Nome Port Commission Meeting- Oct. 15, 2026

Calling the order. I'm the Vice Chair, so— Now, Acting Chair, time is 5:34. And could we have a roll call, please? Commissioner Smith-Eisler. Here.

Commissioner Leen. Here. Chairman West. Commissioner Farley. Here.

Commissioner Nowick. Here. Commissioner Sheffield. Commissioner McLarty. Here.

Thank you. So, you're a proposal to approve the agenda.

Motion to approve the agenda as presented. Second.

Any additions, deletions?

Hearing none.

Those opposed to approving the agenda, say aye.

Hearing no objections, we'll consider it approved.

That brings us to the minutes of September 17th. Motion on the floor?

I wasn't here.

Come on, you guys. Yeah, okay. Motion to approve the minutes. Second. Okay.

Is there any amendments to the minutes?

No amendments. Again, are there any objections to the approval of the minutes?

Hearing no objections, we'll consider those minutes approved.

Brings us to the citizens' comments.

You guys are citizens.

Good.

Okay, done.

Moving right along brings us to communications.

So the two articles, interesting one about, uh, Arctic shipping, and then Second one about the role of Nome. Did anyone have comments on Nome?

The article on the Arctic shipping came through Rose, is that correct? Yes. So yeah, I could acknowledge that useful input. Thank you.

Well, it takes us to Commissioner updates. Um, does any other commissioners have anything they want to bring to our attention.

Um, kind of the season of meetings, so there's a Fish and Game Advisory Committee in about 10 days, and there's a bunch of proposals regarding wildlife, none that I can think of that really affect the port. Um, the— there's also some meetings going on about the Board of Fisheries and their confused state of affairs. So, um, I've talked about that in the past, but the Board of Fish— or the Department of Law vacated some of the Board of Fish's actions. So those of us that went to the Board of Fish and thought we got things passed and found that we didn't, so that was frustrating. And now those, those, uh, they're being brought before the board again to see if they're going to consider them again.

Um, also there's the offshore mining, uh, Sitŋasuaq Minerals Agency is coming to Nome and looking for comments from the Native corporations and others. So they'll, they'll be in town around the 20th of November, I think. I don't have that date in front of me, but that's what I know. Okay, so that takes us to the Harbor Master's report. Thank you.

Um, It's been real busy lately as we've had the storms that were here for a while that prevented all the folks from coming in and working the outer harbor doing fuel and freight transfers. So that stacked everybody up on top of each other and it got, uh, extremely busy as soon as it got nice out again. So, uh, we just got today several of the folks left, but all three docks have been full for the past Oh, ever since it quit storming, 3, 4 days at least. Um, we've had Crowley in here bringing fuel for NJU as well as for themselves. Right now they've been lightering, I think, 5 or 6 loads into the east wall, and they got one more to get tonight.

And they've done about 3 or 4 loads to the causeway, and they got one more to get there as well. And that's all from that tanker that's been sitting out there. That's the Brave that's been been doing that for a couple, 3 weeks now. Um, freight— AML had their last barge, came and gone. Their landing crafts are done for the season, they're fully wrapped up.

Uh, we have Bowhead here right now who's working freight with 5 different vessels, and then one of those is getting hauled out here for the season. It's actually coming up the— came up the ramp just a few hours ago. Soon it should be in its spot for the winter. And then I think we have haulouts for, uh, several other local larger dredges, some on airbags, some on large trailers, over the next 3-4 days. Um, Bryce hauled their last load of rock out of here for the season, uh, that went up to Barrow.

Took a load on a landing craft as our ATV as well as on a— their big barges are all heading south. And those two just left today. So one of their craps is down in Seward, was gonna head back this way, but because of temps further up north, they decided to not even bother heading this way anymore. So all indications are it's gonna keep blowing north and start getting cold, keep going that way, see if we're gonna get another low and it warms it up or not. But we're going to look at the temperatures on Monday and we're going to assess what what it looks like in terms of ice, and we're going to debate if we want to pull our floating docks or not.

Last year we pulled them on the 18th, which was— would have been Saturday, this coming Saturday. But yeah, and, uh, so we're gonna assess the temps next week and then go from there. We don't want to pull them too early, but we don't want to be breaking ice and get it— having our boats in the water with it. And there's few enough vessels. Once Crowley finishes up on that east wall, we'll lots of room on the walls for the few boats that are left in the harbor.

Um, yes sir,. Winter season or closed season, is that October 1st or October 31st? The end of October.

We call it closed season. We've never forced anyone out. It's, you know, hey, it's a certain date, get out of the water. It's all what Mother Nature does for you. Yeah, do I just move as far as, uh, port amenities and all that stuff when that gets cut off?

We, we've stopped delivering water on the causeway, um, just because our water trailer has been freezing up at night, the lines and everything. We don't have a warm shop to keep it in every day, and, uh, Quality is able to do water deliveries for the few vessels that are still coming, and, uh, septic too. See, Bryce is also cleaning up that Air Force lot where they've had rock for the last couple seasons, getting that nice and cleaned up and fixing the surfacing and then consolidating some of their equipment and rock that will will be staying there over the winter. That will give us some space, and we'll probably put our floating docks in there so we can roll them all over and store them in there upside down. And in the spring, we're gonna strip them and paint them, do a bunch of servicing to the floats underneath.

Um, and we've been— last meeting, a couple meetings, we've been talking about facility cleanup, both in terms of larger vessels but also small stuff. Um, anyone who's gone for a ride today out on Port Road, the dugong is gone. It's in pieces and mostly, if not already, hauled all the way away. So we were able to help from Public Works and Q Trucking, uh, get that thing to disappear, which is, uh, great. A lot of those old cranes that were over in the corner, we got those things moving and some of them repositioned out of the way for storage that will leave next spring.

Others that are waiting to get hauled away on a trailer, and another one that they're servicing and he's just got it working enough to get her moving so we can at least get it to a new spot. But been making good progress there. That corner is looking great. Public Works is going to go, uh, probably put down a few loads of material in that corner and clean it up where the dugong was. It'll have a nice big chunk there to store vessels that are on trailers that can roll a little easier than the guys on their So it'll be really nice.

All the— I pulled up a video last time. I'll— next meeting I'll have new drone stuff, aerials. We can look after most the boats are all— everyone's all hauled out, and we can see where the cleanup's been. We can kind of discuss other bigger vessels that are down there and what we want to do, sort of like continue the discussion from before. But it looks really good.

We got that— all the stuff, every single thing off that south cleaned up, and then we laid down some new material in there to improve the surfacing, so it's a nice surface to roll boats further on. So that meeting we had, that really helped, like, motivate people to move their stuff? It. Was nice to hear feedback from them, but we'd already been kind of telling them that this was happening. I think it was good having them involved because a lot a lot of the people that were here and were outspoken talking about their stuff followed through with what they were supposed to do.

So I don't, I don't think it hurt in any way. Yeah, awesome.

And, uh, but yeah, that, that whole end looks good. I had somebody telling me we need to build armor stone up in there and armor that all in case we get another merbach. And what if we have boats up closer to the edge? And, you know, look at all the sand and whatnot. It's, it's true, it did sort of like the seawall on Front Street.

As waves were churning on, I think it undermined the rock a little bit and the rock sank. So in the future, down the road, it won't be as big of a deal. Make sure it was that important. Um, anyways, something to think about in the future. Or, I mean, I personally would like to do development in the mudflats out there to expand our uplands areas, which then we wouldn't really need armor stone there.

We'd be putting different armor out there. But making that happen, um, we'll have to keep that on the burner.

Um, right now Bowhead's gonna be in here for another day probably, and then they'll— couple days, and then they'll be out of here with their last freight car. But we still do have Alaska Logistics coming up. So still don't have a date from them when they're going to be here, but almost— customers are telling me in the next week. So we'll, we'll see how that works. And we still have several more loads of fuel to bring in besides just Crowley this year.

Now Delta Western is going to be coming back late on Saturday, early on Sunday, depends on how it is up in Red Dog where they're delivering now. They'll be coming back in for the final delivery for Bonanza for the year. I think this is their US— ULSD number 2, um, about 350,000 gallons. So between like 5 and 7 hours of pumping, and then Bonanza is done for the season, and then Crowley will be bringing back— all these boats will be leaving, this tanker will be leaving, and another one will be coming back to do another pretty hefty delivery to the outer seas. So we're gonna probably be doing fuel until at least for another week and a half, at least, probably a little bit longer.

I think the 25th, 26th, 27th, somewhere in there is when we're gonna probably do it, which will be our latest fuel deliveries we've ever done. So yeah,.

One question. Yeah, as far as the demolition of Dugan, uh, how did that come to be? I asked publicly Public Works, because I think the last time I had heard Public Works is going to rip the top off of it, something was going to happen, blah blah blah blah blah. And then pretty sure it's not Public Works doing it, and so I'm just kind of curious how that came to be that that person is doing it. Uh, we rent equipment.

Public Works, uh, decided that they didn't have the proper equipment and they rented appointment and directed the contractor of what to do. They just rented equipment or had an hourly rate. And, uh,. Public Works isn't doing it? I asked Public Works.

No. Okay, so what—. That is Public Works directing the job. They decided they didn't have the equipment and they wanted to rent equipment to do the work, so that's what they did. They rented equipment.

It was wet and operated equipment, but they're the ones that— they determined they didn't have suitable equipment because they had intended to do the work. We scheduled this week with their crew to do the work, and they decided on Friday that they didn't have suitable equipment. They needed some outside equipment to do the work. I've had multiple conversations with them. This week, today, yesterday.

We all agreed that was the path, the best path forward to get the work done. They were down there about half the day directing what was going on. I. Was up above them watching yesterday. So yeah, I was just curious how that came to be because we had so many different conversations.

We were gonna have anybody that wanted to offer to do it, and we had a dollar amount that we could never kind of talk about because it just never seemed to be a clear number. And then something about the wash plant that was on it was going to go somewhere, and then, and then Public Works was going to do it, but now it's not actually Public Works, they subcontracted it. And I guess it just seemed a little bit gray on how that—. It was a combined effort in order to get the work done because it was an oddball all ugly animal is what it was. Okay.

And we were able to work with a number of users to make a lot of that equipment go away so we didn't have to haul it to the dump. So we used some users that wanted some of what old junker equipment, whatever people want to call it, that we're able to take some of the not working gear in less than desirable condition to help pare down the project. We were looking for numerous ways to achieve the job and get rid of the item that same night. All right, I guess I'm hearing you. I'm just thinking of all the other entities in town that have excavators and side dumps.

I'm just curious how they didn't— they didn't— they didn't— it's fine. I just, I like clarity on on stuff like that in particular, because when we have a bunch of entities in town that do the same thing, it just—. We kept it in-house, managed by Public Works. We're able to keep costs down and just rent. Equipment done by a subcontractor, which means we could have just had a subcontractor do it.

Exactly. Under Public Works direction, we rented equipment because they didn't have The right equipment. They don't have sideburns. They don't have an excavator with a thumb on it. It's all good.

Just wanted to make sure that that was clear for me.

I guess my question along that line too was we kept hearing stuff about hazardous materials. That's the only thing that really sticks with me. I don't really care who got rid of it, but as long as it was, you know, not. Is the assessment done? Yes, lead paint was what came back in the assessments.

We have to make sure we get all the paint chips and flakes cleaned. Up. And the area will be scraped. So who— whoever is managing the project is certified to do that stuff? Well, it's because my— not— it's not the old that paint chips.

It's less— it's not as extensive as you might think. It is collection and placed in the dump, essentially, away from the public, from schools, from playgrounds. I guess I'm using the example that the building that fell down up by our shop, we had to do an HMA before we, um, hauled it off to the Monofil. And we contracted with an outfit, and they sent someone certified up to deal with that stuff. So that's my question, is, is there someone on the city staff that was dealing with that, or—.

The levels was simply a cab only, and the levels were below minimum. So Public Works was able to manage that and then document, identify where it's placed in the monopole. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Yes, we were aware and we were tracking.

Good question.

No. Other questions? I've got nothing else.

Brings us to the project manager's report.

Yes, sir. Thank you. Um, the port expansion, uh, the progress on that is we have some, uh, weather impacts the last few weeks, on and off, uh, that I'm sure everyone noticed because we were all impacted, as well as, um some equipment issues that had finally been resolved, I think, on Monday, and they've been back at it removing armor stone, stockpiling for— starting to truck that off. I think tomorrow is when they intend to start trucking again for the rock that has been removed.

So that is ongoing until it is completed. Complete. They're talking early to mid-November before they close up for the year and leave for— let their crew all go home for Thanksgiving. And again, the schedule is still in play for them to be back in April to begin thawing out their gear, working the quarry, and getting ready to start removing the nose of the existing causeway in May so they can start building out to construct Phase 1A breakwater portion before they start building the sheet pile dock.

Phase 2 is scheduled to be released for on the street solicitation construction solicitation next month.

Likely in the early part of the month, we are waiting for final approvals from their chain of command to issue the project for the dredging. Phase 1 Bravo, the final— the rest of the extension of the West Causeway, they are looking at tying up the connection with 1A. Starting in early January or February, which will progress throughout the calendar year. And then once their next fiscal year funding comes in, that will look likely to be put out to bid fiscal year '28, federal year. Obviously, all timelines are speculative at this time.

Thank you. Excuse me. Phase 3, where we will start investigating the early design and geotech aspects of that project, the concept and geotech before moving into 35%. That looks to be around mid-2022. January.

So these things are all overlapping to keep the project moving forward.

Let's see, what. Else? Do you know that the, the, the man camp— archaic term— is the. Camp, the workforce camp? Yeah, is the workforce camp going to be have a caretaker or something during the winter?

How does—. Well, I suspect some type. Yeah, they're not going to have any. No, it's not really occupied, it's just somebody there. Charlie, the— during the tour that happened after the shovel ceremony, they did say they were hiring a couple, so maybe two, a couple of local people to check in on the place.

But yeah, I make sure the windows are closed or something. I don't know. Yeah, I just marveling at how little insulation there is on the pipes. They'll be pickled. And the drifting is going to go right up to the windows, I'm sure, or beyond.

Who knows? Who knows? Lately it snows and then it melts. Yeah, there's that. Yeah.

Especially this winter, maybe.

Be important to—. Anyway, that's all I know. They've got some local hire to check. No one's living in there though, my understanding. That's just a wrench that could fall in the works if, uh, if it's not taken care of.

We've recently learned that the, for the 2027 ice-free season, the district currently has no maintenance dredging funds, a number of ports in the harbor, in the state, I'm sorry, and with the exception of Anchorage, and that is just in their typical budgetary process, but they have a couple of other opportunities to identify funds in work plans, so all is not lost. But in the meantime, we've reached out to the delegation, just like the other 4 harbors in the state that have annual maintenance dredging have done, and we're all kind of, um, you know, Madeline Page that even though it's a funding issue, we absolutely need our annual maintenance dredging of the channel. Clearly it's not as significant of a problem as Anchorage has, which is why they're the ones that receive funding, but all of our facilities are clearly just as important. So we'll keep you guys posted on how that moves. The district hasn't given up hope, but they did let everyone know that this was currently in play.

It's happened in the past, it's been resolved, so I'm hopeful that we'll be on that path again.

So I was looking at these online and then it occurred to me that the The Corps had been responsible for the Snake River channel between Belmont and this dredging. And that's important because wherever the first deep spot is in the river, that's where the sediment falls. So if we dredge this new small boat harbor, then we need to have the annual maintenance at the head of the— at the head of that boat harbor as well to keep it from filling in. So. Back when we were looking at doing the CAP 107 project with them, deepening the entire inner harbor of Monarch Wells, they were agreeable to going up the river and doing dredging.

That project has been set aside. Because the constant delays pushed costs above $10 million, and the cap is $10 million. Yes. So we're still arguing that one with the delegation— not with the delegation, but we are working with the delegation to argue that one with the Corps. They are— there is some language in the war bill as well that addresses that project, getting it back on the, on the front burner and moving forward with it.

Um, initially they were just going to deepen this small boat harbor, but then we requested that they deepen and widen the turning area by the ramps, and which encompassed dredging in the river. And as things took so long costs continue to escalate, pushed us out of that program's cap. But we haven't, um, we haven't given up. And I agree, trying to get them pulled into deepening the harbor. And they are still— the small boat harbor and the approach to the ramps, not all the way the ramp toe, but the approach to the ramps, is still part of their annual maintenance obligation of the Corps.

Um,. Is that where the— can you say that just for my clarification? Is that— is that what we're talking about for the— what Charlie's talking about? No, it doesn't. Okay, so it stops at the end of the red— the red part here.

Okay, yeah, that part stops at the bottom where the ramps are. It's where they're existing Maintenance obligation stops. So,. So there's—. What I'm talking about is kind of this blue zone between Belmont.

Yeah. And the red. Yeah. And the idea was to be able to do a 3-point turn at the ramp with the tugboats and barge. Yep.

And that meant you had to come partway up this, and then, and then right, right up here, right for the old suspension bridge used to be.

That's— the river is going to be dropping its load in the—. Right,. Right, right at the top of our dredging. So for my simple brain, this red area is the city's responsibility, that what we're hearing, for dredging currently, and there is no Huh? Okay, there we go.

So he's talking about the channel. You can't see Belmont, but the channel— here's the channel that comes up the river. We have these guys backing out of here, um, so him— and having that become part of the annual maintenance dredging so that they they could back out and head out the channel would have allowed them to maintain this. And when you say that part of the annual maintenance budget, that would be the Army Corps of Engineers. So right now, my understanding— and I'm trying to get this because these things, I get confused— is these, these docks, the subsistence small boat project, there currently will be no— though there's irons in the fire, there currently will be no dredging by the Army Corps.

It would be put on the City of Nome's tab to keep that open currently,. Correct? And as Charlie mentioned, the idea is to get there and leave dredging this. This is not part of that. This is going to be the City of Nome.

Do we know how much roughly that was going to cost the city? We haven't— I mean, we've got estimated quantities dredging it virgin down to operating depth, controlling depth, permitted depth is one cost. Maintaining it. Yeah, the main— see, the main—. The maintenance is going to depend on how much infills.

This area was dredged in 2017. Yeah,. It's only infill between a half a foot and a foot. In all that time, they surveyed this. Over the whole area or just in a few—.

Just this part that was dredged. This is so shallow,. It's filled pretty much mostly evenly over the whole area. Yeah, so half a foot to a foot, which means in that 9 years, I don't envision this being a regular hand-built constant to where we'd have to be spending a lot of money to keep it maintained. Correct me if I'm wrong, the same— it's the same as our existing small boat harbor.

The Corps doesn't come in there and dredge that for us every X amount of years. Dredged when we want it dredged, then we'll pay the contractor just to zip over there and capture some of it. But the main channel is over here, right? It's just the main channels. Yeah, yeah, the navigation channel is all they mean.

But that dredging that main channel upriver of this dredging is very important, and that's the sediment that's going to fall into the small boat harbor if we don't have them If we don't have the Corps dredging, then we, we're going to see sediment falling in our, our new little boat harbor. And well, at a much faster rate than we would be if they were dredging. So,. Yeah,. So it's really important if we can talk the Corps into doing that because that, that'll save us big bucks in the maintenance.

And on that note, what is the cost currently for the small boat harbor when it needs it? Not that it needs it every year, but. We don't— it's a federal project. They're responsible for the annual maintenance. They don't.

Know where it's at in a small boat harbor, or like we need dredging by the floats. Oh. Yeah, how much does that run? Depends on what the contractor charges. What did it kind of run last time?

Does anybody— price per yard,. Like 10, 12 years ago we were paying $25 a yard. And do we know how many yards? 10,000 Yards. Okay, but we rarely ever dredged that much.

10,000 Yards is the number we actually dredged when we put the floats there. Yeah, to deepen it. We've never had to dredge that to maintain it. I— we would have to go back and look. Yeah, it's been so long and the cost is not that high.

$25 A yard. Just trying to understand how much it's, you know, how things are going to cost going into these things. The face of, uh, West Gold Dock, we did the face of that not too long ago. We did some extra dredging over there. What was that?

How much was that yard? That's fairly current. Was that 2 years ago? I don't have the number on top of my head, just what we paid AME the last time they went out there. Because I think we get a pretty good rate as long We get a really good rate.

We haven't had to use them in a while, and I know that that good rate is gone south because we haven't, we haven't hired them in a while. So the rate back then was really good.

What, what's nice though is when they have weather days, so they were having to capture the outer harbor and then they get weathered out, so they have to drag the dredge inside. That's when they can dredge side pretty easy without losing any time on our contract. Okay, but I— we'll have, we'll have to get back to you guys with a number on what it was the last time they came. Requested, uh, they're very fair with us when they're working here for the federal project. We haven't requested a number from them for a while.

We'd have to see what they would, what rate they would give us now with the increased price of.

But I remember when we were doing the river, the existing dredging in the river, you guys are out there digging it, there was a lot of talk about what's this going to do. Is this going to fill in in a year or 2 years, 3 years? Is there going to be a lot of infill? And I remember Charlie said, you know, if the channel's deeper and we keep it up— because we talked about what we were— depth we were going to dredge to— and by keeping it above where the channel is, all that sediment stayed in the channel and kind of pumps out the mouth how it's always been. So I was real happy when the surveyors went out there and told us that on the far north end there's about a foot of infill, and as they went down it tapered down.

So. Charlie's—. Yep, input. Yeah,. How about that?

So same thing goes with what he says. If we dig more or go deeper, ever, we can do additional dredging to keep things deeper farther down and keep that sediment flowing down the channel. If the current language in the water bill about Nome passes intact, it'll be easier to get the Corps back to the table on this inner harbor dredging work.

So shifting into this part of my report, um, We wanted to give you guys a chance to see the 35% design. Now the first packet, the one with the red shading on the COVID is just the dredging design. It talks about the existing footprint and the yellow, the maintenance dredging, where they would go down and clean the floor back to a flat surface from the original dredging in '17. And then they would go into dredging the proposed dredging in blue. That would be virgin ground, and that would be down to 8 feet from what is now like in some places 6 inches or less.

Well, there are. No— yeah, yeah, right. It's like plus 3, plus 2. You can nearly see the footprint pretty well.

The reason these are separated into two design plans is the intent is to finish the design for the dredging, which is close, and put it out to bid early part of '27 so that we could hopefully get the majority of the— or all the blue area dug in the winter. Winter months do excavation through the ice and hauling the spoils up to the west end of the Thornbush pad to stockpile for dewatering, similar to what we did to the filled area of the Thornbush when we did this 2017 section. And then once they dewater, they'd be pushed out across the 3-acre site and used as a base layer capping with the classified material.

Is there any concern that the— where you guys are saying the blue area up on the north of the yellow area, you know, that that's dry land? Um, obviously the river likes to put things there faster than the yellow. Opening that up, you don't think that that will have— that will fill in pretty quick, the blue area again, or, or make the yellow area go up? I get it that it dredged out here and has done really well, but is there any concern about the +3, what that might be saying about filling in from the Snake River.

Back when, before any of this dredging occurred, there was a berm, a shallow berm that went across kind of on the A-line, and you could, on a day like this with the offshore wind, people were walking across from Belmont Point with garbage bags for boots across. It was really shallow. Yeah, and that's where, that's where the— at that time, the deep, the deep portion of the harbor was right on that southern boundary of the yellow.

And, and, you know, that's been dredged now for years, and it's, it's holding up. So.

Is it, is it being protected by this H, G, and F? I see what you're saying. So that the water come— or the river's coming and it's already— there's land here, so it's just sending the silt into this, this side, as opposed to when you dredge this, will the river be like, okay, we'll fill it back in again? Well, the river is not— or this way, some— that's, that's what I'm trying to say, is that the northeastern corner of the blue is going to be really susceptible to silting because the Thalweg, the deep part of the Snake River, is right on that eastern edge of the— yeah, and so, but if you go a little bit further west where the letter J is, that's very shallow too. That's not as susceptible for dumping because there's no— very little current there.

There's hardly any water in the river at the J letter. The water's over there where the—. I guess, I guess I'm just saying it, will it change the flow of the river? And then. It will— the river, if there's no maintenance, the river will come down to the, to the blue line and then it'll diagonally cut across the dredge ditch,.

Fill— filling it in. Jared, what, uh, thank you, 0.5 there? Or. Yes,. The point that is number 5, but what is the depth of the river there?

Do we know what that is? I think the channel most places going through there is like almost 11 feet. It's like 10 to 11 feet. It's pretty deep. Okay, so if we go minus 8 channel is still deeper.

Yep, and I think that's why our existing has been doing so good. If you look on the— sorry, I got the— I'm working off the little guy here, the one with this. It shows the blue area. The next map above it, you can see it shows, uh, where's the post dredging is up where it says West Basin on here. There's like where that island is that always sticks out.

So I think even when we dredge up to the blue line, there's going to be an awful lot of shallows north of it. The channel will still come down over. Okay, thank you. I just, just question.

And these basins, they need to be modified. These, um, it's more diffused, you know, the contour lines are saying 5 feet, you know, down by B and C, the letters B and C. But up there by F, it's, yeah, it's 8 or more because the river comes around the corner and scours deep on the corner, and then it gradually shallows up as you go down to the other end of Belmont, the south end of Belmont. So it's, uh, that's, that's Why I'm really trying hard to encourage the Corps to be keeping that navigation channel open beyond the boat harbor so that you can go up under the bridge and all the way to Bering Air— they don't have to dredge up there, but we need that. We need to maintain that that's a navigation channel. Otherwise, we're gonna get stuck with the bill.

You know, in the battle days before, when the Alaska Gold was dumping all the sediment into the Snake River, they had the big plow fields up on Dredge 6, and the river just ran mud soup all summer long, and the, the harbor dredge had to work. 3 Months a year to keep the harbor open. Now when there's no sediment load coming down the river, they whip it off in 2 weeks. That's good. Huge difference.

Is there a timeline on the building of this versus knowing about whether or not the city is going to pay for the dredging? Do we have a timeline on when that argument— it sounds like you have many irons in the fire on discussions. Is there a rough timeline on when it would be answered? No, we don't know. Do we have a timeline?

Difficult to nail when you're dealing with the Corps. And do we have a timeline on— I guess we don't. We. Do on this. They said they want to have it out to bid by early next year.

Okay, we kind. Of— spring,. In the spring. It would be good to have an answer for the dredging about it. I think maybe—.

Well,. You don't need to, but. This is actually construction dredging. It would have no—. Sure,.

But concern about the maintenance dredging. Sure, I just mean if you build it and then they, they say we're not going to help you with the maintenance.

Well,. No matter what, the section that's in the harbor existing and the new section of harbor we were talking about building, those are on us for maintenance no matter what. Okay,. What we're talking about is the area adjacent just south of it. If we can get the Corps to extend their, their actual maintenance dredging a little further, that— the more the further it gets closer to us, the more beneficial it'll be to us, the less we'll have to do.

But we'll— we've known all along in this project we'll have to do the maintenance of that harbor. Thanks. I have a question on this right here. How did we land on -8? Is that—.

That is the permitted depth. Okay, it's always— it's, it's, uh, yeah, it's been -8 there for a long time. They've indicated that through that CAP program we were able to dredge the small boat harbor and the ramps to -12, but we could only do 8 upriver,.

And we didn't push for any deeper because we want to keep it higher than the channel is,. Right? Yep.

But Joy, I guess for timeline, you're— we're looking at what, putting this out this winter, hopefully awarding construction in the summer? Well, depends. The dredging in January and hopefully awarding, and we're dredging in December. We're working on getting the dredging out as soon as we can, and then the idea is to dredge in the ice in March and April. Then the revetment, the next package we're going to look at, would go out in the spring and early spring, hopefully.

And the idea would be to have construction next summer to follow the dredging.

We do have the funds for this project. We've got the federal funds from USDOT under Build Grant, and we've got partner funds for our matching obligation from multiple entities locally as well as the Denali Commission. So considering we have the funds in hand, the idea is to build the work.

Most of this dredging is going to go through the ice yet this winter? The capturing of the real shallow areas is more cost efficient. To go through the ice like they did in '17 for the southern section. But then all of the footprint in the both basins will need to be cleaned up with the suction dredging because you can't get— you can't really get that precise with the excavation. Yeah,.

Because we're talking about a real sweep and clean floor that they can get with the suction. So that's what they did last time after the excavation work was done. The following summer they went in and did suction dredging to clean it down. This guy over here did it. Yeah, what— not me.

The reason I was asking about the -8 is there would be no later on saying, hey, let's try and get it down to 10 or 12. Not at the moment. Yeah, yeah, just because—. I mean, the first time this initial area was dredged, what did that go to? 4 Or 6.

And then we went back and took it deeper. To. 8. And that was problematic. Would have been easier just to go the right—.

Just go to the depth you're trying to get to and go with that. Hold the line. Yeah. So Derek was just showing me this. This is helpful, this last page.

Yeah, because if this is depth, This shows you for A, B, where 10 feet is way down there at the bottom, and you can kind of see where it's— so like, is that what you mean, that. Above? And we're trying to get down to 8. So here, so I'm just thinking, does that any of them get to 8? Can we get 8 anywhere?

Maybe Section A. Maybe— oh, the mouse is below the mark. Uh, Section 8, right? 8.

Anyway, to what you're— the. Only thing I see that's somewhat concerning is, you know, if you look at Section H, Line H, that doesn't show it being at -11 or anything close to that that I'm seeing by this cross-section, Section H. And that lands— I'm guessing that the right side of this graph is the right side of Line H and the left you can see the west side, it shows that being about -8 in the middle of the channel. By my extrapolation of what I'm handed here,.

These are pretty high. See, everyone,. Just making sure that, you know, what we're talking about is, is correct and the channel would be deeper than what we're dredging to. To, because otherwise, yeah, it does sound a little problematic. So the channel's all the way on the edge, it's outside of the blue section?

Well, looking at—. Well, that's what you say, but when you— like what Derek's saying is when you look at the cross sections here, especially for G and H, especially G, you know what, 4 plus 0, 0 seems like that's where the channel is instead of over to the right more.

I guess I'd just be a little surprised to know that that's actually 11 feet deep. I pulled a fishing boat over there with the hydraulic trailer and I had a hard time finding depth. I had to stab that thing in there a bunch of times until I found enough water to collect northern furrier when I did that on Belmont Beach. Yeah, different sections plateau. There's a couple spots that drop off too deep, so some to launch.

But yeah, channel's pretty close to the bank over there.

I don't know if it's exactly 11 feet at mean low because that's what the surveyors are going off of. I just know when we dropped a, a line in there and we're checking for it, it's like 10, 11, 12 feet in the channel most places.

The Maria, the new jackup that went into the river, that three-legged one, that thing, its legs hang down about 7 feet when they're fully retracted. And he made it over to that spot, touched ground, he didn't notice. So at least when he went in. But what was the tide at? Well,.

Do it when it's a good southerly.

Yeah, but I'm excited about this project. Get some more space. And I have been asked by a number of users, well, what's going to happen to the river parking, all the guys that get to anchor up the river?

We haven't fully designed the floats yet, how big they're going to be, how much of this space they're going to take up. And I would imagine there's going to be additional space outside where these floats are to still have people anchor, or we may have a change where we don't allow people to anchor in the river anymore. So, but that won't be as much of an issue if we have additional space for everyone to tie up at a good facility. And some of the few big ones that are currently using the river, the reason they're not using the harbor isn't because they don't like the price, it's because they would rather not park by all these little tiny boats they don't want to crush. So they would much rather just drop the hook in the anchor, or out on the— in the river, and then use a skiff on the floats.

But if we push a lot more of the small traffic to the river floats, there'll be more space on the tall walls for bigger vessels.

So, so the other package is, um, the revetment and the access ramps.

You see there, they've got on page 4 of 6, they've got the dredge limits in the basin identified for the locations, and then they show the shoreline development, the ramps, the floating, the gangway, and then the field dock.

Yeah, darn it.

So over on Poggan's lot, Lot 1, there's a ramp, but the city— does the city own that ramp? No, he's contributing to the project financially.

He's contributing to the local cost share.

And then page 5 shows the profile of some of the revetment there in the ramp section.

This portion of the project is less fleshed out than the dredging, as because of how they are staged. The revetment and ramps will come after the dredging.

But of course, as these progress, we'll bring you guys back the updates.

The goal is, of course, to have the award in mid-spring, late spring, so they can mobilize for the— doing the armor stone and the ramps while the fabrication of the floating docks is underway, and then they can ship hopefully hit the last barges of the '27 season.

Of course, timelines will be identified inside when the solicitation— when the bid package is put together.

And we'll know, depending on when the floating docks arrive, as to whether they will be installed or the contractor will come back in the following spring and install them.

It's got to be all going to be based on when they get to Nome and how much time is left in the season.

So we don't really know how the docks would be anchored or would be piling though, or it would be painted like the other place. I'm fighting. For piling. Yeah, and then it's— there's conflicting opinions about using the anchor chains because you don't have the conflict with the ice and the pile, jacking the piling, and because the piling is very costly, and then if it jacks, yeah, actually we'll be in a situation like we're in with the small boat harbor where we need a crane to replace a piling that broke, we also need a crane to reposition the head pile of the floating docks. So, and some of these piling would actually be not adjacent to shore, making them more difficult to work with and correct.

So— Question. So, if you have a scenario where we get an X typhoon or a big old storm, and we have 2 days notice or something, are you going to be able to, if you have chain versus piling, are you going to be able to let those docks ride it out or are you going to have to pull those things? If all of a sudden we get something forecasted, like we're going to get a 10-foot storm surge or a 12-foot storm surge, how is that going to work physically? Will it be better to be on a piling or chain? So right now our existing floating docks, they're not anchored like chain.

Chain with anchors. There's a chain physically across going from the east to the west side of the harbor with big links like this. Yeah. And then it's got existing chains coming up from the bottom. And then so shortly here, next week, whenever we drop, we're going to drop those chains to the bottom.

Yeah, we've got chains, smaller chains tying back to shore. And then every spring we have to fish those chains back, pull them up out of the mud, and then winch those lines up off the bottom and then get them re-hooked in. It's a great system. I like it a lot because when we have merbach and super high water, it just raises that chain up off the bottom and it holds everything in there. We don't have to worry about it coming off of a piling or pilings failing.

I don't know how we would do— it'll be probably a much deeper discussion for later when we talk about design of this, or we get more feedback from the engineers. But I don't know how— where you would run an anchor chain like that in river. Exactly. Without— especially how much silting there's going to be there versus Small Boat Harbor. That seems like a nightmare to me to fish those up off the bottom.

And in previous drawings, we had shown about 60 anchors out there holding this web of floats together with anchors, and I just said, yeah, no, we're not going to try to manage anchors. That would be a concern for me if we had a big storm surge. Exactly. And water ripping in and out heavy floats with heavy boats on these floats, and if anchors start dragging and moving, then you get a mess going. Everybody's moving.

Piling, go up and down, don't move. Absolutely, the cost— it drives the cost through the roof, no doubt about that, by doing piling. And if you look at our pilings at the high ramp, they're, they're fine, but they're much bigger piling. Look at the pilings that have been at the low ramp for 30 years plus, however long it's been since the low ramp went in, they haven't moved an inch. But they're also not 24 or 36-inch cans, they're like 50-inch cans,.

And they're concrete filled. So maybe they need more prep. I, I would vote for pilings, but again,. I'm with. You, I'm not working the money side of this.

Well, is it is it worth doing it kind of correctly for the— I understand the logistics of the small boat harbor, but this is different. You're trying to anchor these docks in a river that is taking it right up the chimney on southerly water.

I would urge for the pilings as well, because you won't have time to do whatever all that chain business is, which I'm unfamiliar with, I'm familiar with docks on pilings, and it just seems like if we're going to go up and down and we're all readying, you know, everybody's busy getting ready for a big lug coming in, I think that the piling would be the safest bet, especially with small boats and people may be out of town or whatever and can't deal with it last minute. Thank you. If you're looking, are we supposed to say something or it's just a— No, my vote's violence. Well, I would add to that that, like you said, when we get real weather, it's coming up the gut. Those are surfable waves coming right up the river past the bridge.

I mean, they're huge. I'm not sure what kind of a dock system you could make that's honestly going to be able to take that and not get pretty aggressively something. An errant house going by like we've seen going up to the bridge. It's once every now and again. It's '04, it's '12, it's Mervock.

But when that does happen, I mean, it'd be nice not to have to lean on FEMA to replace our destroyed docks. It's just something to think about. I don't know if that would be chain or piling. Chain would be more forgiving. Piling I don't know.

That's a, that's an interesting one. And like Joy said, you know, the soldier pile of Jack in the Harbors, we'd have to do some sort of helipad or something that's a little bit different this time than what we've already tried. And no, it doesn't exactly work unless we go with a 50-inch can.

That's a little bit of a something to think about. That area is going to get slammed from the storms totally be different than the Inner Harbor.

The piling at the ramps there are tripods. They're—. And they're protected. They are, but they're also— they're not—. It's like a dolphin style with— yeah, back in the days of virtue pile,.

They're calling it. So Yeah, I. Think that's beyond this—. We need some more—. Beyond the scope of what we were discussing though.

That's the—. But interesting, and something worthy of keeping in mind, I guess.

And before we end on up on Joy's thing, Joy, this is kind of a personal question, but people keep asking me, and you don't have to answer this, but this is a small town and people have noticed you're selling your house, you're selling your truck. People are kind of like, I don't know, and maybe none of us are supposed to know and that's your own business, but know that we're getting a lot of questions on, do you know what's going on? Do you know what's going on? No, I do not know what's going on. Gotta love little towns.

Yep. Well, you're selling your house and your car. That's kind of big around here. That's a nice house. Nice house.

I know it's sold. I think I might have an easier question. Okay,. Thank you. That's fine, you don't have to answer.

Just know that it's coming. It's not about you, it's project related. Um, someone asked me, with Kewitt working out doing what they're doing, what is— when is there supposed to be the marine mammal observer? Yes, only when you do sheep pile. Correct.

That's the requirement from the National Marine Fisheries Services under NOAA and the permit that they have acquired, that the Corps acquired. Um, only when there's— it's the sound. And that makes more sense. It sounds like I remember when we were working on our face. Yep.

Repairs. Yep. There had to be someone there. Yep. When they were building the mid dock, there had to be someone there.

When they were doing the Cape project, had to be someone there. It's driving the sheet pile because of the sound impacts to the Green Mountains. Is it possible to get the permit number? Is that a question for the Corps? We don't need the actual— I mean, I can look up the permit, but I'd need to have the number of the permit.

The problem with the current IHA is they have requested a renewal and they haven't received it yet, but it's in process. Yes, then I mean the number's the same as the one that's on the website. Something—. The number, the one that's on the website that's expired? An expired permit would not be of interest.

It's the permit that they— that will get used. Either they're going to— what are you saying? They're going to extend that? It's an extension. Of that.

So it's the same one? Okay. Um, and the answer is I'm not going anywhere. Oh, okay. That's, that's— I'll let people— for some reason I get those.

I am, I am, I am going to be a snowbird because of some health issues, and I will be back here harassing everybody in April. Okay, all right. Well, thank you for letting everybody know. That's good. So at some point in Phase 1A, there will be a marine mammal observer?

Absolutely. Next summer. When they're doing—. Next summer—. When they get.

To the point of driving the sheep pile dock? Yes. Do you know what the anticipated— because I— one thing that can gum things up quickly is if you're asking for an extension of a permit that's expiring, that can take, for marine mammals, there's a lot of review processes and we have a lot of marine mammals. I've been approached by some people asking questions, but is there a, they feel good about the timeline for the permit extension? Oh yeah, yeah.

And they've had discussions with them that they, I mean, 'cause they put in for the renewal, like back when the other one expired and They know they're not needing that until next summer, so that's why there's no big panic to get it in place. Good. Noah has told them that they'll— I mean, they've rolled several permits for them of that nature. They're not worried about getting an extension. Good.

I can see where— because the process, the review process is out of house typically, and so sometimes you can get caught for a year. Waiting on a permit. So I'm glad to hear they have that under control. I believe they have been told that the renewal is— and there, there has not yet been any construction, so the renewal is simply a paperwork exercise. Okay, thank you.

Anything else? Yes, I'm sorry, I'm done.

Okay, takes us to old business and we have none. So new business is input on the— on this same topic on the improvements of the mortgage.

Um, I, I have one, one concern and it's kind of my own But I have Lot 5 on the port, and I had— you can see the contour lines where I built my own ramp to the water's edge. I realized that I crossed city's property, but it would be nice to be able to use my ramp still.

Anyway, maybe I need to bug you about that later.

But— oh, you have a ramp that you can't use? Well, if they put the revetment in I won't be able to back a trailer across Boulder.

So that's my concern. Sell it to the city. It's making me money. Yeah,. Okay.

All right then. Yeah,. I don't. Know, I'll have to think about that. So I've got some work things that might be under new business, but I don't think they're necessarily under Does that matter?

First, we're, first we're on the mortgage project. I know, I know, I was late. Oh, it's got to be related to that. I know there's a couple things in it. Did anyone talk about edits to the minutes?

Um, shoot. Okay, that's my own thing for— I was just in Dreamville talking away in my office with someone holding court, and then thankfully You texted. Yeah. Okay, so I guess we're done with new business.

That takes us back to citizen comments.

Okay, and then commissioner comments. So, Commissioner Farley,. Um, no comments.

Just catching up. Okay. Commissioner Smith, are you there?

I think next year's going to be really interesting, you know, with just a little bit of work that the contractor has been doing on the spur removal and seeing how users are going to have to adapt to work with that. Um, you know, forever AML has stacked all their empties out on the end. They couldn't do that this year. They're not going to do that for a couple years. So, you know, I think is when things come to our body about space out at the causeway, I think it's really important to be as proactive and to work with staff to make sure that things are getting done, because it's gonna really get busy out there.

Busier. It's already busy, and we always say that every year, it's busy, but. Busier. I say take it times 10 next year. Is that something we can do at the Port Commission, be more timely and, and helping everyone show.

Up and. Bring ideas. Okay. That's. All I have.

Yeah. Okay. So I've got a couple. One is, I get a call from Andy Mahoney. He's with the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Unit.

He's the guy that owns the sea ice radar at the end of the dock that's on the telephone pole. It's like a regular radar going round and round. He has not had, He's been requesting, and I don't know if this is the right body, but he called, he needs an internet connection. He's been trying for a— sounded like a long time trying to get ahold of NJUS, John Hanlon in particular, with no answer. And interestingly, because he wants to run that radar this winter, and actually he went into a sort of a side thing that the US Army Corps of Engineers is really interested in him getting non-ICE time data, because they're looking at the deposition, or they want to look at the deposition and the waves, which he can get with his radar, of how the dredging is in front of town and whether that's helping or, you know, whatever.

So he's UAF, so he calls UAF here in Nome, and he was hoping somebody will get a hold of him. Is that something that Is that the court? He's been in conversation with me a number of times. Okay. We've gone out there and set gear for him and reset circuits a number of times trying to help him diagnose his issue.

Okay. And the latest and greatest was you need to hire— have a tech come up and look at your gear. Okay. So it sounds like— thank you. Um, and then Shakuliak, they're coming— they're right off right now.

That's the university's research vessel, they're coming in whenever they can. Tomorrow morning, 10:00 AM, we're going to look at it, but more than likely the water will be too shallow, and we'll be holding off a day. 'Cause the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program is scheduled to go out there at lunch in their little van and—. We're going to look at it at 10:00 AM tomorrow morning. Okay, that'll be good to know.

Wah! And they're coming in, they're going further further north again. So they're turning around and going back up. I'm just wondering, we're closing up the port. Do you anticipate or do you know when they're coming back down?

And. We're not closing. Okay, I'd heard that somewhere. Well, they're scheduled to return in November as well. Yeah.

Yep. And so that's another November. That's kind of interesting. Is there anybody else coming in at that late date? Not that's already told me.

Yeah, but last year we had some late ones based on some emergency. Some big late fall storms caused some damage, and then emergency work got awarded. The weather was still good, so it could still happen, but we're still expecting some more boats into late October. And then as of now, Sekuliac's the only one in November I know about. Okay, interesting, huh?

We're getting later and later. Um, and And then on, oh, I actually had, after our discussion on Port Authority, which I really appreciated, to everybody, I was contacted again by a Nome resident who was listening in on the nice media that we have, and they were wondering, Is there a way to understand, or like, if we don't have a— in their mind, their question was, if we have a port authority, everybody's putting in money or servicing. I understand that there's this concern about loss of control, though they were wondering what that meant, loss of whose control, and do people in Nome, if for some reason the port is not a moneymaker get this right. If the Port of Nome is not a moneymaker, anything that— it's put on the residents of Nome to sort of have to figure out how to pick up the tab. Would a port authority allow the more even distribution of the risk of funds?

Is that one anyone wants to tackle?

Do you know what I'm saying? Like, the financially Right now, if we don't have other big interests locally or outside financing a lift or whatever it is you need for here, that would be there. Then if that— if all things go kaput, the only— it's the Nome taxpayers versus having like our bigger entities involved in buying things or putting in monies for the port. See what I'm saying? Then, then they would be, they would be distributing the risk as opposed to the Nome taxpayer.

So the model for running a port, running the Port of Nome, is to, to our tariff, hopefully compensates us for the expenses. And, and so if we're, if we're not paying our expenses, then we're not doing our job. Um, the, the having a port authority with more entities with a— that expands the credit line But, um, still the Port Authority would have to pay, you know, to keep their credit line solvent. So, Charlie,. Do we, do we do most of our evolution through grant money?

Is that how we're operating now? We do a lot of— yeah, most of our capital outlay is from grants, but And then we have to figure out how to do maintenance. That's the tariffs. Gotcha. Operations and maintenance.

Yeah, that's a better term. The Port Authority, actually, just in my mind, just another government agency, another round of laws and bylaws and insurance. And it may be, but the way— and again, I'm ignorant— so the way it was put to me is you have different— it's It's not government, it's the private entity, or like somebody like our CDQ group or your tribal consortium or whoever it is, right, that we have in this region that would have the kinds of monies to help put up for applying for assets like a lift, like something that would make money or make the port more— the incinerator or the whatever it is we need. That, that spread the risk, financial risk. That was the question.

Would that be better than to have it just be the financial risk? If it's just the City of Nome, then it's just the City of Nome taxpayers. And I don't know the answer to that question at all, but you're all smarter than me. So. One of the, one of the issues was that, you know, we, we actually had people come in and go, you didn't make a deal with the Chinese, did you?

So,. Well, thank goodness. So that, that's the, that's the nth degree of, of risk on the other side. So we get a deep pocket that comes in and says, okay, I can bear the cost and I'm going to run the port how I see fit. But that's up to the city to decide.

No, not any— once you enter into that agreement, you're—. No, but you wouldn't agree with the Chinese. I mean, it's up to the city to who they would agree with. Yeah, that's over the top. Okay, let's say some very large company, and they'd have.

To agree to it. The city would, right? Initially,. Yeah. Then, then it's out of your control.

Yeah, but I don't think the city would operate with characters they don't have a relationship with. I think I can help here. Under Alaska state law, a municipality can only form a Port Authority with another— another municipality, not a private entity. They are excluded because it is considered a public corporation once they form. So we can't form with an NSCDC or a Bering Straits or a Sitŋasuaq.

It's a public—. You have to go with like City of Kotzebue,. Or yeah,. Or city of who's nearby. That's the question.

Yeah, and you, that risk, you're talking about spreading risk, and the risk would have to be spread amongst the municipalities.

And each of these are individually eligible to seek funding for their own projects. So using their leverage their capital capacity to leverage funds for the other corporation's facility is just highly unlikely.

I mean, it would seem odd. Just example, Bethel, Dillingham, Nome, and Kotzebue. Formed a public corporation, then we'd be trying to leverage the full capital for projects in someone else's jurisdiction. Well, what if we just stuck to the Bering Strait region? But whose capital are we going to leverage when we have the largest?

The next largest. I mean, I don't know, I'm not trying to be argumentative, I'm trying to learn this because it keeps coming coming. It's, it's, uh, it's very interesting, and I think it's something that's bothering, I guess, other people because they're listening and they're— we're all trying to figure it out, I guess. So hopefully this is a good discussion. Thank you, appreciate it.

Yeah, thank you for the meeting. Sorry to be late. Like I said, blabbing on. Hard to imagine.

Uh, just driving around the port, it is very busy and it is looking better, but it's also apparent that it's very messy when we add a whole bunch of trucking. I don't know if there's much we could do about it. It's not just the port, it's all over town. Every time you haul out of somewhere, it just seems to be a part of the— I guess it's what comes with it. Um, I have noticed close to, um, I hate to say Coggins Properties, I know it's an LLC or an entity, uh, there's— I think NJU or somebody has cut, put something in the ground there, and man, there's a few bumps on that road that just could swallow a Volkswagen.

I don't know if that's on the state or on us or on the trucking company or who, but down there on Port Road, there's a few bumps that, uh require some vehicular maintenance if you navigate them wrong. Um, okay, well, we got to do something about it because I've tried to go over there, over there, over there, over there. It's the whole thing. Even if I'm off the road, it's gnarly. Um, and it— I'm not saying that it's— it's just, it is what it is with the added traffic.

We've just got lots of trucks and that requires more road maintenance, I guess. The contractors.

Okay, that'd be in their best interest as well. That would be outstanding, thank you. Uh, and it does look better though down, down there at the lower pad. I do like to see the progress one way or another.

Um, see Gavic rolled out and up by the road by, by the Myrtle. Um, yeah, it just looks, it looks a little bit, a little bit more work workable. It'd be nice to see that middle area as much as possible open and have those guys going, kind of like we discussed, under no— unless there's some sort of a pretense, leave that middle area open, anything that we possibly can for trans cargo or whatever else we've got. Um, I just thought that was the discussion, and I see things going there. I just hope we we have lots of room for our shippers.

Uh, one question I didn't really see in here, and just because I keep hearing this on other issues, um, budget versus actuals. We're wrapping up the year. How are we looking? How's our cash flow? Do we, do we hit some of our numbers?

I know we're gonna have actuals later, but as far as budget and our actuals, I mean, are we looking like we're kind of on par for what we were estimating, or projecting? I think things are looking up,. Looking better. It's kind of like we were talking about Monday night at the council meeting. Things are looking up.

Of course, we have to— what, all the activity isn't finished yet, so we don't have all the volumes to invoice. Um, we'll know more in November.

Rapidly approaching. Outstanding. Two weeks. Once we invoice, then we have indicative revenue figures. Certainly.

And volumes. But until we invoice, we can't invoice, we get the manifest. They have to finish what they're doing to manifest. So it's a process, but we should know more in November.

Okay. Ms. Flores, I guess question for you as far as rolling into winter. Um, how's our deadbeat list? Are we looking better than normal? Are we looking the same?

Or— our accounts receivable list is lower now than it's been in many years. We did a cleanup, big cleanup, big campaign of pushing on folks and leaning on them real hard all season long. Uh, Caitlin's not listening today, but thanks to our office manager Caitlin, she's been instrumental in providing that. And, uh, yeah, we've been able to get a large number them off, as well as working with finance to reconcile some of the old stuff that's been hanging on for a long time, that whether it's write-off or sort out, whatever, which way, however they do that finance. So, um, but things are looking good.

Now, this is the— that being said, this is the time of year where we're going to start invoicing everyone for chunks of stuff they've been doing for the last, like, month or so, 2 months, and then winter storage, and then chase over the winter, which is always a chase every year. So it's gonna swell back up as we invoice a little bit here, and then— but hopefully not have anyone go too late. But with us being, being diligent on previous impoundment rounds and cleaning that up, um, we have a pretty good process now where we can start those things early in the season. We don't wait till January to start that, dragging that process out into spring, start on it early, and then we have things sorted by January, February, and able to take action and make plans and leave the pressure on before spring. So, okay, well, sounds good.

Good meeting, a lot of information here. It's good to see progress. Thank you both.

Thank. You. I think everybody's hit it.

Not any comments. I, I guess I've, uh, I've been AWOL for almost a month, so I'm just catching up myself. So the, uh, that takes us to our scheduled next regular meeting. Gotta be a different date than that. Thanks for pointing that out.

We got a typo. That was wrong, wrong date. It will be November 19th. Yes, November November 19th.

We'll reach out to folks ahead of time to double-check, but if anyone is planning on being gone at that time, if you guys can reach out to myself or Joy, just let us know. We'll talk about changes. Where do you think you're going? Oh, what the heck, trying to melt?

I'll be here as far as I know. Okay, I think I am too. Okay. Very nice. Motion to adjourn.

The motion to adjourn.

Okay, any objections? We're adjourned. All right, very good. Thank you.