Seward: City Council Meeting 9/28/2026

September 2026 in the city of Seward. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, and you have a few words to say? Just a quick thing.

I'm just gonna work stand, so if you stand there and speak that way, then you'll be okay. 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, uh, to this day.

It commemorates the Great Chicago Fire of 1817. It's usually held during the week which 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, intermix 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— 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, swelling, smoke, or if it smells funny. All those are bad signs that something could be 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 Mr. Fire Department.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, and congratulations. Thank you. Uh, 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 a 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 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 going to 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 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 competitive. We need to increase that further. I mean, the cost of fuel alone, 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, uh, 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 say that?

I'm so sorry. Uh, 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, uh, due to 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, uh, probably a staff favorite. Um, 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, uh, put a corrected flyer out.

Uh, 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. Uh, we wrapped up our final First Friday Art Walk, uh, of the season this September, and I want to give a big thank you to all the businesses and artists and the, uh, 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 childcare in our community. The goal is to help show that childcare 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 Cohoes Malt with receipts purchasing later this fall. Some updates on the destination marketing work contract you guys hire us to do.

Excited to announce that the Visitor Center is now open on Saturdays during the winter. 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 which is the, the smaller guide that we do every other year, just like the Hometown Guide, so they kind of like switch off, uh, into the new Marine and Industry Guide. Uh, 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 Bruce Shoff, outside the city limits. 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.

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 council 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 the 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 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 wants 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 for 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 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 Tract H, Seward Original Townsite Waterfront Park Replat, creating Tract 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 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 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 going to go train tomorrow and run as fast as I can so I can catch some people, or 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 GHEMM Company, G-H-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 come up. But one other thing I— no, go ahead. 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 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. And so I think we're at a point today where we have line of sight on actually constructing it for the grant amount.

I'm waiting on two numbers at this 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 will— it looks to us like we will be in a good position to actually accomplish a project 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 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 get us there. And so at this point, you'll probably start to see— assuming these other two numbers come in in the— 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, the responses come in, it's very ephemeral of, oh yeah, 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 coming at a much more, um, at a manageable, at a manageable area. So, 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. Thank you, Brian. Yes, and we have had some requests just for updates on the progress of the Jesse Lee Home Park, and I was gonna 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 timeline. All right, good evening. 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.

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 and we're really 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 in 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, they were covered up with brush. Yeah.

Yeah. Questions? Yeah, Councilmember Werner. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I'm curious, do we know what age range the park is going to be graded for?

For elementary ages. I'm pretty sure I wasn't involved in that purchasing of the equipment. Yeah, I don't think the equipment was purchased before my time as well. Right. So 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 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. Mr. McLean?

Yeah, 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 of that, is is we— I brought back to you guys and we said, okay, we know. And so our plan is to bring that back before you guys and just kind of have a discussion with you probably this fall or this winter so that you— so that can be a discussion that we—. Administration.

Well, thank you very much. It's exciting about the Shore Power. City Clerk report. Do you have a small report? Okay, thank you.

And we do have our standard city attorney report moment in here. Did you have a report, or are 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 hoops you'd have to jump through to do which, which option and just help present that for the next steps. So we're— we've been excited and happy to be part of that process. Okay, well, thank you. It's nice you can enjoy the meeting, sit back and Enjoy.

Uh, we have.