Seward: City Council Meeting 9/28/2026

Okay, mics are on. We're streaming to YouTube. Ready when you are, Mayor McClure. I'll call this meeting of the Seward City Council to order. It is Monday, September 28th, 2026.

It is 7 PM. Chief, would you please lead us in the pledge?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Mr. Clerk, would you please call the roll? Roll call for tonight's meeting.

Warner. Here. Barnwell is excused. Draper? Here.

Kreitz is excused. Calhoun? Here. Osega? Here.

And Mayor McClure? Here. You have a quorum. Okay, thank you. And we have one proclamation, um, it's on Fire Prevention Week.

Uh, before we read the proclamation, the city manager has something to say. I would like to add that the person accepting the award, the proclamation tonight on behalf of the fire department, is the newly appointed and hired fire chief, Kate McCoy. So big, uh, Round of applause and congratulations to Kate on her new position.

And I'd ask Vice Mayor to please read the proclamation for us. Thank you, Madam Mayor. This is a proclamation, uh, Fire Prevention Week 2026. Whereas the City of Seward is committed to ensuring the safety and security of all those living in and visiting our town, and Whereas fire remains a serious public safety concern both locally and nationally, and the presence of lithium-ion batteries in many household devices introduces fire risks, and whereas most of the rechargeable electronics used in today's homes daily, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, power tools, e-bikes, e-scooters, and toys, are powered by lithium-ion batteries, which if misused, damaged, or improperly charged can overheat, start a fire, or explode. And whereas the National Fire Protection Association reports an increase in battery-related fires underscoring the need for public education on the safe use of lithium-ion batteries and devices.

And whereas the way lithium-ion batteries— devices— battery devices are charged can make a difference in helping prevent home fires. And whereas Safe charging includes using a cord and charger that come with your device or one approved by the manufacturer, charging on a hard, flat surface, watching for warning signs like devices that are very hard, hot, or start to swell, unplugging when fully charged, and charging larger devices like e-bikes outside and away from exits. And whereas, Seward residents are encouraged to understand that safe charging means making smart choices every time they plug in. And whereas Seward first responders remain dedicated to reducing the occurrence of fires through prevention, safety education, and community outreach. And whereas the 2026 Fire Prevention Week theme, Charge into Fire Safety: Safe Charging is a Superpower, serves to remind all residents that safe charging can help reduce the risk of fires in homes and communities.

Now therefore, summa cum laude, Mayor of the City of Seward does hereby proclaim October 4th through the 10th, 2026 as Fire Prevention Week throughout Seward and urge all residents to learn about and practice safe charging habits. Dated this date, 28th day of September, 2026, in the City of Seward. Thank you. Thank you, Matthew. Yeah, and you have a few words to say?

Just a quick thing. I don't know where to stand, so I—. If you stand there and speak that way, then you'll—. If that's okay with you. People want to see you.

Yeah, absolutely. So Fire Prevention Week, a little history behind it. It is the longest-running public health observance in the United States to this day. It commemorates the Great Chicago Fire of 1817. It's usually held during the week which it contains October 9th, which happens to be the fire's second worst day in history of that event, and that's why it shifts a little bit each week year after year.

But the campaign gives fire departments, schools, families, communities, groups a focused safety message that they can actually teach on, use, communicate in, in amidst each other on, that have a specific theme to it. So usually themes are on cooking or kitchen safety, smoke detectors, smoke alarms, or even escape planning your homes. But this is the second year in a row that NFPA has actually used Lithium-ion battery safety as part of their campaign. It goes to the seriousness of the topic. It makes sense in our current day and age.

We all have battery-powered products everywhere in our daily lives. With lithium-ion batteries specifically, they store a lot of energy in small places, and that's why they're so useful and convenient for us to use. So some things to just keep in mind, that's also why they're, they're, when they're damaged or poorly charged, they can actually become hazards. So some healthy habits: using the correct charger for the device, what something manufacturer either recommends or comes with the device itself. Charge on a hard flat surface, try to avoid charging on the bed or somewhere in the piles of clothing, that kind of thing.

Don't overcharge, leave the device plugged in only for the necessary time to charge and then unplug it when done. Pay attention to heat, smelling, smoke, or if it smells funny, all those are bad signs that something could be wrong. Anything wrong with the device. And be careful with the extra large ones, so chainsaws, stuff that's— e-bikes, powers those devices. Try to charge those in specific areas that are clear of other combustible materials.

But if anyone has any questions about fire safety or prevention, please feel free to reach out to the City of Fire Department. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you very much, and congratulations. Thank you. We have now citizen comments on any subject except items scheduled for public hearing. There is one public hearing item. There is a sign-up for this, and we'll take speakers in order, and then within the 36-minute time frame, I can call on other people.

You'll have up to 3 minutes per speaker, and when you come up to the microphone there, you need to give us your name and if you live inside or outside the city. City limits. Mr. Clerk, who's signed up? There are 2 people signed in to speak.

First on the list is Jonas Widerski.

Okay.

Well, there goes our audience. Sorry, sorry, Jonas. It's not personal.

Jonas Widerski, outside the city limits. I thought I had 5 minutes, so I'm gonna try to do this in 3. Good evening. As you know, my name is Jonas Widerski, and I'm one of the owners of Seward City Tours. For the past 9 years, we've had the privilege of operating Seward's free shuttle service.

Our current contract is up, and the city has an option to extend it for another 3 years. A few weeks ago, my business partner and I sat down with the city manager to talk about the extension and the future of the shuttle. As my partner and I discussed the extension, we went back and took a hard look at what it actually costs us to run the shuttle today. We came back with a substantially higher number than what the city is currently paying. The city manager was very understanding of how we arrived there, but our conversation also made clear that the size of the increase will require it to go out for bid, and even then, more importantly, it may be deemed not worth the cost to provide the service.

That meeting is what prompted me to come speak with you tonight. I'm not here to defend our increase or convince you that our number is the right number, but over the years we know this operation pretty well, and before the city decides what to do next, we feel some responsibility to share what we've learned about what it actually costs to provide this service. Looking back, if we'd been a little better at the business side of things, we probably would have done things differently. Adjustments were addressed over the years, but they pertained primarily to the increase of cruise ship traffic rather than rising costs. That is our mistake.

We're a mom-and-pop business. We were more concerned with making sure the buses showed up every morning, that we had good drivers behind the wheel, and that we provided a service we and the city would be proud of. And for quite a while, that worked. But we kept doing it because we were proud of the service and we know how important it's become. Examples of some of those rising costs is when we initially started, we were paying our drivers $18 an hour.

We're now paying them $25, and that's still not competitive. We need to increase that further. I mean, the cost of fuel alone, um, uh, a replacement vehicle of the same relative age and era would be double the cost of what it was when we initially started. So these aren't things that happened overnight, and that's probably the most important thing that I can explain. The cost of running the shuttle didn't suddenly jump substantially.

We simply didn't keep our rate up with those costs along the way. Now we're at a point where we have to look at what it actually takes to run this service rather than what we were able to do it for in the past. And we simply want the city to be prepared for what they will likely find the service to cost. Maybe another company can do it for less than we can, we don't know. What we do know is what it has cost us and what we're seeing with wages, fuel, maintenance, and equipment, and what we believe it's going to take to keep the service reliable in the future.

That's the information we want to make sure that you all have. The economic impact of not having a shuttle service will be acutely felt down— by downtown businesses. I cannot stress that enough when we're giving 2,000 rides on our busiest ship days. The impact on our locals who rely on this service in the summer should not be overlooked. But regardless of who operates the shuttle next year, we hope the city finds a way to continue it.

We are fearful that the service may not be deemed worthy of the cost required to operate it. We're not asking you to protect our contract, we're asking you to protect the service by understanding what it costs. I have other remarks. Wasn't able to get it in. We got it.

I'm available. Thank you. Thank you very much. Mr. Clerk.

Amanda Sweeting. Hi, Amanda Sweeting, Outside City Limits. I know it's been a while between Derby and then I took some time off, so I'm glad to be here today. Um, okay, I'm gonna go fast. I have a lot of updates because I haven't been here in a while.

Uh, after hearing community and council feedback, the chamber is excited to— oh, Outside City Limits. Did I do that? I'm so sorry. After hearing community council feedback, the chamber is excited to announce we will be doing both a luncheon and a chamber after 5 mixer every month instead of one every other month. October luncheon will be presented by Sports and Rec about the middle school due to like a poll we put on Facebook to see what the community wanted to hear about.

And our chamber mixer will be Ladies Who Launch, which is probably a staff favorite. One important scheduling note due to a conflict Our October luncheon was moved to Monday, October 19th instead of Thursday the 8th, and we've put a corrected flyer out. We're also heading into Halloween season, so please keep an eye out for all the Halloween celebrations and activities the chamber helped organize and support around town. We're already getting calls about it. We wrapped up our final First Friday Art Walk of the season this September, and I want to give a big thank you to all the businesses and artists and the Seward Arts Council who participated this year and helped make those events successful.

Our Destination Stewardship Committee is continuing its work as well. The committee is partnering with Planning and Zoning to explore possible wayfinding signage around town that could help better direct both vehicle and pedestrian traffic and reduce some of the impacts that come from our visitation economy. We're also partnering with Hyper to do a marketing and outreach campaign focused on the economic importance of child care in our community. The goal is to help show that child care is not just a family issue, it also directly impacts workforce availability employee retention, local businesses, and Seward's overall economy. A partnership with the Seward Charter Boat Association on the Seward Salmon Restoration Fund is also going really well.

We're excited to combine the fundraising from this year's Silver Salmon Derby with the charter association's amazing fundraising efforts, and we hope to announce the total amount going towards coho smolt with receipts purchasing later this fall. Uh, some updates on the destination marketing work contract you guys hire us to do. Um, excited to announce that the visitor center is now open on Saturdays during the week, uh, winter. Uh, so we're open Monday through Saturday, 10 to 4 on the winter. So, uh, we're also officially started work on the 2027 Seward Destination Guide, and we're reimagining the marine guide, that's which is the, the smaller guide that we do every other year, just like the hometown guide.

So they kind of like switch off— into the new Marine and Industry Guide. The goal is to better represent Seward's broader economy and highlight the many industries and businesses that keep our community running all year round. And finally, the Chamber staff will be traveling to the Alaska Travel Industry Association representing Seward businesses conference during the next City Council meeting. So I will also be missing next City Council meeting, but I'll try to email you guys updates with citizen comments. Wow, I have 15 seconds.

Thank you so much. Thank you. And that only those two signed up, right? Does anyone else wish to comment on anything other than the public hearing? Come on, Bruce.

Uh, Bruce Schaff, outside the city limits. Uh, thank you, Council Administration. It's a long time since I've been here. It's a pleasure to actually come down and join the Pledge of Allegiance with my fellow citizens. A lot of the groups that I participate in don't have that pledge.

Uh, I attended the town hall meeting just this evening, this afternoon, with City Electric Department, and I have expressed over a period of time my disappointment that the public is not getting information from Consul Administration. They are getting it indirectly through the sewer electric system, the higher directors, and the webpage which is available. But there's never been any public leadership from Consul on how this thing is going to go. It's clear that Consul and the previous administration was not capable of correctly managing the utility because you can see the difference between what it was then and what it is today. I do believe that the process is underway.

It's a little bit confused now that the potential for Godwin Glacier is overwhelmed the— just the change of administrative or governance that was required. But the process is moving ahead. I think you'll see or have seen from a survey that A large number of people still do not support the sale and probably never really supported the sale. And I suggest, and I hope that Council will remove any future funding or effort towards a sale. Conversion to a co-op or a hybrid or authority with retaining ownership and local control, in my view, would be the proper way to go.

Spending more public funds on something that the public doesn't want, should not— shouldn't do it.

Thank you, Bruce, and it's good to see you. Anyone else wishing to speak?

Is there anyone in the hallway? Could you tell me? Okay. Okay, I'll close this portion and move to the approval of the agenda and the consent agenda, and I'd need a motion to approve and a second, please. I'll move for the approval of tonight's agenda and consent agenda.

I'll second. Okay, moved and seconded. Are there any changes to the agenda anybody would like to make? Seeing none, Mr. Clerk, we're ready to vote.

Voting on the approval of tonight's agenda and consent agenda. Osega? Yes. Warner? Yes.

Draper? Yes. Calhoun? Yes. And Mayor McClure.

Yes. Your agenda and consent agenda have been approved. And on the consent agenda were the September 14th, 2026 City Council meeting minutes, the introduction of Ordinance 2026-009 amending Seward City Code 16.01 and 16.05 to clarify public improvement requirements when subdividing, developing, developing or selling land. Resolution 2026-079, authorizing the city manager to accept the proposal from Cronus Engineering for a 12-megawatt, 24-megawatt-hour battery energy storage system for the Port of Seward vessel shore power project in an amount not to exceed $9,730,013 funded through the Environmental Protection Agency Clean Ports grant program.

Resolution 2026-080, authorizing the city manager to enter into an initial design-build agreement with Gem Company for the Shore Power and Cruise Ship Dock Expansion Project in an amount not to exceed $2,127,700 funded through the Environmental Protection Agency Clean Ports Grant Program. Resolution 2026-081, recommending Kenai Peninsula Borough approval of the preliminary plat of Track H, Seward Original Townsite Waterfront Park Replat, creating Track H1 Waterfront Park Replat with associated vacations and dedications. The confirmation of the canvas board for the 2026 regular municipal election, and no grounds for protest for the AMCO liquor license renewal for Seward Brewing Company. Or the AmCo Brewery repackaging endorsement for the Seward Brewing Company. And that is all.

Okay, thank you. That's quite a bit, but we have more. Next, we have the city manager report. Madam City Manager. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Some things I'd like to highlight right off the get-go from the city manager report. There has been a lot of really great work done on the dog park over by the animal shelter, and the date for the official opening is 10/10 at 10. So a date that I will not forget. I'd also like to speak to some scheduling conflicts. I have to apologize to the public and the City Council too.

When I scheduled the work session previously that we had before this for the Providence, I did not look at the correct calendar and see that it was also during our Electric Utility Town Hall. So a big kudos and thank you to everybody who managed to make it to both of those. And I hope anyone who tuned in to one or the other will watch the other on YouTube because they're both really well done and well in full of good information for the public on two really important aspects of our community. I also would like to note that the Parks and Rec crew, Sports and Rec specifically, has been hard at work at the middle school as we received keys to that on the— around the first or second week of September. I know it's a very exciting time as we transition that from a middle school to a community center, and so I definitely want to just ask the community's patience as we work out some of the kinks that come along with that.

At our next council meeting, we'll be having a having a fee schedule set forth that shows the room, room use rates and everything that's associated with that so that we can start booking that out in a well-rounded and cohesive way and make sure it is a space that fits the community's needs. So we've been chipping away at it, but a big thank you to Russ and his whole team, Mel and her whole team, and the community for being patient as we didn't turn the lights on day one. We are having a very cool event up in that area on October 17th, though, the Zombie Run, and I will be a zombie, and I'm gonna go train tomorrow and run as fast as I can so I can catch some, some people, or some, some people running. Then something I did want to transition to is just a very pointed update on our EPA grant. Tonight on the consent agenda, you approved a lot of money.

Um, but I did want to highlight that those are all funded from the EPA Shore Power Grant. The first is for 12-megawatt, 24-megawatt-hour battery energy storage system from Kronos Engineering, and that was in an amount of $9.7 million funded through the EPA. And those are the battery energy storage systems that we'll have on site to, um, power the shore power when it comes to town. Uh, you'll remember a big aspect of this program is that we didn't or this project is that we didn't want a cruise ship to come in and draw power immediately from the community. We wanted to make sure that anytime a cruise ship was plugged in, nobody in this room and nobody in this community really notices.

And those battery energy storage systems play a big part in that. We also authorized to enter into initial design-build agreement with GEMM Company, G-E-M-M, for the shore power and cruise ship dock expansion project design in an amount not to exceed $2.1 million, also fully funded by the EPA grant program. I'll invite Brian to maybe explain what that is further because it gets into details that I'm not 100% sure of in the electrical world. But before— and he can, he can come up— but one other thing I wanted to do before I did introduce him was kind of give you an update on the project as a whole. So these are two important pieces of it, but In addition to that, we've been working with a really well-rounded and vast team of people to move this $45, $50 million project along.

One of the big few hurdles that we've come to— come into at the front and at the start of this is recognizing that we applied for the project in 2024, and a lot has shifted in the financial landscape of the electric aspects that go into that in the course of the next 3 years. So Brian and the rest of the ShorePower team has been really diligently working on making sure that we come in as close to the granted amount as possible, recognizing that some of the things have changed price-wise and some of the project landscape has changed. We've moved the location of the battery energy storage system from the railroad property up to Fort Raymond. And so we're kind of looking at a, a reevaluation of what the project looks as a whole to make sure we're being most cost-effective, most streamlined, and providing the most value both for the federal funds that we're being good stewards of and for our utility ratepayers. And before I pass it off to Brian, the last thing I wanted to say on the EPA project is that we did have a site visit from the EPA representatives, our go-to liaisons, they are project managers on that side.

And they came up and did, it has a very long technical name, but it's a soft audit in the grand scheme of things. And I am very excited to report that we did really, really well. We knocked it out of the park. They loved seeing all the things that we're working on, and our team, especially Rob and Brian and Brad, who are our core project management team, have done a great job of documenting and being on top of all that reporting and communicating with the EPA throughout. So it's been, for a very, very, very large project with a lot of oversight, it's been as smooth sailing as it can be.

And I will pass it off to Brian to add anything that I missed or tell you exactly what a shore power and cruise ship dock expansion project design build agreement is. Sure. Um, given the environment we've been working in over the last couple years, lead times and prices have gone up significantly from when we got the grant. So we've been reaching out and getting prices from vendors, hard, hard money prices from vendors on the various components. That's caused us to shift some things around and try to do things differently.

Um, and so I think we're at a point today where we have line of sight on actually reconstructing it for the grant amount. I'm waiting on two numbers at this point. One is we'll authorize GEM to move forward with their preliminary design and validate that their portion of the project, which is from Ship Avenue essentially out onto the dock, that their project is within budget. And then we're waiting on a price for the actual construction of the cable circuit from Fort Raymond down to Ship Avenue. Once we get those two numbers in, I think we'll— it looks to us like we will be in a good position to actually accomplish a project with some, with some cushion at or below the $50 million price tag.

But we didn't want to move forward until we had run all those, all those pieces to ground, you know. And so we— I think we're at a place where I think it can be done for $50 million, and I think we have hard numbers to get us there. And so at this point, you'll probably start to see, assuming these other two numbers come in where we think they will, you'll start seeing a lot more of the procurement coming your way through resolutions. Yeah, which is an exciting point for us to be in, you know, before having all of those RFPs go out and the responses come in. It's very ephemeral of, oh, yep.

This is what we anticipated in 2024 it was going to cost. So a group of us was in here opening the bid packets, Suli included, of saying, ah, what are these numbers coming in at? So we're really, really glad to see them come in at a much more— at a manageable— at a manageable area. So sweet. And that's, that's all on that.

If there's any questions available about that, I see no questions. But you have other things to report? No, but I did want to do one. Oh, Jason has something to report. And I did want to note one small thing is that we do have an attorney hiding in the background, so I just want to make sure we get that attorney report even though his table is not out because I did see him.

Cool. Thank you, Brian. Yes, and, uh, well, we have had some requests just for updates on the progress of the Jesse Lee Home Park, and I was going to speak to that, but actually there's someone here who could probably speak a little bit better than I can, so I would like to ask the Parks and Rec Director just to come up and maybe talk about what all has taken place in the last couple months, because everyone's seen great progress, and kind of maybe just hear about what the next steps might be. Okay, so—. Or timeline.

All right, good evening. Um, so I guess the next steps— all the groundwork is done. Metco did an amazing job, and the next step, since we have all the playground equipment, is going to be installing the playground, putting a border around the playground, and putting material in. And I met with the maintenance supervisor today to get a— to see if we should move that to the top of our priority list and get it in before the ground freezes, or if we should wait till spring. And I think it's feasible that we can do it this fall.

Yeah, and then we also met with Mary Tugas, Friends of the Library, and they have monies to enhance that memorial area, so we're going to start groundwork on that as well. So those are going to be our first steps, and then eventually we want to put in Well, we kind of have a parking area, but eventually next year we'll put in— we have 3 portable restrooms that are not being used at the moment, and so we'll put one of those up there since it's so close to water and electric, and eventually put in like a small gazebo. We have extra picnic tables, but it's coming right along. It's, it's looking really good, and we're really excited. Excited.

So, thank you. Any questions? Thanks, Mel. Thank you very much. There are some elementary students very interested in the playground.

They're asking me all the time. Did you have anything else, Mr. Bickley? No, I don't. I do recommend, if you— you should drive up there and see what they've done. The old pillars from Jesse Lee Home are there, and there's a bit of history there.

We were looking back at the Historical Society meeting, we have pictures of those pillars, you know, from the old days. They're there as an entryway into the park. They were tucked in the woods. That's what— yes, they were covered up with brush. Yeah.

Apparently. Yeah. Questions? Yeah, Councilmember Werner. Thank you, Madam Mayor McClure.

I'm curious, do we know what age range the park is going to be graded for? Elementary ages. I'm pretty sure I wasn't involved in that purchasing. Yeah, the equipment was purchased before my time as well. We'll find out.

We'll have to look into it. Yeah, good question.

Other questions for— yes, Councilman? Just one question, Madam Mayor, and I brought this up before, and it's just a curiosity. Did we pull out the original design that we had for that and actually take a look at that? I know that the community garden thing is off the table there. I think that was a decision that those folks made that that wasn't going to be up there, but I was just kind of curious if we had looked at that original plan for that area and how close we were going to be to that, or what changes might have happened to that, because I think A lot of numbers and stuff were still involved, you know, financially for that kind of thing.

And I was just curious if we looked at that at all or if we were developing a whole new design.

Can I speak to that? So obviously, this has been a very long process, longer than anyone— any of us imagined that we've been going through this. And so the last time that we spoke about the property, just because we did want to make sure that you guys did have kind of final approval of some some of that is, is we— I brought back to you guys and we said, okay, we know that this is kind of— this is the park. We know that that's got playground here, we got a parking lot here, and we talked about where the restrooms are going to go on that type of thing. And so, and there were some elements that have been kind of like tossed in and out.

And so our plan is to bring that back before you guys and just kind of have a discussion with you, probably in this fall or this winter, uh, so that you— so that can be a discussion that with you to kind of finalize those plans and talk about that. So, thank you. Yeah, is that all right? Yeah. Okay, other questions for administration?

Well, thank you very much. It's exciting about the Shore Power. City Clerk report, do you have a small report on page 91? Yes, thank you. On page 91 is a repost of our flyer for absentee voting for the regular municipal election, and that is right here in council chambers Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. And we'll be doing this through October 5th, and then on October 6th is Election Day at the Seward Community Library.

Okay, thank you. And we do have our standard city attorney report moment in here. Did you have a report, or you just gracing us with your presence.

Good evening, everyone. No, no written report, but, um, we did— I did come down for the last town hall, and we've been working on kind of a comprehensive legal memo for council and administration to just summarize the legal risks and what what hoops you'd have to jump through to do which option and just help present that for the next steps. So we've been excited and happy to be part of that process. Thank you. Okay, well, thank you.

That's nice. You can enjoy the meeting. Sit back and just enjoy. We have one presentation, Alaska Housing Finance Corporation, SEWRD Initiatives, Daniel Delfino. And you have the mic.

I was wondering how this part was going to work. She'll help you out.

Sorry, I don't know the protocol. Yeah, you're good to go. Thank you. All right, well, thank you everyone, and I appreciate the invitation to come and talk about this. I included a bunch of information here.

It's not, not too terribly long, but I've also included information about something that we're not actually doing. And I just want to preface everything you're about to see by saying that there's nothing that's really come off of the wall. Well, there's one thing that we've already purchased, but there's a lot of stuff that is responsive to feedback that we receive in forums. So it's a big part of the reason why we come out to the local communities to do these presentations is to hear your feedback, because we have the opportunity to pull back from some of these things or to change the course course of how some of these things move forward. So what I wanted to talk about was something that— it's been branded a couple of different ways.

We've been referring to a lot of what we're doing in this space at HFC as the Lands to the Housing Catalyst. It started with a $4 million appropriation a few years ago from the state to Alaska Housing to say, hey, less than 1% of our state is owned by the private sector. Can you do something to see how much of the publicly held land that's available through the university, the Trust Land Office, all these agencies, can you do something to try and unlock that to address the housing needs of Alaskans? So we took that $4 million and started a conversation with those entities to see what was available. And a lot of the work that I'm going to go through sprung from that initial discussion.

Some of it came from that initial $4 million, other came from from federal funds that we were able to repurpose. And we have more work to— or more funding that's come about, that $8 million that came through this most recent legislative session, to continue this work beyond the space that we're currently occupying. So what we did with that initial $4 million is out of those conversations with the public entities, the conversation with the University of Alaska really bore fruit. And they had a great real estate division. They were really easy to work with.

A lot of data on their maps for the properties. We ended up closing on 14 parcels all across the state. A lot of them were in Fairbanks and the Matsu, but we also picked up properties in Anchorage and Seward. There's also a lot of property that we didn't purchase, and that's one of the things I want to get to when we're looking at land, is that just because we have money and we have the ability to pick up land, we're not interested in holding land just for sake of transferring title. We only pick it up if we think it's a viable alternative.

So there's a conversation that starts when we're exploring land all over Alaska, and that conversation stops a lot of times before we actually move forward on the title. Sometimes that's because we've done a site visit. Other times it's because we've come to a room like this and we've heard from the community that that's not a good fit. So once it gets set in motion, What ends up happening is affected by the conversations that we have in rooms like these. The properties that we purchased, there were 14 of them, a little over 600 acres.

We purchased those and we're spearheading a lot of the development activities on those lands. We also partnered with the university to do investments in a property that they had in Cordova that could reposition the land. It was kind of like a car that was broken down. That needed money to fix a transmission so you could sell it. There was a margin that we could help them with to help unlock that subdivision for their community.

So we gave them a small appropriation of money. The university matched that resource and they were able to develop close to 30 acres with that money. So we were agnostic as to who moved forward with the development, just as long as the activity resulted in housing for Alaskans. When we look at— I'll get into the process here in a second— how we turn land into housing for Alaskans, we've gone through a couple of RFPs working with the private sector to catalyze these vacant lands into housing. And just with the lands that we've moved forward on the notices of intent to award through those public processes, we're over 740 units that we have projected coming into the pipeline over the next couple of years.

Our average cost is about $11,000 per lot that we're bringing online for Alaskans by working with the private sector in this space. So it's a very new space for us. There are a lot of risks, but it's a new model that's producing a lot of good outcomes relative to the price point of some of the other options. So how does it work? It's a choose your own adventure, starting with the conversation with the local governments based on the preference.

Sometimes local governments have said, it's our community, we want to handle how the land is managed. We want to say, this is what the land is going to go through, these are the incentives that are going to result in housing. And in some cases, we've said, OK, here you go. Here's a lease to the land. You can run the procurement.

Other communities have asked us to run the procurement for them and then to have input on the process. And the valley— I'm sorry, the Matsu Borough and in Fairbanks. That was the direction that we received from those local governments. So we ran large RFPs working with very new people that don't typically occupy this program space with us saying, here's land. We're going to take the acquisition costs out of the development equation.

What can you get as far as affordable housing, not in the program sense, but housing that average Alaskans can afford to buy, what can you produce? We received proposals from people we'd never heard of, and a lot of the 740 units that I talked about a couple of minutes ago came through this process. We had home builders, uh, some of them doing mixed income developments where they were going to be doing a multi-family apartments, other alongside single-family homes. Other people were doing single-family home subdivisions. There were some rent-to-own mixtures.

There were all kinds of different things that people were proposing to try and solve this housing solution. And they were working with cost-effective teams that we never could have touched with some of our other government programs. So it was a huge risk. It was a leap of faith with our partners to do this, but that's how the 700 units are coming online is through that process. We gave the developers and the private sector folks that we were partnering with— really broad latitude to propose the housing solution that made sense for their community and the economics of their development model.

So this gets us back to Seward, because one of those properties down there that we picked up was right down the street. It's next to the hotel. We haven't done anything with this yet. We looked at this property and we're like, okay, this is a decent, decent location. We think there's something that could be done with it.

We've had some conversations with Ms. Sorensen about this property just to say, hey, is this— are we out of our minds with this, or do you think this is a good idea? So what we were looking at with this was to do something similar to what we did with the properties in the Mat-Su Borough and Fairbanks, was to put out a request for proposals for housing developers to develop housing in this lot. And the requirement that we would have would be the requirement that we've had with all the other ones. That it has to be permanent housing for Alaskans. It can't be a short-term rental.

That's really the only edict. A lot of times when we've, uh, engaged with the community and we talk about market-rate housing or housing in general, uh, most people assume that Alaska Housing only does low-income rental housing. That's not the price point that works for the model that we're talking about. All we're contributing here is taking land costs out of the acquisition. Affordable housing does not work with this model with without massive subsidy that isn't there to provide these units.

So what we'd be looking at here would be housing that anyone could buy. These tend not to be luxury units. We're not interested in building million-dollar homes, but someone who has a job in Seward should be able to afford it at the end of the day. So what we were looking at here was putting this out to the community and saying, hello, builders, we want— we think we can squeeze at least 2 units out here. We'd like to see more if you can put it together.

But we're going to give you the broad latitude that we did with the other folks to provide the housing that makes the most sense. If you can make it work as multifamily, propose it. If not, single-family homeownership works. Anything that's better than a vacant lot right now. So we'd be putting that out there.

There's some information that I have about a proposed timeline. We can actually move on this pretty quickly. It's in a Word document that's at my desk right now, and what's in that Word document can change based on this conversation or the feedback that we receive afterwards about what you'd like to see, if you want to see more or less based on what I've talked about. Some of the other things— there was a conversation that we had with the Department of Natural Resources outside of city limits.

We looked at this, and we were asked to look at this with the Department of Natural Resources. We didn't pull this out of a hat. This was something that was given to us. When we started working with them, this was in, I believe, February. So snowy, it's like, it wasn't a good time to do a site visit.

They published a notice saying, okay, HFC may move forward with this. We heard from the public immediately. So their notice process works. Yay. We walked the site.

It's a terrible site to develop. So this is one that's not going anywhere. We're not punching a road through anyone's house. And even if we wanted to, it would be like lunacy to try and develop on that ridge. So this is one of the ones where we explore something, it doesn't make sense, we pull it back out.

We don't say, hey, we started this process, it's ours. So we backed out of that one. Other one is the Orca Building down the street. This is one we're looking at. First things first, we have no desire to kick out the Children's Museum.

So all the adorable kids that are playing with the Lite-Brite. They would be able to continue using this under our scenario, but what we were looking at with this building is the ability to convert the upstairs into housing for some of the state workers that don't have a place to live. So we'd be moving Public Safety, who has a really, really claustrophobic workspace. I don't know if you've been there, sir, but it's like, wow, this is an evidence room. So we'd be moving them downstairs into one of the vacant spaces and then making the other property upstairs available for folks upstairs.

So that's it. I'm happy to answer any questions or venture back after my 4-second clock goes to zero. Could you give the 2-second description? I know where the lot is, but just for people that don't know, um, like, sure, it's dangerous. I know that the city manager could be—.

I could be very specific as it is. My backyard. I just know. Yeah. So if you know the log cabin across the street from Fifth Avenue Fitness, it's the vacant lot across from that where there's currently a, I think, unauthorized driveway that I use to walk to work every day.

And then a camper that is probably also unauthorized. It moved. Oh, it moved. I thought you towed it. I was like, oh, it's moved.

I was getting close for a little bit. But yeah, so it's the lot right next to the Hotel Edgewater. Right. Yeah. Okay.

Just— I'm seeing nods now. Thank you for that. I didn't want it to be secretive. Which I will say, it's always fun when somebody comes in and says, we're looking to develop it. I say, that's right behind my house.

But it's a very, very great location, I think, for the kind of project that Daniel and his team have been exploring. So it's very exciting. Um, yes, Councilor Navarro. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um, do we know what is is that property zoned?

Commercial. It is commercial. Good. Thank you. Other questions?

Well, thank you very much for that. Thank you for the opportunity to come down and talk about it, and we're available to answer any questions offline if you'd like to talk to us later. Okay, thank you so much.

Um, are we okay to keep going without a break? Yes. Okay, um, our next item is a publication public hearing. It's the only one tonight. Um, it's an ordinance for enactment, and it's Ordinance 2026-008.

Mr. Clerk, when you're ready, could you please read that into the record? Thank you. Ordinance 2026-008, amending Seward City Code 2.30.410, Historic Preservation Commission, to waive the residency requirement for two seats on the commission. Okay, and you'll find this on page 92 of the packet.

I'd ask for a motion to enact and a second, please.

I'll make a motion for Ordinance 2026-0. Is there a second? Did you say— okay, just make sure. Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Administration, do you want to speak to this?

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um, this is from and through the Historic Preservation Commission, so I looked and see if a representative from the commission would like to speak to this.

No, there's two of us. Yeah, you could both—. Yeah, one could speak now and then there's also the public hearing, so Okay, and even though we know you, we need your name and if you're inside, outside. Brother Todd Mashlin, religious solitary, St. Peter's Episcopal Church and member of the Historic Preservation Commission. I would support this motion to adopt a waiver to allow 2 seats of the Historic Preservation Commission to be filled by non-residents of Seward.

The reason being is that we require a certain degree of technical expertise.

Although it is important that we do maintain local representation. 5 Of the 7 seats are filled by Sewood residents. We are proposing that 2 of those seats, or 2 additional seats, be allowed to be filled by non-residents for this very specific reason.

We have individuals who own property here in Seward, historic properties, who are not residents of Seward. We also have interests beyond the local municipality who also have interests in certain properties, the Episcopal Church being an example. So we are proposing and hope that you will support our proposal to allow 2 of the seats on this council commission to be filled by non-residents. Who happen to have expertise and/or own properties, historic properties here in Seward. Okay, thank you.

Um, anything you'd like to add, Madam City Manager? Um, no, thank you, Madam Mayor. Then what I'm going to do before we discuss it is open the public hearing. So I'll open the public hearing and For the public hearing, comments are limited to up to 5 minutes per person. And there was a sign-up for that, but I can just take shows of hands too.

So has anyone—. No one has signed in. No one has? Okay. Does anyone in the public there wish to speak to this?

Okay, Sue, you come first then. And then Bruce.

My name is Sue Ward. I'm the vice chair of the Historic Preservation Commission. I did not come prepared with— inside or outside city limits? I did not come prepared, but I would like to also request that you support this ordinance, this change, simply because we have 7 people on the commission and only 4 seats filled. We have at least one person who would continue on the commission if this gets passed.

And again, there's an application process that comes through this body. So you would be able to assure that the people that are on the commission will maintain Seward interests. You have the final say. We'd like to expand, and like I say, the Episcopal Church is one. Tongi Lebrek, who's been chair for about the last 10 years, can no longer serve because he lives in Anchorage but owns two properties here.

And I would also point out that the walking tour was Tongi's idea, and he's our major grant writer. So he's a terrific person that we'd like to see continue But he will not be able to if this doesn't pass. And like I say, there's 4 people on the commission of 7. If one person misses, we don't have a quorum.

Okay, thank you. Um, Bruce, come on up. We still need to know who you are and where you are.

It's all just for the record.

Uh, Bruce Jaffa, outside city limits. Good evening, Council. I'd actually come down tonight because I sort of misread the ordinance and thought that it was just a matter of expanding it to the area from Lowell Point to Turn Lake, which I wholeheartedly support. And when I was on the Port and Commerce Board, worked to get that included, those geographic areas included. In reading the ordinance itself tonight, I'm troubled And I understand and respect the members that just spoke on this, assuming they know much more of the problems of the historic group and their being able to fill the roles.

But I hate to see the loss of community identity by having to go outside the community for participation in these goals or these groups. I, I see the East Peninsula as an economic group. That's the way I've always spoken of it, for clear out to the turn lane. But the, uh, the ordinance, the way it's written, would be okay with me if there was a way in code the council could actually favor someone who lived inside the city. Say you had two applicants, one lived outside the city and owned the McMullen Building like I do, but you had someone inside the city that also applied, and you could favor that person inside the city, and I think you should.

That said, I think Council— PACAB is also short members, and the historic group is short members, and You have to take this as a criticism, sorry, but I think Council has not paid enough attention to those advisory boards, not just advisory, but the Commission as well. They offer a lot. They are all volunteers. And I know you all know them and probably respect those people, but Council has not done enough to encourage their participation or elevate them. In the eyes of the community.

But again, if this ordinance could favor a local applicant over a non-local applicant—. Okay, thank you. Does anyone else wish to speak to this? Last chance. I'm allowed in 1 minute.

Um, yeah, you can, you can come back. It's kind of different because you were acting as— yeah, so. Keep it brief. I understand and I hear the last speaker's concerns. What I would reiterate is that it's not always possible to find the necessary expertise within city limits or whatever extension you might want to expand, whether we include the entire peninsula or the entire state.

What we are proposing is that we seek and need specific expertise and would I would like to allow our commission to have those individuals be available to us. Okay. Thank you. Once again, anyone else wishing to speak? Okay, I'll close the public hearing and bring it back to council.

I do have a question for administration before we discuss. What is— Maybe the clerk would have it. What does it say in our code now of where they can live? Could someone look that up? So currently for our code, the Historic Preservation Commission is created consisting of 7 residents of the City of Seward and general Seward area.

So all 7 residents— all 7 members can be from Lowell Point to the Turn Lake Junction. Okay. As appointed by council. Okay, so it's already been expanded to that distance. I just want everyone to be aware.

Okay, Council, any input on this? Council Member Werner. Thank you, Madam Mayor McClure. I don't— this is just a lack of knowledge on my end how often the Historic Preservation meets, but by allowing individuals individuals that don't reside in the Low Point to Turn Lake area to attend these meetings, they're going to have to drive down into our community to sit on the dais to participate in these meetings because we currently don't allow virtual participation. Is that correct?

Yes, and the historic preservation meeting meets quarterly. Quarterly, okay, just 4 times a year. Okay. Other comments? Yes, thank you.

So is there anything that would preclude the commission from being able to use expertise outside of the people that are sitting at the dais? Like they mentioned grant writing. Could that still not be done by somebody who wasn't sitting on the dais? No, there's nothing that would preclude that. I will— we also— the liaison to the Historic Preservation Commission from the City of Seward is the museum curator.

Who often assists and works with the Commission to make sure that the grants are done and does the reporting and everything for those as well. Okay, so I was going to ask that very question. Who writes the grants now? Yeah, so the grants are submitted and written in conjunction with the HPC by the museum curator. I think technically I'm the final— Yeah.

Mayor Osenga. And thank you, Madam Mayor. I think, um, I understand what you're, what you're asking for. Uh, my only problem with all of this is that, um, this is one, one commission and we have two other, two other boards. And I, it just seems to me like if we, if we do this with one, then we should probably do it with all.

I'm just not comfortable with that actually happening. I think we have I mean, I know it's kind of hard to get people within our boundaries here to do this, but I'm not sure that opening it up so someone can live in Anchorage and then come down, I don't know if that's really the way I'd want to go. Okay, thank you. And I believe the way it's written, they could live anywhere. The ordinance, it doesn't say up to Anchorage, at least when I watched the meeting.

And that was what was said, that we could— so, kind of jumping on that. Any other comments? Oh, Council Member Molina. Thank you, Madam Mayor McClure. How long have the two seats been vacant?

Do we know the timeframe?

That puts somebody on the hook. The seats expired in May.

Okay. It's hard to recruit in the summer too, so. Okay. I mean, that's one of the things when I'm no longer mayor I'd like to be a part of, of course. So, can't do both right now.

Any other comments before we vote? Yeah, thank you, Madam Mayor. I have a lot— some of the same concerns as Vice Mayor Usenga, that we're opening up something that we may not want to open up with the other commissions, because we've had this discussion before on filling vacancies. I mean, we have a vacancy on the Borough Planning Commission that we can't fill from anybody from Seward. So I get that those exist, and It's a little bit hard to live with sometimes, but I really have a concern that this is something— and I know all these people and I like all these people— but that we're doing something just that fits one individual.

And what I don't want to see is that we open this up and then we have somebody from, you know, Denver, Colorado, that decides they want to get involved Seward Historic Commission or somebody from, you know, Lubbock, Texas. So, and I know that sounds extreme, but that's what this would allow, and I, I'm not ready to— I'm not ready to do that. And I echo those concerns.

Are we ready to vote? I believe so, Mr. Clerk. Voting on the enactment of Ordinance 2026-008. Osega?

No. Warner? No. Calhoun? No.

Draper? No. And Mayor McClure? No. That motion has failed.

Okay, so we need to recruit heavily.

Next, what do we have next? Um, new business resolution, Resolution 2026-077. When you're ready, Mr. Clerk, I know you got some stuff to write. Could you please read that?

Resolution 2026-077, authorizing the city manager to enter into an agreement with RESPEC for transmission planning study services for the electric department in an amount not to exceed $60,260 and appropriating funds. And you'll find that on page 96 of the packet. I'd ask for a motion to approve and a second, please. I'll move for the approval of Resolution 2026-077. I'll second.

Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Administration. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I'll invite the general manager of the electric department, Brian, thank you, to speak to this.

Good evening. Thank you. Glad to be here again. Um, we should probably have your name. Oh, sorry, Brian Hickey.

Thank you. I actually live inside city limits when I'm here. I'm not sure how that all works. Um, uh, yes, so, um, what's going on is currently the Rail Belt Reliability Council is working on an integrated resource plan, and, um, I think we have the opportunity to do some forward-looking study work that would identify a second transmission corridor from Seward to Dave's Creek. I would recommend that we do that and we— this is a pretty straightforward study.

We do that and then we submit it to the RRC and have it included in the regional transmission plan. That's not something that we are going to do today, next year or 10 or 15 years from now, but once it's in that plan, you know, if you were to develop the hydro project, it would likely be desirable to have a second line out of here from a reliability and redundancy standpoint. Then it's in the plan, and if you, you know, if you're trying to get grant funding or something for it, it's in the Integrated Resource Plan of the Railboat Region. So we have an opportunity now to get this in, and I recommend you do Do it.

Okay. Thank you. Did you have anything? No, that's, that's all. Thank you.

Um, questions for Mr. Hickey?

So this amount would be to contract with RESPEC to do what? Develop. So what they need to do is they need to run First of all, identify a corridor, ideally not the same corridor that the existing transmission line is in, and then model that in ETAP, which is a program that models how power flows and voltages act. And then you would model it in ETAP, you'd run some N-minus— some contingency cases where you take out Fort Raymond or the line out to Nash Road, and you evaluate the voltage voltages and currents and you demonstrate the effect of that second line on the region. And then you have— and then you say, you know, this is our forward-looking transmission plan for the City of Seward.

We provide it to Black& Veatch who's doing the Integrated Resource Plan for the region. Some of the other utilities are doing this right now. And it's sort of an opportunity to get it on the books and then if you ever do need to go talk about it, part of this larger regional plan and you're not sort of starting from ground zero. So instead of making up for things that haven't been done for years, we're sort of thinking— Looking ahead.

Yes. What a succinct way to put it. I just wanted to point that out. This is exciting. Put those stones in the path just in case you're going to walk down them.

Questions, comments? Ready to vote? I see nods. Mr. Clerk, thank you.

Brian, voting on the approval of Resolution 2026-077. Draper? Yes. Warner? Yes.

Calhoun? Yes. Osega? Yes. And Mayor McClure?

Yes. That resolution has been approved. Okay, and we have one other item of business. Uh, on new business, Resolution 2026-078. And don't rush, but when you're ready, could you please read that, Mr. Quick?

Resolution 2026-078, authorizing the city manager to purchase new fitness equipment from Top Fitness for the Parks and Recreation Department in the amount of $82,354 and appropriating funds. Okay, and you'll find that on page 105 of the packet. I'd ask for a motion to approve and a second, please. I'll move for the approval of Resolution 2026-078. I'll second it.

Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Um, administration. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I will start, but I'll also invite Mel to come speak to this. Um, tonight in front of you is a, um, purchasing of the new fitness equipment from Top Pit fitness for Parks and Rec Department for up at the middle school new community center location.

And one of the things that we were exploring when we— or that we're planning as we transition that from middle school into a community center is the things that were kind of highlighted in our previous community center plans, and that is a fitness room. And so there's that middle space that was the library, and so Russ and his team put together the plan that you see or put together the request and worked with different providers and received a bid back from Top Fitness in Anchorage with the plan that you see laid out in this resolution for a variety of machines. And so one of our goals overall is to have this fitness room and over time transition away from utilizing the AVTECH space space, and so this would be our own dedicated space. We don't have that— the equipment owned in AV tech is owned by AV tech, so that would stay in that location. And as we look towards potentially renegotiating that AV tech space, one of the things we often hear is how the students would like to have that full-time again.

And so that's something that we could utilize in those conversations down the line. We had also explored, um, receiving in-kind donation or in-kind, um, payments from the borough, the school district for equipment, but none of that equipment panned out. So there was some in there currently, and then there was some in the high school that didn't actually have any of the stuff on it. Um, yeah, the weights, the weights weren't there, and the cables Yeah, it wasn't gonna work. So we exhausted a few options before moving towards this high-ticket item, but kind of just wanted to give some background on that.

And Mel, is there anything you wanted to add? Well, just that, as you all know, we acquired the Seward Middle School for the community center, but so it's basically a blank slate right now. So the proposal that we acquired is, you know, commercial grade. It will last for decades. And this also includes shipping, delivery, and installation.

So just wanted to point that out. Yeah. Yeah. It was also— we received multiple bids, and it was one of the— it was a lower-end bid for— no. So we looked— Russ and his team looked all throughout, so we didn't do a full bid, but we did quotations.

And this came back. And then the other thing I wanted to speak to was the initial appropriations for the middle school space. When we brought the middle school lease to you all, we included a $233,000 appropriation, which was adjusted down to $150,000. And in that $150,000, we were into— we were utilizing that to anticipate many of the different purchases. So far we've purchased about $10,000 worth of things for the middle school space.

That's some tables and chairs, some different equipment here and there. The big purchases that we still have on the docket is rekeying. So we need to rekey, and if you could see the keys that we received, you would be like, oh my gosh. So we're strategically rekeying. We're not rekeying keying the whole building, and then utilize it or funding or paying for the computers and the technology space that it takes to get the middle school onto our computers and software systems to make sure that we're connected.

And so this number is in addition to that initial $150,000 but was kind of intended to already be always be planned for because if you add $150,000 to this it's that $233,000. And so we wanted to make sure we brought it back to you to showcase what that big ticket item looks like. And then the remainder of that, about $50,000 to $60,000 will be continued of tables, chairs, computers. And I'll be sure prior to any other large purchases to bring back an update on where we are with that as well to make sure that you're informed to see throughout the process what is being purchased, how much this investment is, because once again, realizing it's a large investment for our community to turn this middle school into a community center. Okay.

Don't go away. Okay. Questions or comments from council? Yeah, a lot of my questions got answered that I had posed to Kat earlier just now, but the big overarching thing for me is it is always my dream that that's going to be a middle school again in 5 years or so, you know. And so what happens to this equipment if that happens?

If we're lucky enough to get enough kids and have a big enough community where that's a middle school again, where does all that equipment go? Yeah, so it'll be capital equipment owned by the city. And one thing that I think the conversation should shift towards is not the 5 years. I don't anticipate— is even with of the Coast Guard presence coming to our community, that that will be open in 5 years as a middle school. The Coast Guard has a 5, probably a 7 to 10 to 15 year timeline, and that'll be a trickle effect over the long run.

I think as we look down that timeline and we get to 5 years and see an icebreak— or the icebreaker won't be here in 5 years. If we get to 5 years and see the Frederick Mann replace the Mustang staff. That gets us back to a point. And then we look at some of the people who come to town to build facilities for the Coast Guard, and then we're continuing to grow. My vision and the long-term vision would see— to see if this space fills a need that we found in the community, and if so, how do we replicate it?

And so in my mind, I'm seeing it kind of as a cheaper cost alternative to building a community center, and if it becomes the vital resource for our community that we anticipate it does, utilizing those larger subset of populations to bring that to reality for perpetuity for our community. If that's not what the community wants in 10 years and it turns out it wasn't utilized, then we have $75,000 of gym equipment we can surplus, probably to AVTECH at that point or to somebody. But I don't anticipate that would be the case because we also have some, some space that we could explore and utilize. Um, yeah, did that— I thought that was a good answer.

Dreaming, Laurie? Yeah, well, I think it's important to dream in both, both aspects. Like, yes, the middle school could potentially reopen as a middle school, but if that's the case, what have we built that is irreplaceable in that we— or replace— replicable in another outlet or avenue. Um, yeah, and I will add one more thing. We have already seen the non-stop deluge of, um, requests to use gym space.

So even if it is opened again at the middle— as a middle school, gym space is at a premium in this community. And so that will definitely be something that needs to be reminded of 5, 10, 15 years from now. Okay, other questions, comments? Are we ready to vote? Mr.

Clerk, thank you.

Voting on the approval of Resolution 2026-078. Calhoun? Yes. Osega? Yes.

Warner? Yes. Draper? Yes. And Mayor McClure?

Yes. That resolution has been approved. Okay, our next meeting will be Monday, October 12th at 7 PM. We're now at citizen comments. This is the time where you get up to 5 minutes to comment, and there's no sign-up.

I'll just take show of hands.

You have to come up and say who you are and if you're inside or outside the city limits again. So does anyone wish to speak? Mr. Jaffa, please. You're taking advantage of your—. Bruce Jaffa, outside city limits.

And it, again, as I used to say, uh, in my previous trips down here, driving into Seward is such a enriching. The views are beautiful. It's encouraging to see the town. It looks really nice. I mean, it almost feels like somebody tied a bow around it.

It looks good. It's clean. The travels I've made in other places, it's really discouraging to see what the communities look like. This is a really upbeat community, and it has a great future and potential. Particularly with the potential electric— you know, since the growth of the Industrial Revolution, energy has been one of the things that has benefited all society.

We've gone from dirty energy, my industry, coal, to hopefully cleaner and cleaner energy. And the Godwin Fourth of July Project is such a tremendous project. I hope— I hope everybody appreciates the effort that Brian and Taylor have done to move this thing forward. I have believed that that effort somewhat disguised the issue of governance, and I can see how they're tied together a little bit. But there are some naysayers.

I am really surprised that there are some people who say, no, it can't be done, shouldn't be done. I encourage you to stay the course. Find a way. We had a nice presentation with the possibility of finding additional funding. That's going to be the biggest argument is how can a small community like Seward fund a mega project.

Reach for the stars. You know, I'll use the example of Carol and I starting our business out of a pickup truck and we're the largest boiler pressure vessel company in the state. My son now employs people all over the state, and it came from nothing.

Councilmember Warner's husband— our father has been a co-worker of mine for years, and he knows where this goes. So the city of Seward is no different, and the challenges may be bigger, and the rewards will accompany those challenges. Well, thank you, Bruce. That's all I got. Thank you.

Anyone else?

You sure? Okay, I'll bring it to council for council and administration comments and responses to citizen comments. I'll start with Madam City Manager. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I'm going to take a little bit longer than I usually do on this because there's a few— two things I did want to point out under informational items and on your agenda, there is other items— I know that we don't have a space to necessarily speak to this during the meeting, but other item 1 was a response from the Department of Transportation regarding the Nash Road speed limit on page 122 of your packet.

And you'll see that they responded to our requests for reassessing the speed limit and for a marked pedestrian crossing at Nash Road and the Seward Highway. They've shared those with the traffic and safety planning groups for evaluation and will continue with a study allowing the department to reevaluate current conditions and determine whether changes are warranted on Nash Road. So that— we received a response on that. We did send two letters to DOT. The other one was for assessing a crosswalk at the Port Avenue area, so we'll let you know if we hear anything back from that.

Um, I also included in this the FY27/28 budget calendar, which is still technically a draft, so if there's anything that's, um, overwhelmingly standing out to you as something you don't enjoy on that, I did transition it from multiple meetings on different Monday nights to one budget-oriented week, which I know can be a lot, but I also think I think it could be really fun in a governance way. And one thing that we will do is those individual budget work sessions that are broken up across Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, we'll put forth a plan that shows which specific departments we're talking about in those so that you can have some knowledge ahead of time of that. But we haven't solidified that yet. And we will have the preliminary budget document distributed to council sometime in the week of October 19th, which will be here before you know it. Another big thank you and congratulations to Chief McCoy for her promotion to Fire Chief.

Really excited to work with her and know that the department is in good hands. And a thank you again to everybody who attended the Providence work session and the electric town hall and for forgiving my scheduling mistakes. I appreciate YouTube's existence and both Chris and his team and the IT team for having both of those available on YouTube. And one last thing I did want to mention is that this week, the city has the Mercury Fleet Inventory Analysis people in town. You may remember you approved this at a previous meeting not too long ago.

And I always think it's fun to see when the steps of you approving a— or me reaching out to somebody about a contract, you approving a contract, them showing up and then the product that will come down the line. So tomorrow and the next day, if you see anybody walking around with clipboards looking at police vehicles, we invited them. And we look forward to seeing what that inventory and analysis brings forth about our voter pool. And that was a long one, so I will stop there and see if Jason has anything to add. Mr. Big Queen.

No comment, thank you. Okay. Council Member Drake. Thank you, ma'am. So a couple things.

Last meeting we had a report from KPEDD, and included that was a housing report, which I spent a lot of time perusing, and it was fascinating. And I've been bugging the heck out of Jason and Danny and Kat with it, but it's really, it's really worth it to read. And then, you know, I uncovered in there that, wow, what's this Alaska Housing Parcel that they have all done? They came and talked to us, and so that's exciting. So I encourage you to look through that report that they sent us, and it was— it's enlightening.

I attended this, what's been a week ago now, I think, the flood— 1986 flood remembrance from the— I think the Historical Society put that on. And it was a study in how people's memories differ that were in the same place at the same time.

This is a long time ago. And yeah, but that was very well done and I appreciated being there.

I took the citizen comments to heart. I really want to follow up on some of them tonight. I know we're not supposed to mention anybody specifically by name, but yeah, some of those were hard to hear, I guess, a little bit. I look forward to watching the replay of the electrical town hall. Wanted to be there.

And one more thing was that— oh, I really enjoyed Ben Carver going through the Providence things. There's a lot of exciting things going on there too. So that's it. Thanks. Councilmember Calhoun.

Oh, thank you, Madam Mayor. They have great presentations tonight. It was very informative. Some good stuff is coming. Looking forward to the budget work sessions as always, and, uh, and see how we can protect our citizens here and continue to move forward.

Congratulations to the new fire chief. I think that's a great choice, and excited about that and to see the direction that that heads. And just, it's getting darker out, so everybody be careful, be safe. Um, and I want to thank, uh, thank Brian and Taylor and the whole Electric Department for all the work they've been doing over the last 2 years almost now, trying to, you know, get all the information out for people and You know, based on the preliminary findings from the survey, it looks like, you know, some of the categories from before changed where we didn't have a large block of people that said they didn't have enough information or weren't getting enough information. So that was really good to see.

I like that. That means that the information's out there, people are paying attention. Hopefully some more people will continue to take that survey. And we can, uh, we can move forward with all that. Just thank you guys for your good work.

And, uh, yeah, that's it. Okay, Council Member Warner. Thank you, Mayor McClure. I'm gonna kind of echo some of the things that were already said. Uh, really excited about the forward thinking of the Electric Department and all the work that you guys have been doing.

Um, never thought I would appreciate the electric the way that I do know. Um, secondly, I want to just thank the public that came out and made public comments. Always really important to have our citizens engaged and here speaking to us about what is important to them. Uh, Councilmember Draper brought up, um, Capehead, the Economic Development District, and the great housing report that they put out. I just want to put on everybody's radar that Capehead is is also going to be putting out an economic impact of child care on the Kenai Peninsula.

That should be released here pretty soon. Um, pretty interesting to see the data that they pulled together for that report. And then also, uh, big congratulations to Chief McCoy at the fire department. Super excited to see that moving forward. And that's all I got.

Okay, Vice Mayor Osega. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Echoing what's already been said, of course, congratulations to our new Fire Chief, Kate. I think that's— I was pretty happy to see that we could promote from within.

I had something else and I can't remember what it was now. But anyways, I would say that I believe our Sewards Municipal election is Tuesday, October 6th, and that's before our next meeting. So I would like to just encourage everyone to please check out all 5 candidates that are running for our council. And I would just like to say to all 5 of them, thank you very much for stepping up and running.

I had one more thing, but I can't remember it, so I'm just going to go ahead and stop there. Thanks. Okay, if you think of it while I'm talking, I'm not going to speak too long. I reiterate everything everybody said.

Congratulations to Chief McCoy.

Don't forget that there is this election. Somehow, even with the sign on the boardwalk and everything we say, people will say, oh, there's an election? Because why is there so many elections? And, you know, so you've got to pay attention a bit. It's a very important one because There are 5 candidates and 2 seats.

And so do your homework. I get a lot of questions and we do have our own packet online. There's a copy at the senior center sitting there and you can contact the city clerk or just about any of us if you want more information that is printed. It would have been what would— it was, it is what would have been in the borough packet had we still have our election on the same day as the borough. So the clerk has created that.

I and a bunch of third, fourth, fifth graders are probably pretty excited to hear that the playground is in the works up at Jesse Lee Home. I get asked about that every time I'm out there doing chess, and because those kids had a hand in it a couple years ago as second graders when they were sitting up here making decisions and I was leading them in parliamentary procedure. And that was the big topic. What would you like? They had a whole debate about what to choose for the playground.

And now it's still— I've been telling them, it'll come, it'll come, you know. So that's why I keep bringing this up. Yeah, be careful. It is dark out there. A lot of people haven't bought into the concept of reflective tape or reflective things because a lot of people you'll see walking around or crossing streets wearing very dark clothing, and it doesn't work too well.

So just be very cautious as you're out there driving. You should be driving cautiously anyway because, you know, there are eyes out there, but I, you know, in light of You read about pedestrian accidents in Anchorage, and I don't want that to happen here. So anyway, did you think of what you were going to say, Vice Mayor? I drew a blank. No, it was your last shot.

Um, anything else? Madam Mayor, I think it's actually partially has been said, but I just wanted to give the clerk and his office kudos for putting this election together separately from everybody else. I think I think they've done a really good job, and I— that's, uh, that's not an easy task, and they've done a great job. I just want to make sure everybody understands the extra work that they've had to do for that. So yes, and I agree.