The city hopes federal funds will help pay for a proposed dock expansion. (Courtesy: City of Unalaska)

Port officials will try to move forward with plans to upgrade the Unalaska Marine Center at tonight’s city council meeting. That’s after councilors narrowly voted down an open bidding process to find new shipping partners last month.

Tonight, they’ll talk about applying for federal funds to help expand the port. The Department of Transportation’s infrastructure grants program is known as TIGER. The city has to apply in the next few weeks if it wants a share of $500 million in funding that’s available across the country.

Unalaska applied for $27.5 million for the port last year. They didn’t receive the grant, but ports director Peggy McLaughlin says the city’s application scored well. She’s writing a new proposal for this year’s round of funding. TIGER grants have been used for ports projects in Seward and Juneau in the past.

Council will also vote tonight on a half-million dollar contract with PND Engineers to do early design work and gather public input on the dock expansion. The money would come out of a million-dollar engineering fund set aside for the project a few years ago.

Besides that, McLaughlin says there’s not much the city can do about finding new companies to use the dock facilities, or signing long-term use contracts to help finance the expansion. She can’t bring a new proposal for an open bidding process back to council just yet. For now, she says she's focusing on federal funding.

Also tonight, council will take another vote on how to move state funding away from a stalled geothermal energy project. That’s on their consent agenda, which is generally approved without discussion.

The state contributed $1.5 million to the Makushin Volcano exploration fund, alongside a federal contribution that's since been transferred to Akutan. The state will take the funding back in July if it goes unused, and legislators have final say on whether the city can re-allocate it.

At their last meeting, councilors supported asking to transfer the money to the port expansion budget. But since then, public utilities director Dan Winters says state officials have told him the money has to go toward a renewable energy project. 

The city's new plan is to split the $1.5 million between a second waste-heat recovery system at the powerhouse, and two micro turbines that would hook into the Icy Creek spillway at the Pyramid Water Plant. Council is set to approve that plan tonight, at the same time as it goes to a hearing in the state House. Winters will call in to testify. 

Council will also discuss securing housing for its next city manager at tonight’s meeting -- that hiring process is going on right now. And they’ll talk about the city’s policies for financing utility extensions to new residential projects. It’s part of an ongoing discussion on how to expand Unalaska’s limited housing market.

Council close their meeting with an executive session on negotiating a new contract with the Public Safety Employees Association. The union represents police officers, fire captains, and dispatchers in Unalaska.

Tonight’s council meeting starts at 6 p.m. at City Hall.

This story has been updated. Click here to see tonight's full agenda.