Cordova: August 5, 2026, Public Hearing & Council Meeting

Why is he so big like that? Because, because it's hiding the super view of the other side. You click on the, uh, the dots. There's— and— who's— other around? Show self view.

Go all the way down to show self view. Yeah. So then we can actually— we can hide self view, then we don't have to look at ourselves and— oh, and that's how we wanted it? Well, it's an option. I have to crane my neck to see this.

And if you hide self view, then the people who are joining from someplace else, they just show up. I learned all that from Kelsey. Not claim to have done that on my own. Appreciate the help.

Okay, you ready for— yeah, was it the public hearing? Okay, let's call the City Council public hearing of August 5th, 2026 to order and take a roll call. Mary here. Deborah Adams here. Lee Collins Aaron Hanson is absent.

Casey Kinsman is absent. Mike Mickelson? Here. Randy Rainey? Here.

Dave Zepfer? Here. That's a formal council. Thank you. Yeah, so this is a public hearing to take testimony on Ordinance 1239, an ordinance of the Council of the City of Cordova, Alaska, amending Cordova Municipal Code Sections 5.10.030 and 5.10.130 to incorporate changes made by the Alaska Remote Sellers Sales Tax Commission to permit certain marketplace facilitators that facilitate services and rentals within the city to report and remit directly to the ARSSTC.

Anybody want to offer comments?

And if not, maybe we can take a recess until— is it too soon for that? Okay, never mind. We can take a recess until a little bit before 7.

Sales Tax— Remote Seller Sales Tax Code Changes. Remember the right number for the acronym.

Yeah, we're in the public hearing to incorporate changes or to hear comments on incorporating changes made by the Alaska Remote Seller Sales Tax Commission to permit marketplace facilitators that facilitate services and rentals within the city to report and remit directly to the commission instead of to the city.

Anybody want to comment on the ordinance?

And maybe we will close, adjourn the public hearing. Okay, adjourned.

And why don't we call the Regular meeting to order. Call the regular City Council meeting of August 5th, 2026 to order. And will you join me in the Pledge of Allegiance?

Pledge of 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 And will the clerk please call the roll? Mayor Smith. Here. Deborah Adams. Here.

Lee Collins. Here. Aaron Hanson. Here. Casey Kinsman is absent.

Mike Mickelson.

Here. Wendy Rain. Here. Dave Zasra. Here.

That was a form of consent. Great. Great. Good, good. Uh, so we have an agenda before us.

Are there any— okay, great, good. Um, any edits or modifications to the agenda that we have as presented?

Hearing no objection, we consider the agenda approved. This, and then the next thing is disclosures of conflicts of interest and ex parte communication. Does anybody have any disclosures to make?

Any agenda items?

Okay. Communications by and petitions from visitors. We have a guest speaker, Clay Copeland from the Electric Cooperative.

Uh, thank you, Mayor. Uh, Clayton Copeland, 100 Jetson Drive, and, um, want to thank you for this opportunity to address City Council this evening and talk a little bit about, um, some thoughts and suggestions on economic development. Um, right now we've been experiencing kind of an inflation tsunami, and, uh We're well into a disastrous fishing season, but there have been some bright spots, and I think there's some ways that as a community and organizations we can prepare for and recover from some of these downturns.

Just as an example, over the last few years, CC, we've seen declining overall energy use, bigger in seafood processing. So, we've taken some steps to especially look at our relative advocacy and, and then kind of planning forward. So we implemented margin stabilization. So last year we had really high revenues and a really high margin, but we book on a 2-year cycle now so we can apply those revenues to this year's core revenues and that actually stabilizes our rates. So we just use some last year's revenue for this year and that doesn't force us to raise rates at a really bad time.

We've made a lot of investments in our plants, both our diesel and our hydro plants.. And those have come at a cost. We've had to raise our rates to do that. The trade-off has been that it's improved our diesel fuel efficiency and reduced that diesel cost in our electric bills, pretty much offset the rate increases. And so those fuel surcharges have gone down, and it's also given us a lot newer and more cost-effective equipment to operate.

I would say this winter was a little bit of an anomaly because we had some really cold, dry weather, so we had lower than usual hydro. And then when the war spiked fuel prices in March April, you really saw that fuel cost in your bills. But by the end of April, we were 100% hydro and we had that behind us. Um, so what we've kind of focused on is also, uh, pursuing growth. We want to sell more energy because we have a lot of energy capacity in that existing infrastructure that we don't have to add investments to.

So we've especially been targeting heat pump conversions and, uh, data load And I'll talk about those in a little bit more detail. So, I think there's ways the city can support industry and business and housing development in the community. One opportunity is to maybe work with land developers to open up new housing lots. We were able to work with the Native Village Mi'ak several years ago and get a capital appropriation from the state to extend power and telecom lines out the end of White Shed Road. We backed back the construction there.

Financial incentives can help. Sometimes the money that you don't collect with one hand can be a lot more with the other hand. So, for housing, that can look like increasing— Kuro Electric increased the credits we provide to individual homes and to residential developments. So, that helps people get over that high upfront cost hurdle of developing. And we've seen some response, positive response to that.

You know, there's a lot of Homeland Security, Coast Guard, and Department of War investments in Alaska. You've probably seen the announcements. A lot of communities are getting the Coast Guard infrastructure and other defense infrastructure in their communities, and a lot of that can be repurposed for commercial activities. So, here in Cordova, we've been working with the Native Village of Yak, especially targeting Coast Guard infrastructure, both air and water assets,. And with the new deepwater port and our underutilized assets at the airport, we have an opportunity for that.

Lots of lease land out there, a lot of hangar space. So Alaska Aerospace Corporation is putting their missile tracking facilities back out at the airport. That gives them opportunities to participate in hypersonic transport, both commercial and defense. That's a big growing new technology. And then we have a high-altitude atmospheric research project antenna that's been here for a couple years.

They also partner with Alaska Aerospace Center for projects. They have over-the-horizon radar and a lot of assets that can be used for environmental monitoring and, and.

Very own commercial applications.

So, corporate partnerships and organizational partnerships are really important. We, especially if we can bring new partnerships to the community. So, we've been working with one of the major US boiler manufacturers showcasing the quality of life that we enjoy here in Cordova and the difference that their kind of next generation air to hot water heat pumps can do to help us with our energy costs. But they also sent their marketing team here for several days, and when they roll out their national campaign around these, the heat pumps are going to be featuring Cordova as their test and partner community. And that kind of exposure doesn't hurt us either.

So, I wanted to dig a little deeper in the data processing load. So, in your packet on pages 2, 3, and 4, there's mostly just background information that GreenSmart Spark, this kind of small-scale data services company, is prepared for Petersburg. And then on pages 5 and 6, I just showed you where north of town at a back creek we have a small-scale cloud server installation by GreenSpark. And then we're looking at a data center installation on the Yacht Lake. And then on page 6, the back side of that facility just shows the footprint of the CDC Landlord, that used to be the site of a diesel generation plant with significant fuel oil storage.

And after we built the hydro plants, we repurposed that as just a distribution center. And I gave a little detail of some of the uses there. But essentially, for value proposition for the community, you know, based on their current small build, and again, I would compare— it doesn't quite scale the same because this is actually much, much smaller in comparison to these hyperscale centers we see a lot about. But think of Walmart Supercenter covering Southfield. This is going to be more like a coffee shop there.

And, you know, the coffee shop there is actually about the size of what this computer cluster would look like. So, but they need a lot of energy. So they represent about 15% growth in our energy sales, you know, at rates that are comparable to what we pay. And that's, that's more than our current entire seafood processing rate class uses on average. Um, they would pay their full share of winter diesel use.

We would carefully structure the sales agreement for them to do that, uh, so that they pay their fair share there. Um, for the city, um, this model would generate about $70,000 in new sales tax revenues. That's just from Birdville Electric's energy sales. That doesn't include, uh, property taxes or any revenues or sales tax revenues from, uh, CPC or the fill— sorry, They don't need much in the way of other infrastructure. They don't need a water supply.

Noise thresholds are significantly lower than diesel plants or diesel radiators, for example. The cooling system is kind of similar to what the processors used to have in the industrial core, except that because of our cool climate, they don't need a lot of cooling. They modeled several days a year where they didn't have to run these radiators. And again, the noise thresholds are low, and they would be sited in the middle of our line. Um, yeah, they don't need roads, uh, they don't place demands on our water sanitary systems, require housing or land other than a small, again, coffee shack size footprint.

Uh, we have space available for that. Uh, for CDC's part, we don't have to build new transmission lines or distribution lines or upgrade them. We don't have to add any generation capacity. We're just literally selling more power from the equipment we already have. So our incremental cost other than diesel is pretty much nothing.

Just structurally, I just want to point out that CEC has a legal obligation to serve customers. That's part of why we're allowed a monopoly or certificate of public convenience. If any business or anybody wants to come to Kirtland Electric and get electrical service, as long as they meet the requirements of our tariff, then we have an obligation to serve. And we don't get to pick winners and choosers, whether it's a church or a bar or dispensary or agriculture startup or a data load. So, similarly for the city, any businesses that do business in Cordova have to get a business license and comply with zoning requirements and get the necessary permits.

So, in closing, I just encourage the city to take a proactive approach in supporting commercial and industrial development. Opportunities in our community. You can always say no if you take a deep look and, you know, get good information from them and decide it's not a good fit. But, you know, doing business is tough, and it's even harder in rural Alaska. So, you know, we can't afford to lose these opportunities that could bring new business to Cordova, especially if we can use the infrastructure that we already have.

So those businesses that can diversify our economy in a way that takes pressure off our seafood industry and stabilizes our rates and helps spread our costs to keep those costs down for all the customers, then those are good choices, I think. So I just wanted to thank you for the opportunity to share a little more information, especially about the data set, and it's kind of put that in perspective, and for the opportunity to share some suggestions and information, and I'd be glad to answer any questions. Yeah. What's the status on Greenspark funding? Are they—.

So it's unfortunate that they had a really good tranche of funding and they've been working with the Alaska Industrial Development Export Authority and it has been frustrating. So they've gone out, got some other sources of capital and have an alternative to that. So, I mean, I've been hearing next couple of weeks for the last several months. So in the industry is changing in the You know, Coast Guard, military, they're looking for places to site servers. They're looking for small-scale servers.

There's other businesses and other companies out there that are looking— they're looking for energy anywhere. That's what they really need. The data servers need energy. And unfortunately, this year we've been many times spilling more excess hydro than the community's actually using. So, um, Well, I think you may have already answered my question, which is, does CEC have the capacity to meet the potential demand?

Yeah. So in round numbers, we have a little over 10 megawatts of diesel capacity and we'll be at 12 by next year. That's what we need to support the seafood processing industry here. They peak at about 10 megawatts, but that's really for just a few days in July and August when they're really peaking. And that time of year we usually have 5 to 8 megawatts of hydro capacity.

So we have a pretty solid 10 megawatts of capacity, and we usually get at least a megawatt of hydro during the winter as well. And there was some new improvements where we have to have funding to do a battery. We'll have some more capacity there as well. So our average load is 3 megawatts in this town, so we're only utilizing about 5% of our almost 20 megawatts capacity. And so one follow-up question then: what would, uh, a coffee shop size, um, data load, um, require?

Uh, about 500 kilowatts. So it'd be about half of what one of the larger processors uses., but you make up the revenue because they're running all the time year round. So it's kind of— it's, it's what we call a perfect load. They use the same amount of energy all the time. So, and they have to provide all their own backup infrastructure, you know, battery storage for right through, and their cooling and everything.

So physically, it's about— it's almost exactly the size of this table to the end there, 8 feet tall. So Same $30 million computer. It's not exactly like stacking gold bricks, but it's pretty close.

That kind of leads me to my question, Clay. So if we were to have these small data centers in place in our locations here in Cordova, and there was an opportunity to scale, how would that work? Would you have multiple small centers that would be attached to each other, or they stand alone? Would that not even work? That's a good question.

So, we did a lot of real careful modeling because of concern, of course, we don't want to drive up our diesel use in the winter chasing hydro in the summer. So, we have room to install two clusters there, but until we get more capacity out of Brack Creek, have a year or two to see what— how this fits in our generation mix and works both for us and the vendor, but we would literally just put a second CAPE next to the first one. So, there's room to expand, but both we and the vendor would like to take a little more cautious approach there. It's a good question. Any questions online for Clay, Casey, or Mike?

Yeah, Madam Mayor. Yes, sir. Councilor Kinsel. Yeah, and thanks, Clay, for this information. This is great, and always appreciate the partnership with CEC.

I guess, will you go back to what's the size or the capacity of this data center? I must have missed that. So it's about 500 kilowatts in the winter, uh, in the.

There's going to be a little additional load on those rare days where it's 65 or 70 and sunny and they actually have to run the cooling. It would add a couple hundred kilowatts to it. But I just want to add to that, and to add on to my response to Councilman Zastrow, um, we're also cognizant that there may be other energy needs and other businesses that need energy. So we don't want to just take all of our excess capacity and allocate it in one place. Uh, we know that heat pumps are going to take more energy, and we need a little room for growth in other areas.

So that's another piece of a more cautious approach. Okay. And I know I was down in Rangel, it's probably been a few months now, and they, uh, Greenspark, they had their representation there for a kind of a, a town hall meeting. I know you have put some information here about Petersburg, um, and, and that's not even necessarily relevant. Is there an opportunity for representation from Greenspark to do something similar in town?

As we to do some kind of open house or town hall. So that's a good suggestion. I'll mention that too. They come in periodically for a little bit of maintenance work to come back, and so forth. So we can try to schedule that for a council meeting.

They actually kind of suggested that. They said we could, we could kind of coordinate that. Okay. No, but I think that'd go a long way and allow, you know, maybe some— allow them to present their story and then allow us to ask some questions. So I appreciate that.

Thanks. Are you seeing many people take advantage of the heat pump? I know we have 3 of them, but I'm curious. We have— that'll be the last part, and that's on CEC. We really— we put some new rate structures in place and whatnot.

Um, it's, it's a little confusing to figure out how to work out how to meter them and whatnot and, and be fair. We want them to get the incentive for the heat pump but not necessarily for their other loads.

Unfortunately, it'll probably require installing a second meter of those services, but we think they'll recover them pretty quickly through the incentive rate. The other thing is, I've really been anticipating these air-to-hot water heat pumps because they're such a great retrofit to our hydronic heating systems, and they actually are about 20% more efficient than the air-to-air heat pumps. So in round numbers, they use about a fifth as much energy as an electric space heater. And provide the same amount of heat. And so if you can reduce your heating bill a little bit, you're actually spreading electric costs and helping keep your electric bill down in the process.

Thank you. Madam Mayor? Yes, Council Member Kinsman? Just one more piece of feedback on that. I, I think there's probably an opportunity for CEC to get some information out to the community as well, and that might be a format city council, just throwing that out there.

Maybe that's not the most appropriate, but I think there's a really big opportunity. And again, CEC has a really positive story that they can share about that. I know I'm working on one property that we have, and then on my addition to my home. So I think there's— I think people just don't know what they don't know. And again, working with CEC, it sounds like definitely some, Still working out some of the— it's a new thing trying to figure out these, these rate distributions based on it, which is totally understandable.

But I think there's probably an opportunity there for a little bit of an even town hall around that.

So, I didn't actually answer Councilman Rainey's question. So there have been a few installations. We had that $50,000 mini grant from CDC. We've had a couple of our residences take that up with the installation and then get the reimbursement for it. That helps us get more data and visibility to what the actual cost savings are.

We did get a USDA million-dollar renewable energy savings loan, but it's a 0% loan, and we, we are going to turn around and offer that as a 0% loan that we can dispatch your electric bill over 10 years. And we're really kind of looking more towards commercial there, especially load-side swimming pools, seafood processing bunkhouses. Places where we know we have lots of hydro available and the rates are lower, you get that much more savings out of it. So, and then we also are part of the Southeast Conference heat pump area. There's grants there.

I'm not even fully ready on what's available there, but I think those are income-based grants. So I think there's 5 different incentives that are available now, and we're trying to jumpstart that mode and get that available. Soon. So we do have some more incentives coming down to help with those.

Yeah, I was going to mention, Clay, that this— the, um, Housing Supply Accelerator Committee that the city has stood up has talked about maybe doing a workshop in January of 2027, because there was talk about saying like we could just help people walk through the process of getting a building permit or go through the housing program guide that the Economic Development District got, and I wondered if CEC might want to be part of that with a table where you could be talking about here are some of the incentives that are available for heat pumps and just having somebody there to talk to people who might—. Absolutely. That's the best time to look at installing one as far as a greenfield and maybe even also talk about the line extension credits. I think a lot of people don't realize until they go to build that both CEC and CT have pretty substantial credits that in many cases could cover the full cost of getting your electric and telecom services installed. So yeah, it's really helpful.

Cool. All right. Well, thanks for what you do. It's a tough cycle, but there, there is some blue sky out there. And actually, our sales are not that far behind.

And April and May were record sales for us since they were processing a lot more ground fish at Port Ormond. So we just needed to fish this year, unfortunately. All right, thank you. Thank you.

All right, audience comments regarding agenda items. Is there anybody in the audience who wants to make a comment on agenda items?

Okay, chairpersons and representatives of boards and commissions.

School district want to— are you speaking or listening? You don't have to, I just didn't know. Okay, okay, okay, great, thanks. Um, so then we have our consent calendars.

I will call the roll on the consent calendar. Wendy Raining? Yes. Mike Mickelson?

Yes. Aaron Hanson. Yes. Casey Kinsman. Yes.

Collins. Yes. Deborah Adams. Yes. Dave Zastrow.

Yes. Thank you. I just want to call attention— I don't know if I'm going to read the whole thing, but I wanted to call attention to the city's proclamation of appreciation to Kathy Sherman. For all the work that she did on behalf of the city in several different capacities. So we just want to make sure that she's recognized, that she knows that we miss her, her kind, safe voice at the table.

And I guess just thank her again, make a public expression of appreciation for the time and the I guess the personal passion and the commitment that she put in to all the different city endeavors, including getting us this building. So thank you, Kathy.

Okay, so we don't— uh, we've already approved the minutes. Those were in the consent calendar. We don't have bids or contracts. We have reports of officers and We did put in a written report.

Yeah, so the ferry system, we need to make it an issue. We need to really make the ferry system an issue. And I don't know that there's much we can do about where we are at this moment, but like I said, the, the, what we have seen over time is systemic disinvestment in our ferry system, and it shows in the condition of the vessels that are serving the whole state right now. Um, and I, I'm not saying it's a, uh, a political issue with one party or another, but I think we need to ask every candidate for governor what their plan is for, um, supporting our ferry system. And I also think it's important, to the extent that we have, uh, any voice, is to advocate on behalf of continuity for AMHS staff, just because a new person comes in, then they start all over with all the planning and all the other things that happen.

So that's my two cents about that. Um, the Housing Supply Accelerator Committee, I gave a report about that and the things that we're doing, and I'm happy to answer questions. I did I am interested in going to the Sitka Community Land Trust session, which is at the end of September, to learn about what we might do, how we could potentially do that here in Cordova, and see what they're doing. And I did contact the Sitka Community Land Trust and ask them to give a presentation at our next Housing Committee meeting, which is on the 25th of August. And I invite Council.

Members to come hear that if anybody's interested, because this is, you know, somebody who's in the state already doing this kind of work. It's not lower 48 saying this is what you have to do. So August 25th at 7, we have a fellow from the Sitka Community Land Trust who's going to speak about how they are using their community land trust to increase the housing supply in Sitka. Mayor, that meeting, is that recorded or released in extra time? Um, we probably could do that.

That'd be great.

Yeah, yeah, could do that. We could cause that, cause that to happen. Yeah, where is that? Um, we usually meet in the mayor's conference room, but maybe we could meet in here if same time as Parks and Rec, so we could see what Parks and Rec is doing. We could do— or maybe do something.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we can figure it out. Mayor If you have a few more people, yeah, sure. Great. Yeah, I mean, not that that room— we have never been filled to capacity, but it might be nice to— you said 7, the 27 people. That's 7.

Yeah, and let's see, um, I do want to mention, because I've seen Other people, I think there's a call out for the Secure Rural Schools Resource Advisory Committee. I think they're looking for applicants for sitting on that committee, and several of us here have done that, but it's a really great— I don't want to interrupt, but I did contact Tom. Great. I'm in the process. Excellent.

Thank you. Yeah. I mean, it only meets once every 2 or 3 years. It's not a regular thing. It generally meets once a year every 2 or 3 years, but it does mean having a voice in spending money in this community, which I am always a fan of.

We always want to make sure that we can spend as much as possible here. So, Madam Mayor. Yes. Yeah, I turned down on that, but the projects, it's really super interesting. Some of the projects that come through, it's nice to kind of be in the know of seeing some things ahead of time and getting to give feedback on problems, projects that are happening all across.

I highly recommend folks put in applications for that. I would totally do it again if I could. Great. Thank you. Yeah, great.

So I think the criteria for projects are they have to be adjacent to Forest Service land. Federal lands. Federal lands and benefit forest resources. Right. Yeah.

And so it's a pretty wide swath. You know, we supported work on the airstrip out at Towns Glacier. Right. We supported trail work. It's—.

Saawermis and Bear Lake. It's all about city nerves. Right. Yeah. So it's a wide range of things.

And yeah, but all having great, um, what's the word, uh, a really positive benefit for outdoor recreation. Yeah, go ahead. Just an addendum on to, um, especially the folks who are on this table putting in an application, I know that it's difficult to get enough representation from the three different categories. So there's the idea behind this committee is to get a cross section about the community. So there's categories you have to fit within, and I think, uh, folks around the table fit nicely into one of the categories, which is hard to fill in.

Do you know the other categories? Uh, I don't want to— I hate tell you generally, but I think, I think just talking to the Forest Service to talk and to get specifics from them. I think, uh, school representative was on. Yeah, school representatives, local operations like Orchid Lodge, that kind of thing. There's several, each of the three have multiple different ways that you can qualify.

Yeah. Great. Thank you. Do you happen to know what the deadline is today? Very special.

Okay. Well, yeah, we've been shooting, I think we'd like to get it done. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the sooner we can get it filled, it takes a long time to get all of the applications vetted at the federal level.

So the sooner we get the applications in a pile and she can submit it, the sooner they can get through that process, which can take months. And then you have to advertise for the meeting and that takes months. So it's— the federal government. The sooner we get it rolling, the better. It moves slowly.

Mm-hmm. Wheels turn slowly. I think the Coast Guard Appreciation Picnic has been rescheduled for the 28th. August. And I will try— I should have verified.

I meant to verify that, but I'm pretty sure I heard that. But I will verify and then, uh, let you know, Susan, and you can sort that thing out. Sure. Yeah. And let's see.

Happy to answer questions.

Yeah, it looks like you and the Acceleration Committee for Housing Supply did quite a bit of work and are moving forward. It's good to see this committee getting some traction, hopefully, about some solutions. So yeah, I've been talking to Sam too about— we talked as a group about— there's a Alaska Housing Finance Corporation program coming up called Rural Professional Housing. And awards are up to $700,000. They have to be for rural professionals like healthcare, education, public safety.

The property— you could do renovation or new construction, I think, but the property has to be made available for a rural professional. For 10 years as a defined risk. And so, yeah, we've been putting out feelers, you know, talking to NDE, talking with the city. We— Shea, at the last meeting, talked about saying that Rural CAP is interested in being the project manager of that if we were to get funding. And then I have been in touch with the North Pacific Rim Housing Authority, which manages the properties I think Sunset View and Eak Manor and Orca on Lake Avenue and Chase, um, about whether they would serve as the property manager.

Because we're not asking the city to be the property manager. We're not. Yeah, that would be a little outside, I think, of the city's lane. But yeah, but NPRA, they already— that's what they do, they manage housing. So I have talked to them to see if they'd be interested.

Yeah, okay. Yeah, I think that's just it. The solutions are going to be many. There's not one thing, right, that's going to solve the problem 100%. We need all of it.

Yeah, yeah. Do you have a San comment? Um, on the record, my mother-in-law said she is not running next year. I just want that on the record. On the record, I think, to the listeners at home.

Yes, listeners at home. Well, it was really impressive. I can't remember exactly. I was trying to remember what the time was, but she did it, and that was, that was a lot of steps. She and Steve.

Yes. Yeah. Great. Okay. Yeah.

So, happy—. Oh, yeah. Happy Day of the Muslims.

I was wondering. I was just having a hard time seeing my—. All of a sudden I got dark. Yeah, thank you. Wow, you're really nice there, you.

That's a brilliant touch. Yeah, sorry I asked. Trust us. We go on then to the manager's report. Okay, I'm going to have, um, Samantha, uh, come up and update, and then after her, um, Cheryl is going to give an update on, uh, what SAS Tech has been Hello, guys.

It's been coming in. Hi, everyone. Uh, we are getting closer, and I'm getting more confident with saying that, uh, there will be a date soon. We're hoping, uh, the beginning of September right now. Um, we're scheduling lifeguard classes right now, so keep an eye out for that.

I just want to let everyone know that I have had so many people come and asked to volunteer, which is amazing. We only can fit about 8 people in each class. So the first round will be city employees getting recertified, and then so we'll probably do a few different rounds for that. So the boiler's been going. We do have to do a few repairs to it that are coming up, but it is— it's a known issue with it.

It's still running, but not efficiently. So it's the water's heating up, the chemical controller got work done today. Um, so we're just calibrating all that with, uh, getting all those things done. So it's looking good. Um, and I'm just really excited to make it happen.

It's great. Yeah, it's good news. It's been a journey, but getting back in the water soon, which is going to be very helpful. It's been an odyssey. That's great.

Yeah, thanks, S. It's all your hard work. It's much appreciated. I know there's way more than, than even what we know about.

So, so we just finished second quarter. So I had mentioned at the last.

Year-to-date, um, budget to actual, meaning that I would give an update once that came in. Our sales tax, including surtaxes, is looking at about $250,000 less than where we were this time last year.

Um, yeah, not great news to share. Sorry. Good to see y'all.

Um, all of a sudden, yeah, just fall of sunshine.

I try. I'll try. Just her said, yeah, so a little more. Just keep in mind that third and fourth quarter are usually our largest quarters, so I will keep you posted as that comes through. But we see what's not going on.

I do have good news to share. Audit is coming along great. Yeah, we might have comment, um, drafts done by the end of the week is what we were told. So, um, a lot better than end of September like we've been experiencing. So that's my good news.

Okay, uh, Susan and I can give you a little update on the annexation meeting we had It's a lot. We talk about annexation and borough, and there's a lot of things to even think about. Um, I don't have a good date for the work session just because of upcoming commitments between union negotiations, 2 days in the next 2 weeks, um, and just time frames. To wrap our head around this. But he, he looked at what the lawyer gave us and he felt like that was a pretty good summary.

So we're going to work on off that and kind of move through that. Susan and I just talk about what that would look like and how we might present that at a work session. Um, and it is a big investment and the time Like you could have your study done in maybe 2 to 3 years and you could still not be knowing in 10 years whether you make it. So it is, it's, it's not going to happen tomorrow.

We need to just kind of fill it, fill it out and see if we are in a spot financially that we can even afford to start the process or we wait to start the process when we're in a better financial place.

And get it rolling. So that's kind of that. I know it's not a lot, but we're still just even wrapping our heads around it. We have to talk with, um, what's our assessor's company? Um, Appraisal Company Alaska.

Yeah, and just come and get some information there, even though that's not our property area, you know, just a general look in there. But the financial study, that is the first step, would analyze the feasibility of even moving through the process.

And it was like $80 grand, close to what Holly said. That's just the, the, um, consultant helping with the process, doesn't include any lawyer fees. Um, I mean, that's kind of the total. Feasibility study would be a small part or me.

So it's kind of update I have. It's a lot. I don't know if we are really in a position with budget coming up to be starting delving into this. Madam Mayor?

Yes. Um, yeah, I just like to kind of ask a question just to get into a little more depth here. Um, I certainly recognize that we're going to have some serious financial constraints coming up when we have the results of this poor tax revenue season coming in. Um, but so even if we did spend money on this, this is so far down the road, it seems To me, is your recommendation that we just have everything in place for when we do have money, or do you have a specific recommendation at this point, Sam? I guess I don't really— I don't see doing it this year, this year being '27, as a feasible option because we just don't know what that's going to look like.

Um, especially with no information on third and fourth quarter here. Um, we're gonna have a lot to make up, and we don't know what '27 is going to look like. We have to base our budget on what we do know. So there, my— I guess my recommendation, we would not tackle it in '26, not even start. Thanks.

Yeah, I, I tend to agree. Or—.

And the Local Boundary Commission is a very political group, um, changes often with administrations. So with that change coming, might be curious to see, you know, how they handle any petitions that come soon, but petitions are so few and far between. Petitions to annex or detach or form a borough, all kinds of different things.

Um, and then some communities get caught up in it like Sam was talking about, and then 10 years down the road the vote comes and like 20 people stood in the way of Seldatna annexation. For them. So that was a lot of time, effort for nothing in the end. You know, not to say that it wouldn't work here, but there's also so many different ways to go and we still can't get a good handle on which is the right one. Do we go borough and go big and take water for fish tax?

However, what's the analysis on fish tax and the water Is there enough to warrant us going that far? Plus, the local Landry Commission doesn't want a petition strictly as a money grab. They're not going to say yes to that. It has— you have to also have reasons to take people in, in those communities or wherever they live because they fit with your community and they want to be included in your community. So difficult.

Yeah, benefits to both.

Yes, we have a little bit more to think about just in the big picture. I think one of the questions I have for the, um, Mike is whether the feasibility study could be done in the borough and the—. And then how long a feasibility study is going to be good for if we start it and then can't take next steps for years. That data is going to be old. But you've done—.

But you've at least created the framework. Okay. And then you update the data. But okay, that can happen. So yeah, there you go.

That, that's question I had. Is there something that could be done now that would be valid 10 years from now, that could be useful 10 years from now? Well, it's going to be requiring additional funding to make it useful, right? Right. But yeah, wouldn't be as high as the original investment.

It would be incremental cost to update the data.

And I just think the financial impact of doing it now doesn't make a lot of sense where we're at right now, even if we can use it 10 years from now. And even more so if we're going to wait 10 years to use it. True, yeah, but at some point in the future that there is something that could be done that has value, that has staying power, I guess. Not that we can afford anything right now.

So Sam, are you talking about not taking next steps with the consultant? Are you asking us for yay or nay direction on that? I mean, what money? We don't have the money to take next step. Well, you met with them and they—.

We didn't get a—. Did they do a scope of services or—. We didn't get the scope of services back. We got a rough And it would—. We'd have to go out for proposals because it would be more than $25,000.

So we might have to meet as a group to determine what to even put in the RFP. I think the timing— we're moving into a budget, it's going to be a hard budget. I, I—. Right, I'm, I'm just trying to understand what you're asking. I mean, are you saying— it sounds to me like you're saying you want us to tell you not to do it right now, but I don't know.

Okay, what do you guys want to do? Well, I mean, that's what I'm trying to— that's fine. I mean, yeah, I love the direction. I mean, I don't want to spin my wheels if you guys are agreeing that it's, it's not financially feasible right now. It's not financially feasible right now.

Yeah, I think we have other priorities to look at, which I'm going to bring up in a minute.

Okay, that's 2 or 3 been shaking heads and saying one thing. I haven't heard enough. I don't know. Do you want to make it an agenda item where we actually take a vote?

Next time. So I got that, that was information that you gave us. Question was asked, where are we sitting? There— I don't feel like there was really any ask for deliberation. We're going to talk about it.

It was information.

Now, yes, we're not in a position financially We're all in agreeance on that, but we also have to generate revenue, which was the whole point of diving down to figure out what value it could potentially bring. I mean, that's the end goal. We're, we're short on revenue. We're trying to expand our revenue. Uh, I don't think with the information that we were given just now is enough for us to base the decision.

Um, feel like there should be further discussion at a later time.

What are you looking for?

We were looking for the feasibility. I, I feel like that was the initial ask, and what, $80,000 is the number to start the process, the rough order of— yeah, rough order, which could potentially give us a number of generated revenue, or is that just a direction in where it go?

My understanding is it is a feasibility study of generating what the revenue would generate and what we would have to do, the services we have to provide, is it even possible for— does that even make up for that, right? And that kind of stuff. Yeah, I think it would be helpful to know, have a little bit more detail on what we would get for that $80,000. What is that? What is that body of work going to tell us?

And I don't feel like we have enough definition from that at the moment. And so I don't know. I mean, you've met with the consultant and there was some discussion about the work session that would be for us, for the council. So we had talked about a work session with Holly. Okay.

Yeah, but I, I guess there was an ask for a work session on annexation. Um, are we— I think he was gonna— we can get back with— we can chat with him and see what he's gonna give out because, um, we didn't get a proposal from him, and it wouldn't be hardcore because He knows it has to go out to our people, right? But just logistically, I feel like it could give us a starting point. Well, even if they gave us a sample table of contents from another study that they did, that would tell us what would be in it. Didn't he send us a bunch of—.

He did. They're very different, but yeah, yeah, I mean, okay, so we will talk to him, see if we can get a cost. I don't know how we would fund that. Um, and then we could look at some of the— you guys can read the ones that he sent to us.

I just, I just feel like we're chasing money, that maybe we're going to invest more money than we can get, or more money right now than we can afford to do. And we—. Yeah, we— I, I don't even really understand why we would consider it at this time.

Regardless, it's still $80,000 or $100,000 or $860,000, whatever it is. We don't have it in '27, and we're not going to get revenue —to recoup off that in '27, '28. Yeah, right. That's true. So, you know, can we make it through '27 and then talk about it in '28?

So that's something to think about. Yeah, but I guess I would, like I said, I'd be curious to see what a feasibility site looks like and what are the contents. What does it tell you? Well, that's just one part of the whole process. That's the first step.

There's not— I don't know, I didn't get the impression that he was willing to do a feasibility study if you're not signing on for the whole gate. Sure, sure. But I'm— but I just would like to know more about what that first step gets us. What, what do you get for the $8,000? And I'm not saying we're going to do it, I just think you're being— yeah, Councilor.

So I'm pretty sure I'm the one who asked for this, and I guess, uh, You asked what, what are we looking for? I was just looking for more information, uh, more— a little more information than what was given, uh, asking for a decision or before I understand where our finances stand. Um, and quite honestly, where we're at right now could be enough information, um, from what I was trying to gather. And I understand, Spencer, because when it's financially not obtainable, but it was more of if we could get somewhat of an understanding of what generate— what revenue could be generated. And then I'd be curious to how long this has been a topic.

This is, uh, one of those you bring it up, it gets kicked down the road, and here we are 15 years later having the same conversation about moving it you know, a couple years down the road.

So, well, we've explored borough twice with committees in the last 20 years, and nothing came of it. And, and, but never annexation of just Harkney Bay. But is that where we're— if it's such a huge time and money commitment, do we go big instead of just doing a tiny piece? That's another entire question to tackle. Um, and I'd say beyond the financial potential, financial gain down the road, again, as the commission would want to see, there would be a benefit for the folks who'd be annexing.

And what does that look like to the city? I mean, that's part of the piece of what, what do we have to give, right? Are we committing to trash pickup and Plowing water, plowing, right? Yeah, yeah, the biggest thing. Yeah, thank you for the information.

And you, you weren't the one— we all decided that we wanted to do this, so don't take that all like that. Oh yeah, I'm just saying, you guys can feel free to get on the LBC site. They have all kinds of information on there, petitions on there, previous ones. And, you know, we can forward you what the guy had sent us on some recent ones. That would be great.

That would be great for us. Yeah, you guys.

Any questions from online?

Nicholson, please.

I don't have a question, I just have a comment, which is that I certainly understand kind of where Sam's position is coming from, and I, I just tend to agree, agree with it. Like, we're going to be so far behind in our next budget cycle that I, I'm struggling to understand how we're even going to provide basic services that we're already committed to. And, and I, I, I'm certainly in support of doing this in the future. I just, I, I can't see how we're even going to be thinking about this until we, we get in a little better spot financially to where we can really do the job right and try to put ourselves in a position where we can have a potential different outcome than the last several times it's been considered in the last 20 years.

Okay, thanks.

Else, I have other comments besides the annexation for Sam. So I have questions about the landfill. Okay. 31 Bears. Bear spray has now been deployed.

A dead bear has been found. We need to do something other than sit around and wait for events to be put up. I think the culture out there needs to change. We can't just have open pit dumping and have a little bit of ground put over it at the end of the day. Something has to change when we're going to be looking at a life injury.

I mean, what else can we do while we're waiting around for a fence?

Can they bury it immediately after dumping? What, what? Something has to change because the culture has now established generations of danger out there and there's garbage everywhere.

Everywhere. So what are we going to do about it? Because it's a problem that the city has made. Now the city has to fix it.

And it's, it's dangerous.

So I guess my first comment would be we do bury it and they dig it up. They dig it up everywhere. They dig it up from the old side. They dig it up from the new stuff. It's not just like every time it's dumped, yes, they do fall out, but they go everywhere and dig and get food.

So we are working on that.

Working on the fence. I'm open to suggestions if you have any. Um, we have to dump the trash. We have to have people out there.

Um, what do you— what's your suggestion? I, I don't know. I'm not an expert on refuse, but I know that I run field camps and we have garbage and we don't have bear issues. I know we bearish it, really deep. I know we're constantly vigilant, and it has now gotten to the point where it has grown past the landfill, and it is a danger everywhere out there.

I mean, you go out the road, and I follow trucks, city trucks going out the road, and there's garbage flying out of the trucks every day. And I know every day, every day there is garbage along those roads. When's the last time Public Works has been out there to take a look at the landfill? Every day. Kevin's been out there every day looking at the problem.

Well, okay, you didn't say director, you said college works, so in my mind that's practice. I mean, it's an issue. Nobody's denying— I don't think there's somebody saying, okay, we're good. Well, but we do— I mean, we have to get rid of stuff. We do it.

We can't bury it deep. There's rules. DEC has a— you can't go down below the water table. You can go— they actually made us lifted up. They took away debt from us.

We knew we can't do anything. Can we call the people here? What is the timeline for the fence? It's out for RFP again. We didn't get an engineer.

We just put it out yesterday for a contractor, a fencing company, to come in and do it. I'm sorry, what did you say about an engineer? We did not get any response to an RFP for engineer. No response.

Zero. So we put it out to contractors, we're notifying, um, places in Anchorage. We've talked to Kodiak to get better because they did a bear biz recently. Um, so I believe we'll get some response back to that. Great.

Um, and yeah, I mean, we could go the Forest Service route and train people Carrie does, but I don't know if that's where we want to go, and I don't know what that looks like. Yeah, Council Member Hanson and then Council Member Adams. Is there any, uh, permits available to euthanize bears?

We could talk to Charlotte about that. It is not a very popular—. No, no, I'm aware, but At what point— I, I understand the philosophy of we created the issue, we are supporting their food source, so they're not going to go anywhere.

But at what point— I mean, where— I mean, I went out there to offload trash and it was physically unsafe to be present. Because the bears are literally climbing up to the truck.

So at what point, when, when, uh, does it actually take somebody getting maimed or death before you actually do something? I guess, what is the do something? Like, we're, we're trying to get a fence, we're trying to permit to actually eliminate the issue. Like euthanizing bears. I don't know if that's— I mean, the DLP is defensive life and property, so that is in effect for any situation.

But to actually get a permit from the state, just start shooting any— I don't know you're going to get that. Yeah, I wouldn't say very likely. Um, I mean, I can ask Charlotte to get an affirmative yes or no on that. Um, and I will say the bear that was dead out there was killed by another bear. Another bear, yeah.

But they're aggressive this year because that's the only food source that they're seeing. So They're more aggressive than normal. That was going to be my question. I mean, we've had landfill for a long time. And this has become a current problem.

And what other factors are contributing to—. It's not a current problem. It's been a problem for a long time. But it seems to have come to a crisis now.

I haven't been out there, so I'm taking your word for it, but What other factors have contributed to this so that they don't— they don't have berries, they don't form— this is just more convenient. There's not enough fish in the streams. All those things. All of those things are contributing to this. So there's generational use going on by the bears.

Yeah. Mom takes me there. I grow up, have babies. I'll take my babies there. Although when we've had— sorry, we're just having kind of general except for here.

But when we've had our biologist, local biologist, you know, specialist here, she has said once the source is denied, though, they'll go back to normal behavior. So I think that's why the option to just start killing bears seems a little extreme when we need to continue focused on denying them that food source, which is delayed for sure. So how do we protect individual employees? That's what I was guessing. What's the safety measure in the interim until the fence is up?

Talked about a few things. We are gonna— we have the new dumpster truck is finally here, or will finally be here Friday. And then we'll use residential. We'll pick— we use the old dumpster truck to pick up residential that nobody's getting out.

The hook trucks, you know, I don't know how much trash you have, but you can take things to the baler for transfer, um, and then they get taken out in the hook truck. Nobody gets out in the truck. So we're trying to work through some of those things. Um, but, you know, I, I don't really have any great miraculous solutions. We're doing what we can do.

We can't dig, we can't bury deeper.

I guess we could put more dirt on it, but there— it's not going to change the habit of digging it out.

That's— Council Member Collins and I have talked a lot about food waste composting. If we could take food waste out of the waste stream, but it takes a lot of equipment. It takes rejiggering the whole waste collection system to do that, but that's Yeah, I guess that's just what I would say. Sorry, go ahead. Just, it doesn't seem like there's much that we can do in the short term.

All these seem like long-term solutions. And just talking about the annexation, we don't have money for that. It's hard to look at any solutions going to require funding.

Um, and then just a comment, because yeah, from what Charlotte Westy had said of meeting came back from earlier this year.

It seems like we do tend to talk about these generational bears becoming the issue, but it seems like even if we euthanize some of them, more bears are going to come in. So the current situation is really not a solution. So I just see us trying to work on what little steps can we make, yeah, to reduce the amount of trash going out there. Can we put more fill on top of it? Is there access to more gravel?

If we can't bury it deeper, is there a way to just for now—. Solution?

I would have to talk to the refuse guys, but I, I mean, they're digging in the old cells that are capped, you know, that have a large layer on top. I, I, I understand the concept. I just don't know that it matters to them. Right, like how much fill would it require? It's still taking a cultural change in Puerto Rico.

Okay, just another comment on that. You're digging in those old cells, but also digging the cells that would have been trashed, that had been bailed first, right? Because we also hear that— or at least I've heard that when we had the bailer, we didn't have a bear problem, but I don't believe that was true either. I mean, they tear apart the bailer trash, basically it's trash dug up And so if they're digging in the old cells, they're digging up trash that's been previously bailed, it's still accessible to people.

Yeah, and I'm thinking of safety right now, and is there a way to simply have an escort, or when, when the guys are out there, they—. So there's a landfill guy who's there all the time. And he's either got a piece of equipment or, you know, moving between that and his truck. Um, they— when somebody comes in to dump, the landfill guy is there, and there's, you know, they talk to each other and they make sure things are going, especially if that person has to get out of the truck. Um, because we also have, you know, we have refuse guys, but we also have sewer guys who go out there.

I'm also just thinking law enforcement or bigger guns. I mean, I'm not putting guns in the hands of city employees, but do such escorts exist? I mean, are they at— is it something that we can do? I guess is the question. I guess if it was, if it was something we could do, we'd be doing it.

Yeah, we don't have the resources. We don't have officers that could hang out at the landfill, you know, or even take those trips out there. Fishing game.

Osmantism have the resources either, personnel.

I can start.

Yes, since we're on that topic, so is less than lethal something they carry? Bear spray, or—. They all have bear spray. Probably not something is more aggressive, like beanbag or shot. We have not moved to that.

I don't—. Because that takes a whole level of training as well. Training and liability. And yeah, what's the equivalent of a SEAL bomb? Yeah, so, yeah, paper.

I mean, something that's— yeah, that you would use for hazing. And yeah, and usually that's projected out of a shotgun. Right, a bean bag or a ragusha, something like that. But yeah, you still need firearms training, right? And I'm sure it would only be temporary.

Right, sounds like they are persistent and habituated. Yeah. Um, and I do know I did call Aaron and have him take me on a tour of the open cell, so you can call him out there And you can have him show you around. And I highly recommend it that you get a visual because it's pretty scary.

It does sound the things that you were thinking about, though, Samantha, are the right things. Limiting exposure on the ground, having self-dumping, that type of thing. And larger groups, right? An individual person by themselves is not good. If you have 3 or 4, that's always a good thing.

Me, but it's difficult because resources—. Yeah, Council Member Hanson. So my final— be— um, so composting, I mean, so this is going to cost the community a bunch of money. We've already said that, like, building this fence, what's required. So don't know if there's any Talking about incentive programs and getting community involvement and trying to create something— separating trash, creating compost, having different bins.

I know this— there's going to have to be more so on our community level, but if we can reduce trash, it's beneficial overall. Um, I think that would be a a great solution, um, for our community to take part in, as, as the individual residents of our community are to do their part. Yeah, I mean, as a citizen, you have a lot of options. I mean, put your cardboard in the bin, you can do your own composting, you can burn marrow. I mean, there are options.

No, no, I, I, for people to, if, you know, if people wanted to take a, a pump, and that would be—. We did submit, um, Council Member Collins and I worked with MBE, Aaron Shu at MBE, to submit a solid waste infrastructure recycling application, which did not get funded. And we're asking for a debrief to learn why we weren't as competitive. You know, is it just a very small community, so the gains wouldn't be so huge as a larger community. But, but yeah, I think it's something that over time, it's not going to happen overnight.

It doesn't mean regenerating how we handle waste, but it is something that I think is important to move toward. And there is equipment out there. Other communities have figured it out. You know, the technology is there. We were going to, we asked for funding for a whole containerized system.

You can buy a 40-foot van with an auger that's plumbed in down the middle and you throw all the food waste in there and it mixes it and comes out as a soil amendment out the other end. So the technology is there. It's a matter of getting the funds to make an investment in it. Yeah. That's not a trend in the VIFund.

And then, yeah, maybe you'll figure out what to do with the soil amendment. It's a very, yeah, there's a lot. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it's The reality on the ground is it's not simple. No, it's, it's equipment intensive, and that means money. And so, yeah, thank you.

Yeah, but, um, yeah, thank you, Council Member. It's not— I mean, we certainly don't want our staff endangered, and we want to make sure that we're being safe as possible and so forth. At the point where people can handle the trash and not have to get out of the vehicle. That's one small step you can take. Yeah, so yeah, I mean, there's— yeah, they're definitely thinking about it.

Yeah. Do you have other questions? Um, I did want to ask City Manager, can you review again the construction schedule of things coming up? We have the Winstead Road bike path. We have Second Street.

We have the culvert under the highway at Folia. And all of that's happening starting relatively soon, isn't it? In the next 6 to 8 months. Yeah. And the weir, which I know is not a city project, but the weir at, um, is going to be— they're starting that this fall.

Yeah, they're doing some work up front as well, but then we need big constructions. June. And so those other things, wait, wait, is that starting this fall or is that not till '27? The white shed? Not till '27.

Second Street, '27. Okay. Spring '27, white shed. Spring '27, actually got a call for me. Second Street mask, or wait, oh no, that was ODX Lou, uh, talking about Spring or fall, they have it where the contractor can put out the schedule, you know, the bids out.

Bids out. Oh, so they're not even— they haven't even went out to bid yet. Bid is out. Oh, I had a contractor call to talk about different— okay, but that's a total state project, correct? Not city involved project.

Partly I'm thinking it's good to know all of the different projects that are happening, and partly I'm thinking We're gonna have some construction crews in town. That's going to be one little, you know, shot in the arm that will—. That will be good for—. Yeah, for sure. So, okay, thank you.

Okay, any other questions for the city manager? Anything online?

Adam Mayer. Yeah, just back to the bear topic, and this is more rhetorical, but I just want to plant the seed. I think in some of the planning I do, my work is looking at the worst-case scenario, head A, as if it happened, meaning let's take that someone has been maimed or worse, and what's our plan? And let's start thinking, let's think of, get with other communities. This is, if this had, 'cause obviously if it happened, we would do something, we'd be forced to do something.

So what are those measures that we would be forced to do if that did happen? And what can we learn from that and start implementing now? Again, I don't expect an answer right now. This is, Just the hypothetical question for planning and what that looks like.

Thank you. Good conversation on this topic. Thank you, Council Member Rainey, for your strong advocacy for, for safety of city staff and citizens. I appreciate that.

Thank you.

Other questions for the city manager?

Anything else you want to—. Nope, I'm good. Thank you. Okay, um, so then we can move on to the clerk's report. Um, just about voting, um The mayor had brought it up last meeting.

Now I forgot to put it on the calendar, so then I put it on the calendar, but I got the times wrong because they changed it this year. So that early voting is available upstairs, my— Center, Monday through Friday, 10 to 4. It's only Monday through Friday this week, next week, and the Monday before the 18th, which is the primary election day. And then on that day, it's 7:00 AM to 8:00 PM. Than here, I think.

Um, and if anybody listening is interested in, um, a job, they, they are paying. The state pays. Um, please contact me if you're interested in being an early voting clerk upstairs. They're looking for some people to do next week, uh, 10 to 4. So if you want to contact me at City Hall tomorrow I can pass your number on to, um, Division of Elections in Juneau.

And that was all I was going to report.

Yes, I just have one question. Do, do we—. Do you know.

Or do you have access of knowing, is anybody in Florida been affected by this, um, voters being dropped from rolls at the state level? That's been in the news. Sure, I've heard that in the news. Nobody has asked me to check their status. They can get right on Division of Elections website, which is pretty user-friendly website, to check their own status if they want to.

And maybe it's not a bad idea if you're unsure. Or if you did anything at DMV within the last couple of years, or hadn't been on the rolls in the past when you thought you should have been, it's always a good idea in an election year to check your own status.

Do you know how they notify people that they have been dropped? Or only what I've read in the newspapers. I thought they sent letters. In the mail.

That is all I know. So it's a good idea for anyone to check. Sure. At any time you can check. And if not, if somebody can't figure it out and they want to come in, I can— I also have access to that whole database.

I can check that way, or I can help them check. I think you don't even need anything but your name and city to check. I don't even think you have to put your birthday or social or anything. In their website.

Oh, and one other thing about the election. A lot of people have been looking for a pamphlet about candidates, and Division of Elections put out a pamphlet for the primary that just has an explanation on the ballot measure that's in on the primary ballot.

But the, for candidates, they're waiting until the general elections. I think they do it that way every year, every 2 years is how often they have elections unless there's a special.

But, you know, there's so many for governor and then just the 4 that make it through will be, they'll give out a pamphlet then. That will explain all those, you know, get more info. However, I did see that ADN 2 days ago, I think on Monday's paper, had a great dropdown, very easy to read on everybody.

So hopefully that stays up through the election. I imagine it will.

Any questions online for the clerk?

All right then. So then we have, um, 5 staff quarterly reports in the packet. Yeah, and some of those folks are here if people have questions about any of those reports.

I think I just wanted to call out the amount of training that the volunteer fire department manages to accomplish. It's pretty impressive.

1,830 Hours of training so far. We're only halfway through 2026. That's, yeah, really impressive. And I think that's why we have such a strong culture of public safety and community service. I really want to applaud the volunteers of the department for that work.

Thank you.

All right, then let's move on. We've got correspondence.

So letter to the ferry system about the winter schedule, um, training for beach bird surveys, and then a flyer about the Long Coast Community Land Trust gathering at Sunset Inn, September, late September, early October.

But the beach survey was today, the training was today, I think, wasn't it? Oh, so, um, but I put the packet out on Friday, so I guess I figured people read it.

Yeah, is happening right now.

Yeah, all right.

Ordinances and resolutions, we got on the agenda Ordinance 1239, Five Wood Energy, a motion. May I move to approve second reading and final adoption of Ordinance 1239, an ordinance of the Council of the City of Cordova, Alaska, amending Cordova Municipal Code Sections 5.10.030 Definitions and 5.10.130 Payment and Collections, amending Cordova Municipal Code to incorporate charges made by the Alaska Remote Seller sales tax mission to remit certain marketplace facilities that, uh, facilitate services and rentals within the city to report and remit directly to the ARSS TC. I'll second what he said. You have to say it. Been moved and seconded.

Um, Aster, when reading— Council Member Aster, would you like to speak to the motion? Yeah, I think we spoke about this, uh, at length, uh, during the first reading. As we know, these are changes that we cannot opt out of, but why would we opt out of them? I think it's clear we would not want to opt out.

I got mine. Okay, any other council comments on this item? Anybody online?

Okay, we had public hearing earlier. We did not get any comments, so it's not very controversial apparently. So the clerk, would you like to call the roll? Yes, I will. On adoption of Ordinance 1239: Lee Collins, yes.

Casey Kinsman, yes. Deborah Adams, yes. Dave Zastrow, yes. Mike Mickelson, yes. Aaron Hanson, yes.

Wendy Ring, yes. Osher Harris, 7 to Great, thank you. So then, uh, next is Ordinance 1240. A motion for that for the purpose of getting it on, on the table so we can discuss.

Madam Chair, I move to approve Ordinance 1240, an ordinance of the city— of the, uh, Council of the City of Cordova, as amended, Council Municipal Cordova Municipal Code Sections 5.10.050 to increase the sales tax rate from 13% to 14% for transient lodging, motor vehicle rentals excluding watercraft, marijuana, marijuana concentrates, and marijuana products, cigarettes and other tobacco products, and alcohol beverages.

I'll second. It's been moved and seconded to adopt Ordinance 1240. Council Member Zastro, do you want to speak? Yeah, I guess I'll get it rolling for our first reading.

Um, um, we have 3 sources of revenue, primary revenues for us in Cordova. Um, it's people who own property paying their, uh, property taxes, it's our raw fish tax, and it's taxes in, in general for, uh, you our sales tax of 7% right now. That's our primary way of getting revenue for the operation of our city, um, and we're always struggling with a way to spread out the revenue we're trying to generate over a larger swath of people who take advantage of what we have here in Cordova, Troy. Um, this definitely to me would fit that bill to be able to, um, generate a little more revenue. We're talking about 1%.

It's not a massive raise, but a little bit more revenue, uh, to be able to raise additional revenues from others from outside the community and for items that aren't things that get you through your life. They allow you to feed yourself or fuel your vehicle or pay your rent. Um, so, um, yeah, I, I, I would say our city manager's having a hard time trying to find ways to balance our budget, and this is one way that we can at least help to do that. Live better.

Member Hansen, this has been a, a topic of discussion several times, and in the past I feel that we weren't quite in the position to where we wanted to, to move on this, but I feel that we're there now.

Other council comments? Council, anybody online?

Okay, um, so I will say that, um, having to incorporate a fuel surcharge this year for the first time in the middle of the season and adding another percentage to a tax to a place that's already.

Difficult for people to afford to come, um, could potentially have a detrimental impact on my business. I do understand that this tax is focused mainly on folks that are not locals in Cordova. Um, it is focused on excess, um, SIN items for this, the rest of the tax, and I will support this because I feel like at this point Cordova is desperately in need of a revenue increase. But I will say that, um, we cannot tax our way out of issues, and we need to stop taxing things and figure out a different way because businesses will not be able to function if people don't come because we price them out. People will not live here if they can't buy food because we price them out and we can't buy fuel to heat and run our businesses.

We're at that level. I, I will support this. I, I think it is definitely going to impact me personally, but I think for the good of Cordova, um, we do need to look for revenue, and this is This is a way that's not going to hurt the locals as much as a raise in the mill rate or a change in the base sales tax.

I have a question, if I might. The exclusion of watercraft— 14% on motor vehicle rentals excluding watercraft, and I'm thinking about Skiff rentals. The last skiff rentals that happened. Oh, there are? Yeah.

Where? Yeah, yeah. So we're renting skiffs. Well, they've got lots of— is it part of their package? Is it part of a package that they do when people come to stay?

I know some of the bed and breakfasts have skiffs attached to their rentals. Right. It's mostly what they do. It's just part of the rental. We don't rent— I mean, we, we don't rent them.

They're, they're driven by our personnel, but there are a lot of people that rent skiffs that shouldn't be in skiffs on a year anniversary.

Just saying. Yeah. And the Romans, did they not use German skiffs?

No, sold out. Yeah, it's mostly the bed and breakfasts that are attached to skiffs. In the back of— it's just always been there. Yeah, I do not know why it's there. I started to look into that, really, at points.

So I, I— you guys want to amend this, you can amend it.

Or do you want to change that code to— I'm just wondering how it would be monitored, right? That's— I mean, I raised the issue, but enforcement Yes. And just one comment is, I mean, having just come from a very expensive place, Iceland, it makes it Alaska on steroids in terms of costs. And you're taxed like crazy for everything. And it's taxed on the tourists.

And I, you know, They have something I wanted to see, something I wanted to do. They need to pay for it. And so I, I don't have too much of a problem here where we have transient tax, transient lodging. People are coming here to see and do things that are valuable, and if they value it enough, they're going to pay for it. And it's not nice, but that's the cost of travel.

Any further comments?

I'm in favor of— sorry, I'm in favor of amending this to include watercraft rentals. It just seems like that's a level playing field. It's the same demographic of people that we are trying to get a little more revenue out of. And it's hard to imagine that this is going to break the bank for people that are already spending quite a bit of money to get up here. So that would be my thought.

That would be the most egalitarian way to apply this tax.

I will say that I I don't think it's going to make a difference because I think that the rentals are not necessarily businesses renting skiffs to people. I think it's with a business license renting a skiff. I don't think that's what you're seeing. I think you're seeing folks that have a skiff renting it to folks coming into town, and I don't know how you would collect this. I don't know how you would Man, it sounds so dangerous.

Very dangerous. Liability insurance on that. The only, the only time I can think of that we had something like that, Councilor Sina wanted to add your rags to rags. I asked for—. That's the only one I can think of that was separate.

Yeah, so it's not fit the category we're discussing, right? So I guess I just don't see how an amendment is going to gain us anything other than having a paperwork change. And people breaking the rules, probably. But it also could change. It could.

Now is now, tomorrow could be another day. I mean, it's cleaner just removing them. Yeah. Would you like to offer an amendment, Council Member Mendelson?

Um, I mean, can, can it just be like a friendly amendment to include watercraft rentals rather than exclude, or I'm not sure on the language that would be most effective to basically show our intent to just apply it equally to watercraft rentals. Sure, but that has to be a real amendment because this is an ordinance. Let's do it like a real amendment. Meaning make a motion. Make a motion.

Yeah. Amend it. Right. Yeah, yeah, that's what I'm suggesting is to make a motion with a— to remove—. To include watercraft.

Maybe change excluding to including. There you go.

Or just remove excluding watercraft. I mean, motor vehicles, motor vehicle rentals. I don't know. Uh, I prefer to use— I think it would look better if we had included. I, I, I agree.

So Councilmember Wilson, would you— what we're looking for is a motion, um, a motion to amend, uh, yeah, motion to amend, sorry, removing, remove the word excluding. Yeah, a motion to remove the word exclude from the current amendment under discussion. And just to including. Oh, yeah, change it to including. So, so sorry, that would be the motion.

Okay, so it's been moved and seconded to change the word excluding to including. Who made that second? Adams. Catherine Adams. Yeah.

Okay, is there some discussion on the motion on the amendment? Well, I just want to bring up the point that I hadn't thought about this, but it could change. There could be another business that comes into being here in town that wants to rent kayaks and rowboats and skiffs and so on. And so if we have it in the ordinance, it's clear and included. So I hadn't thought of that.

Yes, that B&Bs that, that have skiffs, I think that's a whole different baby. It's like when I go to Anchorage and the B&B has a bicycle and I get to ride it on a coastal trail and then put it back in their garage. I mean, I think it's a similar sort of situation, and I don't think the city wants to get into monitoring that small piece.

One question here, very— since the way the motion is now including motor vehicle rentals, including watercraft, I had the same thought of, you know, a rental company certainly exists. Are we talking then about just motorized watercraft or all non-motorized watercraft? Rental company does exist, just the way it's worded, right? I think it's just motorized the way it's worded. I didn't know, did you guys mean to do I was thinking not motorized.

I was thinking motorized. Motorized. Yeah, yeah, we run kayaks and we charge sales tax. Yeah, I, I almost think non-motorized should just get sales tax, and anything motorized has to be registered. You would do that with a bike or with a scooter or something like that, but if it has a motor, it has to be registered.

We opening a can of worms.

Because we have a crazy procedure for like rental car company.

It seems like we in this current reading should just leave it as including motorized watercraft, not be talking about kayaks, paddle boards. That's a very.

So now we need to amend it again and throw the word motorized in there. No, I think it's already there. Motor vehicle rentals including watercraft assumes, right? Okay, yeah, yeah, clear spot.

Now let's dive into the marijuana extract. So, but first, uh, is there any further discussion on the Motion to amend.

So all those in favor of the motion to amend—. Well, you have to do it—. The ordinance, uh, by changing excluding to including, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye. Any opposed? So the amendment carries. So now we're back to the main motion.

Discussion on the main motion?

Well, these come back to us now amended for us to have it. Yes, but I don't think it's major enough to do another first reading, so it'll just be a second reading. Okay, that's what my question— and we can take a voice vote? Yes, on the first reading. Mhm.

Okay, last call. All those in favor of adopting Ordinance 1240 As amended, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye.

Any opposed? Same sign.

Motion passes. Thank you.

Okay, so pending agenda, what do we We have coming up is— oh shoot, in my report I meant to say there's a vacancy on Planning, and we did get one application. Did I send it to you? I don't— um, Chris Bolan has resigned from Planning Commission, so there's a seat available.

Um, and so I will bring— I will forward you the one application, but if anybody is interested, obviously we would accept more applications, uh, at the end of November. All the boards and commission seats that, you know, scattered— or think of the word— turnover Staggered, staggered, not scattered. That's the garbage at the landfill. Yeah. So there might be a few.

So yeah, drum up some interest in Planning Commission, please. Okay. And ideally we could make some appointments at the August 19th meeting. Are we having the August 19th meeting? That's the question.

That's what I'm just going to ask that too. What do you— Sam and I were considering thinking about a special instead. You want it quicker, like a lunchtime? No. Okay, no, not lunchtime, but something shorter.

Something shorter. Breakfast. Breakfast, right? Okay. All right.

So when, when do you want to— so maybe are we officially canceling the 19th evening meeting and standing by on call in case you feel like you need a special That sounds good. We do it that way. You want to skip the 6th of the August? What's that? There's, um, the marijuana business that is quickly building over here, um, did get their full application in to the state, and so we have the ability to act on it also if Very long, like an 85-page thing, maybe because it's the first one.

I would hope the renewals aren't as big and long. But anyway, I have all of staff looking it over. I've gotten some comments. So that will be on staff vote. Okay.

I believe even if we wind up doing the first September one, we'd still be it going to the marijuana board. So, um, that's all I can think of. And the second reading of this ordinance, either of which and both of which can happen on special meeting.

Okay, okay. And planning always has things, but Amanda has an illness and might be out for a good week or week and a half, so We can wait on those things also or bring them to special. So we will be in touch on special.

All right.

Then maybe we move on to audience participation.

Anybody left in the audience who wants to make a comment?

We just have a few hearty souls in the room with us. For folks online, just so you know, we probably hiding in the dark.

Um, all right, so then we can have council comments.

Pick on Dave. Oh, okay. Well, you don't usually start at the beginning. Yeah, right. I'll keep it short.

Uh, thank you, staff. Uh, thank you, um, um, city manager for always trying to find creative ways to keep us in revenue. I know it's not easy, and there's a lot of, a lot of movement that we have to make to cover all our bases in anything that we choose to do to generate revenue. Thank you for what you've done. Um, and thank you, staff.

Quarterly report's always awesome. Um, I can't believe you got so many people that want to be lifeguards. That's so awesome, Samantha. So that's great to hear. Um, and the last thing I'd like to say is I want to join our mayor in thanking and congratulating Kathy Sherman for all her years of service.

She was one of the first people I met when I first moved to Cordova. Her and her husband Dixon, who I worked for right before when I first moved here, and they were so welcoming and wonderful and giving, she, you know, so much to this, to the city, to this community. So, um, I miss having her— not having her around the table, but, uh, I think, uh, she deserves to take a break and do other things. So, uh, thank you, Mayor Hansen. Um, thank you, staff.

Also, uh, a big thank you to all the first responders, volunteers in this community, um, for what they do and their response to And, uh, just a, a, a big thank you to everyone in the community that volunteers their time to be present.

Um, Councilman Bratz. Um, couple things. One, I'm excited to hear about the pool moving forward. Um, and, um, so, and the number of people who our potential guards at the pool. That's great news.

I just want to make a couple comments. One is I was at the library today with two grandchildren, and I've never had the opportunity to do story time ever, even when my son was little. And thank you. It's just the library is such a vital part of this community, and it was just delightful. And it was— I don't think I'll be able to do it again because of my work schedule, but it was, and we just happened upon it, it wasn't planned.

And that child— children's room is such a wonderful space for families, and especially when the weather is not particularly nice, we have a place to go and something healthy to do. So just want to yay to the library. And ditto on Kathy Sherman. I've known her in different capacities, and I've used her as a mentor here at this table, and I will miss her presence. And then just a shout out to everybody at this table.

I appreciate the ability for us to have these conversations and to have them in productive ways. And thank you, Councilman Rainey, for bringing up the bear issue. I had no idea it was that critical. So I will go ahead with my stuff.

I'm going to go to the folks online because in the order of going around the table, you are now at the head of the table. So, um, Council Member Kinsman.

And thank you. Um, echo, echo the just kudos and really just deep appreciation for what our first responders again and, uh, volunteers and and that capacity do for our community. That is truly vital for our community. And I'm very grateful for them. Again, knowing many, many volunteers who, in whatever outing function, now even to include my son, who hear the pager and at a drop, they're gone.

Burgers, plates, everything dropped, they're gone. They just leave that. And they don't, many of these people don't.

Have to do this. They choose to do it. They have their own reasons for doing it, but at the, at the core of it, they, they are here to serve and protect this community that we love and that we call home. So again, can't say it enough, thank you, thank you, thank you. I know there was some call out for their, uh, SCBA units, their breathing apparatus units, so that is, I know, gonna be coming forward to us during this budget process and cycle.

It's something that we need to seriously look at and come up with a comprehensive plan of how to get them the equipment that they need to do their job to protect us and keep us safe. Along those lines, just incredibly grateful for, as I'm traveling down south and various states, So grateful for the air quality in Cordova. I mean, it just— you can probably hear it in my voice. I just sound raspy. There's just so much smoke and just garbage in the air everywhere.

And I just— again, you just have to leave what you have to really appreciate it. And so just another call out, another kudos for beautiful community and place we get to call home. And yes, I would be remiss if I didn't also add on just deep, deep heartfelt for Kathy and her years of service and wishing her the very best. She's missed, but I'm just so happy for her to be enjoying this time to, uh, and really retire and just enjoy herself and her grandkids and her family. So That's all I have.

Thank you, everyone. Thank you. Council Member Nicholson.

Yeah, I would echo the comments of my other, um, councilmen that have spoken before me. Um, I, I'm certainly happy to hear the, the pool updates, and, and, you know, the packet and the presentation has been good. I'm, I'm grateful for that. Um, I've just returned from running a tender in Southeast, and I can assure everyone that we're not the only community going through these budgetary struggles. And also, it's been instructive to see Ketchikan in the summer again when there's 5 giant cruise ships tied up and see what that does to the community.

And also to see a community like Craig, which between Craig and Colac is fairly similar in size to Cordova and see their model of tourism and what's happening there. But I'd just like to reiterate what Councilman Kintzman said. You know, I think in regards to the dump, we need to be looking at the worst-case scenario and thinking about that and and planning because we are having trouble getting this fence put up in a timely manner. Additionally, in the more positive landscape, it does look like there's some pink salmon showing up and we're having unprecedented prices for pink salmon and the outlook for silver salmon prices look good, which I guess I'm trying to say that I think the The outlook for next season looks good if we have these, these prices. And, and, you know, we knew this season was going to be poor in some respects, but we know that odd years are generally going to be better.

So I think it's, it's important to know that as dire as things are looking for our budgetary cycle that's based off of this season, Um, it is looking better for next year, so thank you. Thank you. Councilman Collins.

Yeah, I just say, uh, thanks to staff. I appreciate all the reports in here. Again, you ask especially for the first responders, all our first responders, and looking at the needs of fire department first responders is something that is extremely important that they're operating good equipment. So it's nice to see that all laid out in their report. So just to give thanks to Sam and Susan for looking into this watershed annexation.

I think that's discussion to have in the future. Keep thinking about that for future revenue sources. Other than that, yeah, I think it was great, especially about trash. That's also something we have to be talking about towards a more sustainable goal for the community in that way, which includes a cultural shift along with investing in maybe some different types of infrastructure to deal with our trash in different ways, from repurposing and recycling to just different techniques to use in the landfill. But I'm glad to have a chance to talk about those things.

Um, yeah, with that, thank you to first responders. Also, yesterday was Coast Guard Appreciation Day, and thank you to our Coast Guard population here, um, and for what they do and what they bring to the community. Um, Samantha, the Parks and Rec— the parks, especially the one coming into town, have looked fabulous. So thank you for keeping on top of that. It's always nice to be able to take folks on our tours and and everything looks nice and tidy.

The reports, quarterly reports, I always appreciate those. Those are great, and congratulations to Cheryl on the potential of a quick and down and dirty audit coming to an end. So not dirty. So yeah, that's exciting. And, you know, I understand the repercussions of bringing things to the table without solutions and I certainly will do some deep dives and try to find ways to offer suggestions myself.

But my first concern is always for life and safety. And I think we're, we're at that tipping point right now. So that's why I brought it up without suggestions for improvement on my end. And I will work harder to try to participate with that and give you some directions. Thank you.

Well, that's great. Um, thanks everybody. I think that means we can conclude.

I want to move into adjournment.

Adjourned. Thank you. Thank you. Good night, guys attending online.