Wasilla: City Council Regular - 28 Sep 2026

I would like to ask the council to observe the following rules. Please seek recognition before speaking. No member may speak more than twice on the same motion without a vote to suspend the rules. No member may speak a second time until all who wish to speak have had an opportunity to do so. These guidelines help ensure fairness, efficiency, and mutual respect during our discussions.

Madam Clerk, please call the roll. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Council Member Cottle. Here. Council Member Graham.

Here. Council Member Schmidt. Here. Council Member Crafton. Here.

Council Member Johnson. Here. Council Member Rubio. Here. We do have a quorum, Madam Mayor.

All members are present with us in chambers. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. Council Member Schmidt, would you please lead us?

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, sir. The next item of business is approval of the agenda.

Before changes are discussed, are there conflicts of interest to declare?

Hearing none, are there changes to the agenda?

Hearing none, the agenda is approved as presented by unanimous consent.

There are no special orders of the day, so we'll move to Commission and Agencies Report. We'll hear from Acting Planner Nygard for a report on the Planning Commission. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, the Planning Commission met on the 22nd of September. There were no quasi-judicial hearings.

There were no legislative action taken, but we did have an opportunity to have an open discussion about some of the updated plans that are coming forward, which are the roads and trails and the parks and how that references the comp plan and how the comp plan plays into that and gave them all the copies. So if they've got comments they want to share with council, we'll bring those back around. That was it. Was a short and very, uh, engaging meeting. Thank you.

We are now at public hearing. Madam Clerk, please read the ordinance by title. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Ordinance serial number 2617, amending the fiscal year 2027 budget by accepting and appropriating $569,600 from an amendment to the Mattanuska-Sussetna Borough dispatch contract. Contract name: E911 and Dispatch Services.

Contract number: 16-100P. Change order number: 3, to add 2 full-time positions at MATCOM, 1 fire EMS call taker and 1 fire EMS dispatcher. The public hearing on ordinance serial number 2617 is now open. Anyone wishing to testify, please come forward and begin by stating your your first and last name. Comments are limited to 3 minutes per person.

Seeing no one, I will close the public hearing and bring it back to the dais. Is there a motion to adopt Ordinance Serial Number 2617? So moved by Councilman Johnson. Ordinance Serial Number 2617. Is there a second?

Seconded by Mark Schmidt. It's been moved by Council Member Johnson and seconded by Council Member Schmidt to adopt Ordinance Serial Number 2617. Is there discussion?

Mr. Graham. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I just have one question. This is probably more for Finance than, uh, for MATCOM. So changing, uh, the one full-time position into two part-time positions, does that affect the budget?

Are we in fact paying more for the part-time positions with health benefits and such?

Through the mayor, Councilmember Graham, uh, no, it does not. It's a, it's an equal part. Um, it, it is off.

Great, love to hear it. Thank you. Is there further discussion?

Is there objection to the motion? Hearing none, the, uh, ordinance serial number 2617 passes. We are now at persons to be heard.

It's a time for members of the public to share their views with council. Please note that this is not a question and answer period. Speakers may be referred to administration, and items raised may be taken under advisement. Please begin your testimony by stating your first and last name, and if you're a city resident. Comments are limited to 3 minutes.

The first one is Chris Tyree.

My name is Chris Tyree and I live 2 miles from Wasilla, but I'm part of the borough. I am giving you paperwork, uh, some of it is from the private papers of Woodrow Wilson. That shows how much of a traitor he was. And the reason I'm bringing that up is because I know all of you run because you have morals, values, and ethics. Most of you are really good people, and I know that.

But the thing is, is once you get into government, you start kind of backstabbing the public. And that's what Woodrow Wilson did when he found out that the bankers were able to pass the, um, birth certificate, because the bankers decided to make our birth certificates, they're debt collectors, which means we're their debt collectors. And Obama did that in 2008. But anyways, um, my conclusion of what Woodrow Wilson did is what law I gave you all. He did it all under color, color of law, color of office.

He had no authority to allow that to pass because that was— he says it states in there that it's our biological material. And that it's registered for them. That's wrong. Any part of our body— and this has to do with the Flock cameras— any part of our body, if you're selling, getting the Flock cameras, you're selling us. You're selling our body, our biometrics, the way we walk, the way we talk.

The Flock cameras can take our phone from our pockets and know where we're going. Why would you— anybody want to do that? That's selling the people out. And that's why I come to these meetings, is because I don't like being sold out. I'm from another country.

I came from a poor place where I had no food, no refrigerator, no stove, nothing. And I came to America, which is a wonderful country. I loved it the minute I stepped here, even though I was 7 years old. When I was a little girl, my mom could tell you I was very smart. I saw the difference between America and where I lived.

And this is why I go to the meetings, is because people do not understand how important America is. And I don't know if you know, in 1871 we became a corporation. The whole government became a corporation. Trump has gotten us out of that. He has gotten our sovereignty back.

Before long, hopefully our Constitution will be back on board. And that means you're gonna have to think, Is this what I would do to my neighbor? You can't tax your neighbor. So can you really tax the people? But anyways, I didn't get to say everything.

Thank you. Next up is Mr. Stearns.

Good evening. My name is Tom Stearns. I'm the senior ambassador for the Wasilla Area Seniors Incorporated. We will be closed on the 12th of October for Indigenous People Day. Now, what's coming up?

What's happening at Wasi? And it is big. If you're not involved, you're in the wrong place. Harvest Brunch coming up this Saturday. You have a flyer there on your desk there.

The Harvest Brunch is a fundraiser for WASI. It's one of the times where we put on something, an auction, and right now we have a live auction going on. It started on the 25th, ends on the 3rd of October. I always tell people, bid high and bid often. There's a lot of good stuff there.

Uh, we'd appreciate if you'd go out there to our website and check that out. And then the brunch itself is on Saturday. Uh, and, uh, if you want tickets to that, just, uh, follow the guide here. Uh, and then we have, uh, on the 13th of October is our annual business meeting. Now, this is a strange business meeting because we have 3 seats, board seats, that are available, but we only have 2 candidates for that.

So that means that anybody can walk into that meeting, and if somebody nominates them from the floor, they could be voted in as a board member for the Wasilla Area Seniors Incorporated. So if you're interested in a board seat, with WASI, that might be a way that you can get on our board of directors.

And then, but getting back to our Harvest Brunch and the auction, really important time because this is the one way we have of raising money apart from grants and different things like that. And we show— it shows us and the public that this community really cares about their seniors. And so we would, we would appreciate any of you that would like to participate by going to our website, and our website, www.wassilaseniors.com, and getting involved. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Stearns.

Okay, and next is, uh, I will close persons to be heard. And next is the consent agenda. We have nothing on the consent agenda this evening, no unfinished business.

Uh, and we'll move on to new business. Madam Clerk, please read the item by title. Thank you, Madam Mayor. It's Committee to Hold the Discussion on the 2026 Wasilla Municipal Airport Master Plan. Is there a motion to enter Committee of the Whole?

So moved by Councilman Johnson. Is there a second? Rubio seconds. It's been moved by Council Member Johnson and seconded by Council Member Rubio to enter Committee of the Whole. Is there objection to the motion?

Hearing none, we are now in Committee of the Whole. The time is 6:13 PM.

Okay, and first up is HDL. Please, uh, give me your name. Yeah, hello, thank you for taking the time. My name is Mark Swenson. I'm, uh, the principal owner of HDL Engineering Consultants, and, uh, we have been the engineering consultants for the Vassar Airport for the past 8 years in a row, I believe, and, uh, recently, uh, selected again, um, and we've done, uh, the engineering out there as far as the, uh, rehabilitation of the aprons and the taxiways and construction of the new, uh, new, uh, aprons and taxiways and the master plan.

And you are? My name is Heather Campfield, and I was on the planning team associated with the airport master plan. Okay, thank you. Okay, Council.

Mr. Johnson, Madam Mayor and Council, I passed out just some comments on my review of the airport master plan. I want to congratulate the authors of this report. I think it's a very well-written report.

I can see that an awful lot of work went into the report. Um, with that in mind, this document really has two purposes. One, of course, is that it does provide the master plan, which will go to the FAA for, uh, an addendum to required, uh, applications for grants. So as such, it's a very important document, and the FAA is going to look at it and really scrutinize it to a large extent. The second point, part of this thing is this is a master plan for us as a city, for the council in the future, and for the Airport Planning Commission.

So, as such, we have a document with 2 different purposes here, not across purposes at all, but we should fulfill both purposes. And as such, I've made a few comments and proposed changes to the document. Now, I realize the FAA has already seen this, which I will call, I guess, Revision A. And having a lot of experience working with the FAA in terms of planning, I know that we can make minor changes to the plan and maybe resubmit it to them as planned as Revision B or 2. So with that in mind, I took the review of this document and I compared it to the FAA circulars.

Now, a circular is a, it's a document that the FAA issues that is not law, but it does issue a means of compliance to meet the requiring laws, particularly as stated in Title 14 uh, Part 77 for aircraft. So, in specifically, I took this as Advisory Circular, um, 150/57D-6B, which is the advisory circular as to what the FAA expects for a master planning document being submitted by a municipality. So I, I beat this document against the advisory circular because that's what I do normally when I'm doing a project plan for any kind of aircraft modification. That's just my operation. So with that, I have just some minor changes.

Um, before we get into the actual master planning document itself, the first thing was in our document that that attaches to it, it basically says that we're operating at a loss of basically $1 million a year. Basically, it says, well, $800K of that is a paper loss due to appreciation. And at that point, I guess I'm a little bit of a quandary in that you're depreciating runways? I— yes, we're depreciating, and Eric said he would have some comments onto that. Yeah, thank you to the mayor.

So, uh, we'd be happy to dive into that question in just 1 second. I guess I want to circle back with the intro that Mr. Johnson just gave, that the FAA, to join us as a partner with any development at the airport, expects to see a renewal of our master plan every so often. So this is a renewal from a 2013 project and a 2017 review, and then we moved into the 2022 review. And so, Basically, this is a 20-year horizon that has a public involvement review on where the users, the stakeholders, the council, the city, the administration think that it would make sense to have the airport go. So, timeline on any of this development is solely in the council and the administration's hands based on funding, but we also have to meet the FAA where they are in acknowledging a need.

And so there'll be some questions later on about how soon and how often FAA will review the need. One of them, one of the processes is the ACIP, or Airport, uh, Capital Improvement Program. And so we will reorient those based on, uh, every year based on what needs we're trying to meet. And of course, the !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Technology. Okay, um, Mayor, Councilmember Johnson, so we have assets that are out there currently at the airport.

So there are about $16 million in assets. Currently, we have to depreciate those. That's part of the GASB requirements. So we are required to do that. There's an expectation that at the end of every life that will go ahead and replace those items.

And so in the master plan, that has to be noted that at the end that those will be replaced. So you're building a fund balance in their account at the end of whatever the lifespan. And these are big lifespans because they're big objects. Um, some up to 30 years, but that does have to be noted. So it's not— it is a paper loss, but it is your bank that you're putting in money to replace those items in years to come.

Yeah, I understand that, but I'm just having a harder time visualizing. You know, we don't depreciate our roads, for instance, and a runway is just nothing but a road for an airplane. So I'm just, I mean, and I also understand that it was capitalized and I also understand the rules for capitalization projects and having to defund. I mean, and have to depreciate that, that capital project. My concern is here is that if you start to read through this and if I was a citizen and I'm paying taxes here and I'm seeing that the airport costs us $1 million a year, I'm going to say, gee whiz, this really the best use of our money.

It's costing our taxpayers $1 million a year. And the master plan didn't really say what the value of the airport is, although, you know, I'm a firm supporter that it drives the business in our community, provides us a lot of economic jobs. Uh, you know, Blackhawk Aviation has, you know, 30 high-paying mechanics jobs, and that's close to 6 figures each, you know. So, I mean, it does drive our economics, but our report doesn't say that to our citizens. And realizing that this is a report to our citizens, at least I would like to have that recognized someplace in the report as to the importance for the airport from the perspective of our citizens.

Thank you.

Um, could I make a comment, Mr. Johnson? Yes. So, um, one distinction to make between road depreciation and airport depreciation depreciation. So the airport is an enterprise fund, just like how the Menard was until it was moved into a special revenue fund. And as you remember, the Menard is turning a profit, but on paper, its depreciation doesn't pay for itself.

And Scott's going to kick me, but we all agree that it is a huge asset to the community. But because of GASB— yes, thank you, I kept saying a different word— because of GASB, that's what we're required to do. Now, if we use roads as an example, we could have a road fund and we could depreciate the roads, and then we would have to account for the ongoing depreciation for all of our roads. And so then you would see that and you would say, how much faster is the roads depreciating than the airport? I think one thing also to remember is that the financial depreciation requirements— imagine that FAA is never going to help us again.

So we get the book value of your improvements. And we don't get any, like, credit that FAA has been our partner year in, year in, year in. And so we have to show that we can cover it. But in reality, because we stay in good context with the FAA and we have this planning document, these are all eligible for 91% support. So it is a little confusing.

It is confusing for the public because it does look different on paper. But also, in your request for a good marketing document, the FAA doesn't really pay for that, like, business prospectus that we want to see. Deputy Administrator Nygard and I are working on that kind of supplementary financial document. So we, through the help of HDL with their onsite team, have been pestering and pestering and pestering all of our leaseholders to get their feedback on the impacts that their businesses have to the community. So I've seen a bunch come through where it's just a single operator that works on your plane, but that still hits the balance books for the city.

And then we talked about Blackhawk and some other big operators. We're working with the— is it the, um, what school is it? North Carolina University. They are very experienced at this. They've been working with like Merrill Field and some other Alaska providers, um, to, to fill that gap that, that this kind of federally directed document leaves us wanting so that we can come back and get that.

One thing we've had a hard time— like I said, we really had to pester to get numbers that are useful. And so that is a little more delayed than we wanted, but we've kind of circled the wagons and figured out how to get them to respond to us. So we're, we're optimistic in the next couple months they'll have churned through the data and we'll be able to come back and show you what the university has put together. Thank you. Also, I might add is that there's— okay, there's also a financial plan to be able to fund all that, and that necessarily doesn't include taxpayers' dollars, right?

Right, I understand. It's just remember that this document will also be seen by our public. That's— that was my point here. You know, as I said, it's a very minor little critique of, of the overall document. The next comment that I have is again just sort of a minor little critique.

It on the financial funding page, it says, is there additional costs if adopted? And the answer is no. Are there additional support costs? And the answer is no, which I agree. This report doesn't drive anything by itself.

I think if we were to add a note to that page saying, you know, should we actually go forward with it, there will be additional costs, particularly if we get 5,500-foot runway is completed. You know, that will drive some costs. So it'd be just sort of a note to the no that we put there, you know, as sort of a placeholder for future, uh, uh, city councils saying, hey, you're going to probably come back for more money. Next year in the next budget cycle. Through the mayor, that, that's absolutely true.

We didn't want to mix semantics though. This— we didn't want the council to think that you are committing to any future spending. So we have projects in the works that have come through the council to be approved, but by approving this through the ordinance process, you are not committing yourselves or future, um, councils to those funds. We will come back again and again and say it was in the, the plan. We've talked about any new council members joining in, we'll get them this phone book to look through, and then we'll explain the need.

And this will record how we got there and record the steps that we think we need. There will be modifications going forward. Maybe we move a taxiway first versus another tie-down area, that sort of thing, but we'll be able to point back to it. And then the council, whatever that makeup is, will then get to say yes or no, we're ready for it, we're not ready for it, we don't support it, that sort of thing. So we didn't want to confuse the public today that this was— I saw, I'm going to change topics for a second, I saw a, like, a local news report that said that the runway expansion was going to cost $240 million.

And what they've done is they've taken the all-in cost of this and then attributed it to just the runway. Which isn't accurate at all. But like you said, that's what they kind of jumped on to. And so we're not asking you to, to make a— to write a $240 million check tonight. So, well, yeah, Mr.

Johnson. Yes. Uh, let's see if anybody else has something to say. Oh, thank you. I mean, please interrupt.

I mean, I will. This is a discussion as a whole, so let's make it as a whole. Exactly. Do somebody else? Kathy, thank you, Madam Mayor.

Um, when we accept this plan, is there a way to do a couple of updates to this so that, um, like any grants that we've gotten since '23— are, are the grants that we show federal fiscal year, we only show from '23 and, and later? And then, and, and just there's a couple other places in here Um, our security fencing and gate access. Um, Eric, if I remember right, we completed fixing of the fencing. Technically, we, we completed it. We had to end the contract because the contractor became non-responsive.

But I think what you're getting at is you'd like to see an update as we move through these projects. We could add a section to it. Yeah, because it says that they were scheduled, the fencing was rescheduled. Um, for replacement in fall of '25, winter '26. And I know that we'd already done some of this, so there's about 3, 4 places in here in this plan that could be updated for things that we've completed, you know, so that we've just got more updated stuff for when we say, yep, signed, sealed, delivered, we're happy with this.

Yeah, absolutely. I think we could put that as an appendix, or maybe an appendix to the front, something like that, and talk about I think it's great to celebrate what we've completed too. So if we make it kind of a living document to show our successes, absolutely. Thank you. Okay, anyone else?

I'd like to speak when I have an opportunity.

Or do I got to come back the next time? Or how do I get on to speak to this board? Jamie, you want to Okay, any, any one at the council dais would like to speak?

Okay, Mr. Johnson. So the rest of what I, what I passed out is pretty much commentary. I'll just go through them real quickly. I don't think they're going to take very long. In Section 1 of the document, paragraph, the background, in the first paragraph, it'd be really good if we added the line, this report is intended to fulfill the requirements of FAA Advisory Circular 150 blah blah blah blah blah, master change.

That would basically clue in the FAA when they read this is what our intent was when we wrote the document. They like it when we do that. That way they don't have to figure it out for themselves. Um, the next one in 1.4, if we could, uh, we use the term GA. I think it was defined earlier, maybe, but it would be more clear to our constituency if we say general aviation and then add— you, we referenced an FAA report 2022-A, but it's actually 2022-A is sort of an overall catchword, but it's really part of the FAA docket in law.

There was FAA 22 listed there in the Federal Register.

Suggested change for the title for Section 2 would make a footnote there that would reference the Advisory Circular Chapter 6 Airspace regulation. I would expand just a little bit of terminology again for our constituents, okay, who might not realize a Class G is terminal environment, but it certainly a private pilot would understand that if we use the word terminal environment. And in 2.6.2 military— sorry about the misspelling there— Uh, it says military employment is less than 2%, but I think that it's actually much greater than that. I think we're going to expand 4,000 people in the next several years, per Dan Sullivan. 3 Again is just a footnote.

Then in terminology, I think some things that are missing in our plan is just reference to, um, several other things that that come into play if we have an expanded airport. Without going through them in detail, pilot school operations, repair station operations for small, small operators other than somebody like Blackhawk, like Markier, or whatever his name is, and then maintenance training operations. So if we could at least reference that, hey, if we have an expanded use, those particular functions could be used as well. Can I speak to that one? Yes, please.

Yeah. Um, so this, this is, um, of all the, um, things that the FAA has approved in a master plan, they're very interested in the whole entirety of the master plan document and very involved in the process. Um, the forecast chapter is something that they require us to submit and get approval on, um, when it's prepared. Um, and the terminology is specifically that we're referencing here is related to how this forecast was— the operations that we were counting in the forecast and the differentiation between an operation and why it's defined this way and a touch-and-go. Because they don't allow you to touch— a training operation or a touch-and-go, they don't allow you to count them in credit training operations to the the total operations of an airport in the forecast.

So a lot of the terminology in here is to define, get the FAA on board with what we are actually counting and what we are not, to get everybody on the same page. I'm more than happy to discuss pilot school operations and repair station operations and how that factors into the growth at the airport. I just don't think we should do it in the forecast chapter.

Well, I mean, I, I'll let you guys take that under advisement, but that's my comment. Okay, because again, looking at it in terms of a planning document that is going outside of the FAA environment to our constituencies, this would— these would be subjects which would then add more value to the airport from a constituency basis rather than just trying to sell a, uh, Part 77, uh, change for runway length. And I, and I perfectly understand your point there. Okay, so very, very— I will defer to somebody that knows more than me on that, but that was just my comments. Absolutely.

Thank you. Okay. Um, Silver Sky is now Blackhawk Aviation. Yeah. Maybe we should change that.

Um, going along with what I just said, just to add constituency, the Mansu Valley is growing. Okay. And there is a need for additional, you know, opportunities for training, for maintenance, as well as manufacturing. And it's interesting that the FAA added CFR 14, CFR 22 for light sport aircraft manufacturing, which I know is actually being done at Wolf Lake right now, but would be really cool if we can move that to, to Wasilla. Um, other than that, but I think the last thing again is facility standards, just making a, a link to the advisory circular.

As far as precision approaches less than 3/4 of a mile, that's a dream. Yeah. But what I would like to say is right now it says not recommended. So why don't we strike those words and put it as not deemed feasible at this time? Because I can't tell you what the FAA will do in 10 years.

Okay. Where maybe in the, in the near future with the prevalence of more precision GPS, that we could still have a reduced minimum Cat 2, Cat 3— not Cat 3, Cat 1, Cat 2— without having the contain— really an expansive containment area. I'm hoping that to be the case. So if we say not recommended, we're closing the door. Let's not close the door on that per se.

Let's just simply say it's not feasible because no one wants to spend the $262 million that it would take to do that. Certainly I wouldn't. Anyway, those are my comments. I, I really appreciate your detailed review. Thank you very much.

Anyone else? Madam Mayor? Yeah, I think just— did you want to go for just a quick question? I don't know who would answer this, but, um, can you just give a quick definition of, um, when we talk about the sponsor share of expenses? For the airport in the financial plan?

Um, is there a specific, um, question related to it, or is it just, just kind of the definition of, of, of the sponsor, where the sponsor fits into that, how, how that, that concept? Yeah, and, and, um, Eric did a, uh, a very good job of introducing kind of the process. This, this master plan, and one thing that's in the back of this master plan, which is really the other defining document that the FAA approves, um, is the airport layout plan. Um, and the airport layout plan is, uh, in this particular, uh, we went into a lot of detail and we made a near-term, a, a existing condition, a near-term, and an ultimate condition of the airport that shows the different, um, the different development areas that the airport's going to go into. So every 5 years, or every year, the, the, uh, the FAA, in order to receive federal funding, they require that you prepare an airport, um, a ACIP, a Capital Improvement Plan.

And those show— and you talk about your priorities for use, use of federal funds. Um, in the, in the next 3 years is really what they're focused on, but they, they want you to program out 5 years to show what would you like to use federal funding for, for 5 years. And then they, when you submit that plan to them, they compare that plan to the master plan and to really what they do is they make sure the developments that you are saying are on that plan are on the airport layout plan. And the airport layout plan comes, they won't fund anything that's not on the airport layout plan. They'll require you to change that airport layout plan before they commit to funding that shows it.

When we— and it's changed a bit, but the— and there's different flavors of federal money. There's discretionary spending, there's entitlement spending that the FAA appropriates. But when you apply for federal funding, and I believe that right now it is Is it, Eric, is it 92.75?

What's the federal share? Is it— it's— I don't know right off the top of my head if it's 92. There's a roughly around, I think it's 6.25, I believe is the number. And I can confirm that and get back to you. But is the The FAA will say, we will fund, um, 93.75% of this project.

That's right. You got it right. Yeah. And then it's 6.25% of that needs to come from the sponsor share, which is city funds. Um, and so any project, there was a little bit of different funding.

The reason I'm a little hazy is because there's a little bit during funding sources sometimes change the federal share related to that, but in general, that is what is typically required. Um, and, uh, and the, um, so it's just matching funds that the city has to come up with for each grant. Um, and I think relatively it's a pretty good deal as far as federal programs go. I wish my own finances could do that. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, sorry for the long-winded— Mr. Crafton. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, this might be to Eric. Uh, when we talk about the lease rates, I mean, we're looking at making a pretty hefty jump here soon.

I mean, if this gets approved, I assume we're going to approve it next month here. I mean, we're talking about a 4-cent increase, which is pretty steep compared to what we have right now. And then starting to adjust for inflation. What's been the flavor of the current tenants down there that are utilizing those rates? It's mixed, as you'd understand.

The businesses understand that you can't stay stagnant. You have costs escalating, so they understand. So businesses have tended to be pretty supportive, saying, yeah, it needs to go up. Private leaseholders don't want it to go up, so it's understandable. Other airports are saying, please raise your rates because they keep yelling at us when we have to raise ours and Well, still, it hasn't.

So, um, it hasn't changed in decades. I think it started out at a higher rate, and then it was dropped to 6 cents per square foot, and it stayed there since. And so this portion of the master plan talked about why it needed to go up. Um, I worked with the Airport Advisory Commission to come up with some proposed rate increases, met with the mayor, took the Airport Advisory Commission's numbers, these numbers and the mayor's numbers. And so the plan is to bring that to council.

This is kind of the first step in that. You see what the FAA has looked at for their expectations for an FAA-sponsored airport to, um, address its funding shortfalls. And then we have the local AAC, uh, response, and then the mayor as the head of our administration coming up with some numbers. And so that's what's going to come to the council after this. And follow up while we're just talking about the financial aspect of this.

What's the goal of trying to make the airport pay for itself? I noticed in the plan it talked about trying to basically make it a break-even, but that also includes bringing on essentially 4 members of staff for the airport as well. So, I mean, is that a matter of that was what the calculations were done as, was essentially a break-even is assuming we brought on 4 members of staff to manage the airport. How— and follow-up to that as well is, how soon are we looking at starting to try and bring those people online? Uh, great double question.

Um, can you repeat the first part? Basically, how soon are we trying to make this airport break-even? And I mean, is that— I mean, obviously the first step's the lease rates, but what are we looking at timeline-wise? Yeah, so through the mayor. So, um, the lease agreements have renewal periods.

It'll take time for those new rates to transition through the 5-year renewal period in them. So it's not going to be an immediate increase on all leaseholders. There's kind of a timeline to that. We'll have specific increases known, you know, as we bring the packet to the council.

Um, to answer your second question, right now the current budget put together with our interim finance director expected the rate increases, so we didn't ask for a new position in this current budget, but there was the forecast that the rates would increase during the budget process. So now we're kind of behind schedule on those revenues. And so we won't make the budget revenues without the rate increases. So we don't plan to add, um, positions now, but we need to raise rates to just match the shortfalls. And then the idea with future, um, staffing increases is to continue to increase our level of service.

So with Blackhawk and the customers that they provide service to They need to know how our runway looks every day. They have, they have planes that come and go, and because our runway is short, they need to know the conditions of the runway. So we have instituted daily runway condition assessments that we put out, NOTAMs, so that those pilots know how it's looking. And also we're available for diversions when Anchorage or Palmer have bad weather. They won't come over and check it out.

They'll look at the NOTAMs and see what the statuses, and then we get diversions, which is very important because those planes help us make that case with FAA. And we want to serve them, but really they help us with FAA, right? Because that kind of level of service takes people. We pride ourselves on excellent snow removal.

No one, no one holds a candle to our public employees and our contractor support. They do a phenomenal job. And so we continue to set a high standard so that our customers that are there every day have that service. And then we're available for those— I can hear you still. So we get medical life flights and that sort of thing.

So we have a, you know, we have a vision in the master plan and we have a vision for our continued service, and we're getting tremendous feedback from our current and prospective customers when they compare us to, um, our neighbors. Sounds good, thank you.

Is there further discussion?

Hearing none, is there a motion to—. Madam Mayor, I move that we exit committee of the whole.

Is there a second? Second by Councilman Johnson. It's been moved by Council Member Crafton and seconded by Council Member Johnson to exit committee of the whole. The time is 6:48.

Madam Clerk, please read the next item by title. Thank you, Madam Mayor. This is an introduction recommended for public hearing on October 12th, 2026, Ordinance Serial Number 2618, adopting the 2026 Wassilla Municipal Airport Master Plan. Is there a motion to introduce Ordinance Serial Number 2618 and set it for public hearing on October 12th, 2026? So moved by Councilman Johnson.

Is there a second? Second the motion. It's been moved by Councilmember Johnson and seconded by Councilmember Crafton to introduce Ordinance Serial Number 2618 and set it for public hearing on October 12th, 2026. Is there objection to the motion? Hearing none, the motion is adopted.

And I was going to— yeah, we are now at communications. Madam Clerk, please read the item by title. Thank you. We have Perks and Rec Commission meeting minutes, September 9th, 2026. 6.

We are now at audience comments, which is a time for members of the public to share their views with the council. This is not a question and answer period or a time for dialogue. Speakers may be referred to administration, or issues raised may be taken under advisement by the council or administration. Please begin your testimony by stating your first and last name, and if you are a city resident. Comments are limited to 3 3 minutes.

Oh, 3 minutes is all I got? That's it. Damn, I better talk fast like you guys. You're wasting it now. Lies and stories.

I got things to do too. My name is David Stearman, S-T-E-A-R-M-A-N. This gentleman right here, I asked about this hole not being fixed behind this building here, City Council, 2 weeks ago. You're supposed to check into it. It's still messed up.

The only reason I'm here tonight is because I went to Riley's, and it's still that way. You talk about road appreciation around here, you need to be quicker on your potholes. And as far as the airport goes, I have a few relatives that deal with FAA contracts and whatnot, and you better get on the bandwagon and make that an international airport because you're not going to stop progress, and you might as well make it go to FAA. If these villages can get money for their airports from the ground up to There's no reason you guys can't apply to the federal government or FAA. And I mean, do you appease them and get it done?

Because you're not going to stop it. And then you're going to have people out here complaining about the noise and just like they did in Anchorage, and it's just progress. So there's nothing you can do except change it. Look at this highway and the traffic in this town. It's ridiculous.

One more question. Where do the taxes go from your local police officers when they write a ticket? Does that go to the city? Does it go to the borough? Or does it— where's that money go for those tickets?

Where is that money used? That's what I want to know. Does it go to the state, the borough? Does anybody have an answer? Somebody needs to check into it because they do stop a lot of people around here in the evening and they write plenty of tickets.

And I don't know if the new house has a jail cell in or not, but everybody gets transferred over to Palmer, which takes their time So you need to put Build-A-Gill in there, and it also needs a restroom outside because they're only open from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM. You go in there anytime after that, there's no way to relieve yourself if you have to. I know there's a lot of homeless people in this town too. They will take advantage of it, but it needs to be done. You go over there, push the button, sit around and wait for an hour or so because they're out taking care of business, and then they don't come because they're busy.

I mean, I Anyway, need to get on the bandwagon, get the airport built. You're not going to satisfy everybody. Everybody's never going to be happy and content. And get these roads done. And that's another thing that really frustrates me.

The borough's got this section road while Cilla's got this section. You guys go up to Spruce and stop. She finally dug out the ditches going up Spruce on the left-hand side, or Lucille, excuse me. And then your section stops at Spruce. Oh, it looks like I'm almost out of time.

It's time for me to go. I got to go let the dog out. So, okay, I've spoke my piece. You got my name, but you don't know where I live. Okay.

Yeah, Google it. Thank you, sir. Keep smiling. You don't know if I'm crazy or on drugs. It depends on the time of the day.

Have a good one. You too. I do. Tomorrow.

Anyway, uh, is there anyone else in the audience? Hearing none, I will close audience comments and bring it back to the dais. Madam Clerk. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Just want to report, of course, early voting continues through October 5th, Monday, weekdays 9 to 5, and then this Saturday 10 to 3.

Um, our numbers are up. I don't have exact numbers, but it's really— it's very nice to see. We've had— we're going to have a higher turnout this year, so Tomorrow, Tuesday the 29th, 5 o'clock is the last day to request an absentee by mail ballot. So if you're interested in voting by mail, get that application in. And then of course Election Day, Tuesday, October 6th.

And Madam Mayor, I did in my Clerk's Report, I mentioned the second annual Halloween event here at City Hall, the trick-or-treat event, but I don't want to steal your thunder if you're going to talk about it. But if you're interested, it is in the Clerk's Report. And then AML, we're already planning for that. So kind of save the date. We have dates here in the packet.

We'll see you all here next regular meeting, October 12th. Thank you. Okay, Madam Attorney, no comment. Madam Council Member Schmidt, I think that was a very good presentation on the airport, uh, along with the tour I went with you a week and a half ago in Crystal. Um, I think it all put things together.

It's not Much for light reading, but, uh, it was some very good information in there. Thank you, Councilmember Graham.

Thanks for a great report. Obviously a lot of in-depth knowledge there, able to handle things. And thanks to Councilmember Johnson for his in-depth knowledge as well to help make it easier, uh, not just for us to understand but for the public to understand, because that You know, once that report goes on the shelf, it's accessible by anybody, and hopefully we'll kind of meet our standard of, you know, 8th grade education, be able to read through it and figure it out. So I appreciate the time that you spent there. You know, I also appreciate Tom being here to talk about the Harvest Brunch at Wazi.

It's important. It raises a lot of money for Meals on Wheels and other needs that Wazee has. So even if you're not able to go to the brunch, bid online. There's a lot of stuff there that's, that's kind of neat stuff, and some of it handmade by the seniors. So make sure you take advantage of that because it is very important for our senior population here, and it's very important that those that are not seniors show that they do support the senior population as well.

So helps, helps keep our taxes low, so to speak. Also had a question about, you know, uh, in the ordinance, um, uh, you know, accepting the grant money, it talked about special revenue fund MATCOM. We had talked about that. Has that actually started? Is that, that accounting process ongoing at this point?

Yes, this is the first year. Okay, so I just wanted to make sure I understood the transition there because I know we had talked about it, but we haven't— I haven't heard anything about it since we talked about it. So glad to hear that. Also, the last several weeks, a friend of mine has needed some assistance getting to and from the Menard Center because for senior walking, and unfortunately I fall into that category where I walk for free at 7:30 in the morning But, uh, I just wanted to say how much I appreciate the staff that's there and then the assistance that they provide and the cleanliness of the facility. Uh, it's a, you know, it's a huge facility with a million different things going on at all different times of the day, and the staff is well-versed on all those different things happening there.

And that's a great investment that we've made in the community, and I'm looking forward to seeing, uh, what, uh, the community thinks needs to happen in the future, uh, to keep that vibrant and perhaps make it even more vibrant part of the community. But congratulations to Scott on doing a nice job there. Thank you all for being here tonight. Uh, uh, don't forget to vote. The clerk mentioned that we're having a good turnout.

Uh, you can vote early, you can, uh, vote absentee if you stop by the clerk's office and request an absentee ballot tomorrow. She'd be happy to get you one. Thank you. Council Member Crafton. Thank you, Mayor.

Um, thank you, HDL, for coming tonight. Uh, yeah, this was not for the faint of heart reading. Um, and it's, uh, it— one of my favorite things on council is the amount we get to learn about the most random things you never thought you'd, you'd get to learn about. And I know more about airports than I ever thought I'd know in my lifetime now. And next up, by the way, we've got wastewater and water and air or roads.

I mean, you're going to learn— we get to learn all about all kinds of stuff coming up. So I will say it's really nice because it's set the standard of what we get to expect. I know we haven't passed this yet, but to me, it's nice to see what we're going to be seeing as we get into these other master planning documents as well. Uh, and it's really great to see such a good-looking future for the city of Wasilla. Uh, I'm going to beat a drum that I love to beat to Eric there, and that's our rates at the wastewater and water.

Um, I was talking with the clerk about trying to schedule some time to get, uh, Waterworth down here, and, uh, the big issue that I was thinking about was the timeline we're running into, because the council is going to want to have a work session or two on it. And then we— and then to get that actually on paper and then to the budget, I mean, we're already bumping that time frame already. I mean, we need to have those work sessions before the new year turns. Um, so I'd very much appreciate it if we can get it. I think what Jamie and I discussed was trying to do like a Teams meeting so our iPads can— basically, we can just join the meeting with our iPads so we can have those documents in front of us.

So, uh, have we heard anything about setting up those meetings yet. Uh, through the mayor, I think the airport rates are going to be a great test of that. We— airports and— excuse me, airport is part of that Waterworth coverage. So we have for airport, water, and sewer. And so I think we should just leverage that.

So working with the finance director for the scheduling, we'll get Waterworth available to look at those rates with us. It'll be a little different because they're typically looking at you know, the billing rates that we talked about when we had that first preview. So it'll be a good intro to the council, and then I think it'll lead into the next, uh, um, work sessions that you're looking for. Are we thinking we can get them before November or by November? Um, well, this was the first step, so if we're successful at the next meeting, we'll have a schedule for you.

So yeah, okay. Thank you. Otherwise, thanks all for being here tonight. I hope you learned something, and I know I did for sure. So appreciate y'all for being here.

Councilmember Caudle. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I must be the nerd in the group because I read this thing backwards, forwards, up and down, and I liked reading it.

I guess there's just things that amuse me sometimes.

The one thing that I really, really appreciated seeing in this is in the financial plan, seeing different scenarios and what we can do. I really like recommending annual inflation increases in the lease agreements and the different options for future revenues that we don't have now, like, you know, collecting something on fuel. Things like that. I like all those options, um, the more creative the better. And I think you guys did an amazing job with this, and I really appreciate it.

Um, and Eric, I would really love it if Public Works would give the council a digital tour of our infrastructure. I'd really like to see that. Oh, uh, maybe you can speak a little bit more about what you mean by that digital tour. Um, well, in You can tell I have a 1-year-old in my house for a week. Sorry about that.

In Deputy Nygaard's report, the administration report for the directors and managers, under your public works there, you've got the Palmer Water— Wasilla Palmer Water Interconnect Hub site is up. And I just— everything else that's being done with that, combining it with GIS mapping online. I would love to see a digital presentation from you. Absolutely. Yeah, I'd love to show you that.

I would love to see it. I'll get on the— I'm the nerd in the group. I'll get on the agenda with the clerks. It's cool. Thank you.

That's all I have tonight. Council Member Johnson.

Lest I talk more, no comment. Council Member Rubio. I'll keep it short too, but, uh, HDL, nice job tonight and with the document. And I love seeing all the faces in the audience. Just remember to come back, be involved.

Thank you.

One thing about the airport that nobody has mentioned is when these planes come in to, to Silver Sky or Black Hawk to get repaired or whatever, those guys loan these people a vehicle. They go to Fred Meyer's or they go to wherever, Walmart, wherever, and they load those planes and take it back to wherever they come from. So not only is Silver Skies contributing to the economy with their employees and their business and everything, then they are helping the economy in that way. And you don't see that number on the bottom line of that airport. So you have to look at things as a whole.

I mean, you can put a lot of stuff in an airplane.

So that's a lot. Eric, I want to add to the mayor's comment. It's a town run, so they'll have toilets delivered to Silver Sky and Black Hawk and all the stuff that you need when you go into town, they get it. We also know that they are making medical appointments. So one flight had 8 ladies that needed to come in and have mammograms.

And so they're, they're using it to get to our services. And so we're just really proud that we've stepped up in our service providing so that they will come to our airport and they will use our facilities and we're making, you you know, we're making connections throughout all of Alaska. If you don't come to our airport for some of those jobs, you have to leave the state. You're flying down to Washington or into Idaho. So there's a lot of really important things that happen at our airport now.

Right. So it's, it's a great economic driver. And one day we'll be able to go to Wasilla and get on the plane and go to Seattle or Maui.

Yes, uh, Friday night is the Potato Bowl at Palmer, so if any of you are interested, I will be there at 6 o'clock. And let's, uh, I don't know, Elena, maybe you know what kind of football team we got this year. Actually, I do. They, um, up leading up to this year, they were not very good. I know.

We have right now, last time I checked, there was 4 wins and they, they are like coming in hot to the finish. So yes, they are doing good against Palmer.

I know, please. I don't know. It might not. You know, there's a— I'm gonna say yes. There's a standing, um, I won't call it a bet, but I know, but whoever loses has to contribute to the Palmer Mayors, um, nonprofit, whatever.

They got to make a donation. So I'm not tired of donating, but anyway, maybe not. Maybe we'll change. We're gonna win. We're gonna win.

Yeah, you're loud. Yeah. Okay. All right, with no further business at hand, I'm adjourning the meeting unless an objection is raised. Hearing none, the meeting is adjourned.