Unalaska, AK – City of Unalaska officials are headed to Washington tomorrow to lobby the federal government for a number of capital projects the city wants to see happen. The group, which includes Mayor Shirley Marquardt and City Manager Chris Hladick, plans to meet with aides to Sens. Ted Stevens and Lisa Murkowski and Rep. Don Young early next week.

At the top of their list of priorities is funding for breakwaters for the city's planned small boat harbor at Little South America on Amaknak Island, without which, Hladick says, the project can't go forward.

The Senate appropriations bill includes $10 million for construction of the breakwaters by the Army Corps of Engineers, but the House of Representatives appropriations bill does not. Hladick and Marquardt are meeting with Alaska's congressional delegation in the hopes of seeing the $10 million earmark make it into the conference bill later this month.

The city officials are also tentatively scheduled to meet with representatives of the Department of Energy to find out what federal money might be available to restart Unalaska's exploration of potential geothermal resources on the island. Hladick says that such a project would ultimately cost upwards of $120 million, but for now the city's simply looking for $50,000 or $60,000 for consulting expenses.

Earlier this year city officials were in discussions with an Icelandic company that had proposed working on a geothermal project in Unalaska. But the talks fizzled in March when the company wanted the city to commit to a proposal that the officials considered too unrealistic and unspecific.