up quite a bit from people talking about how awesome it was. So thank you for coming out. Years to evolve that. Yeah, well, I was, I was on a beach in 80-degree weather, and I heard the weather this year wasn't as great for Trunk or Treat, so I appreciate everybody who came out for that. Thank you very much.

I'd like to say happy birthday to all the Marines in our community. The United States Marine Corps celebrated their 251st birthday on the 10th, so happy birthday to all the devil dogs out there. I hope you all got your favorite crayon that day. I mean, right? We all know the crayons.

Please. Oh, come on now. I'm a Squid. I can say that to those guys. Veterans Day yesterday.

Thank you to all our veterans. Alaska has the highest veteran population per capita, and I'm very proud of that. I'm very proud to see so many people who have been willing to step up and sacrifice for for our country and their families that supported them. So thank you very much. And just one final note, it was brought up tonight in regards to DNR and ADA, and I am extremely disappointed in DNR and the 8,600 acres that they will be handing over to ADA.

Unlike some of my counterparts, I did not get the warm fuzzies with what Ada had to say to us. And I don't hold a lot of faith in what was said to us and what they will do for us and how they'll be open with our community. They might prove me wrong, but I don't feel very confident in all that. So we'll see how this plays out, but I'm very disappointed in that 8,600 acres. So, um, other than that, that's, that's all we got.

Deputy Mayor Brasel.

Um, well, you guys took all my thunder. Um, I, I will reach out to the, um, uh, the McDonald's about that map and the proximity to their property and, and kind of where that whole thing lands because I know her to be very detail-oriented, and she probably has the connection, right? Um, so I will reach out to them and find out what's going on, um, there and see if we can sort of make happen. Um, also, thanks everybody that came out to Trump Retreat. Uh, that was— I have a good time doing that every year.

Some years it's snow. This year it was wet feet. Lots of kids where they'd soak through their little fluffy feet including myself. Um, and I am loving the public— or I'm sorry, the Parks and Recs folks coming back to life again. That was a long stint of them not being able to get quorum and, and, um, new membership.

And the return of Adam is a— should be a big shot in the arm for them, and especially considering his background with all the trails and the new machine and groomer, that whole thing. He will make that stuff come together. Yeah, um, so I'm hoping to be supportive of that. Um, otherwise that's all for me. Okay, just had a couple other things.

Um, the borough did contact me and I drove over there to sign the plat on our— the railroad property that's going to be going through there. They're going to run another public process on it just to be safe since they've watched all the, uh, recent ADA stuff on. But it is the piece of property that we tried like 2 years ago that's, uh, right along— right by Zero Lake that has the frontage right there. We have ADOT that's going to be at planning and zoning in December. I think it's going to be the 19th or there, but watch for it because that'll be a pretty good meeting for what's going to be happening in the north end.

And the way I understand it is they're going to overlap the bit bridge with the— with both projects. So we'll get input both ways. And then, oh, I mentioned a little earlier, but the K'nik tribe is really interested in, um, what I had a conversation on where things are and our gravel pit and some things like that. And you'll be getting some information at the next meeting, and that I'm going to be inviting them to come here and speak also. But there's definitely some things that we can partner with them going forward, uh, that will both benefit them and us.

And they have a big chunk of property out on the one side. All that blue basically is the tribal lands there, and I think they're looking at developing since that rail runs right through there. And anyhow, there's a lot of opportunity. I'll let them speak on what their thoughts are, but I really enjoyed it. Enjoyed your— I'm glad they set it up, and I'm glad it was on Veterans Day when nobody could interfere with this.

So it was great. We had a prop 2-hour meeting and it was great. So that's all I got. And, uh, but that will adjourn at 8:30.