Unalaska, AK – The city council met for three and a half hours last night. Much of the conversation focused on the city's plans for the future. The council debated whether or not to bring in an outside group to help develop a strategic plan for the city. City Manager Chris Hladick suggested that a plan could be developed using community input and planning resources the city already has but that an outside voice might help guide the process. Council member Katherine McGlashan agreed.

"We could get most of the pieces of the puzzle together," she said. "It's just having that outside influence that doesn't know everybody and know the cliques of the council."

McGlashan also thinks the council needs more training. "To me it's uncalled for when people are throwing punches and just being rude to each other and to the administration."

Council member Dennis Robinson disagreed because he felt training the council when there is frequent council turnover would be a waste of money. A community member suggested that the council go on an outing together, perhaps to feed the horses, in an effort to improve their working relationships. The council passed a directive for the city staff to prepare an in-house board training and start the strategic plan development process.

The council also reviewed the city's budget goals for fiscal year 2010. They include a city wide workforce audit and a compensation and classification study. The city hopes to stay within budget and maintain the same level of services without increasing taxes. This will depend on city revenue, which depends heavily on the fishing industry.

The meeting also put to rest the idea of an energy star rebate program, which would reimburse residents part of the cost of buying new energy star rated appliances. The majority of the council felt it wasn't the best use of money for the city and it would only help those who already have enough money to buy appliances.

A new city wind power generation ordinance passed last night as well. The debate was over acceptable noise levels. The council voted to establish two different noise limits. If a residential wind power generator is producing a constant noise - called pure tone - it cannot be louder than 50 decibels. That's about the same as average indoor conversations. Except during short term high wind events, the noise should never go above 70 decibels, or the average radio volume. The noise level will be measured from the complainant's door.

In other city news, the public works department has completed the design for the new Summers Bay Road realignment. The road is being moved to the edge of the water to make room for the expanded landfill. The department finished building the base of the road using waste material from the powerhouse project. They are also moving towards the final design of the PCR.