Ron Moore arranges scrap metal at the city landfill in January. (Annie Ropeik/KUCB)

City council was divided Monday on using public funds to cover shipping costs for Unalaska’s scrap metal salvager.

Ron Moore has hauled more than 10 million pounds of scrap metal off the island in the past couple of years. Now, with steel prices falling and shipping costs set to increase, the job’s too expensive to continue as-is.

On Monday, council voted 4-2 to amend Moore’s contract, putting his shipping costs on the city’s tab. It’s not clear yet how much that’ll cost -- estimates have ranged from $160,000 to $450,000. Bids are due next week from shipping companies who could barge the scrap off the island.

That prompted councilor Yudelka Leclere to vote against the contract change. She felt it was like signing a blank check:

"It kind of makes it hard for me to look at this and see no dollar figure," she says. "Do we put a cap on it? Are we not even considering that?"

Public utilities director Dan Winters said they weren’t planning a limit for the shipping price. But he said the city could wait to ship the scrap if it wasn’t economical right away.

Councilor Tom Enlow argued that would mean breaking a promise to Moore:

"We’re not going to have any choice but to accept it at that point. Because this guy’s into this -- he’s got skin in this game," Enlow said. "He’s got part of that metal that’s accumulated there [at the landfill], stuff that he’s collected. He’s got to get it out of there; he’s expecting us to pay for it."

And Enlow was worried about doing that with public money. He said the city would need to mitigate the shipping costs somehow.

Councilor Dave Gregory said the city should charge a disposal fee on as much of the metal as possible, including scrap from outside the dump. The city collects tipping fees on everything that crosses the landfill’s scales, but Moore has been disposing of some metal from off-site for free. Gregory said that would need to change:

"The cost-causer needs to pay for this cost of the steel," he said.

In the end, Gregory and Leclere were the only votes against the contract change. After the meeting, they said they hadn’t felt they had support to delay the vote until bids from shipping companies came in on Nov. 18.

Also on Monday, city manager Chris Hladick announced a special meeting on the city’s housing shortage. Staff have been researching where and how to develop new housing -- both for city employees and the general public. On Dec. 2 at 6 p.m., the city will take public input, look at new data on developable land and discuss whether to become a landlord for new property.

City council will have one more regular meeting before then. It's during Thanksgiving week, Nov. 25.