Unalaska, AK – The HyettPalma Community Vision statement for Unalaska for 2010-2020 is now complete. The community vision is a compilation of information gathered by the consulting group when they met with various community organizations as well as results from the community survey. It includes a list of the top ten priorities for the development of the community. City Manager Chris Hladick said it's a combination of things that the city can and cannot directly address.

"The documents, the results of the survey, are what people would like to see. I guess, now it's up to the city council to decide where we are going to spend our energy," he said.

For example, the number one priority is lengthening the runway and lowering airfares. Hladick said the city is working on the runway extension project but cannot directly change the airfares; that's up to PenAir and Alaska Airlines. Nor can the city directly affect priority number two, improve and lower the costs of internet, phone, and cable service. However, the city has written in support of the Kodiak Kenai Cable Company's projects to bring high speed internet to the community, which should happen by 2013 through the new Arctic Link project.

Hladick said the city is directly addressing priorities three and four. They are in the midst of a study looking at paving the roads and maintaining the quality of the current roads. The city is also seeking money to pave Ballyhoo Road. However it costs about $6 million per mile to pave roads in Unalaska. The city will also build a new multimillion dollar water treatment plant to maintain the community's clean drinking water, priority number four.

To help with priority number five - encourage construction of quality, reasonably-priced housing - the city is bringing in an expert.

Hladick explained, "The city is providing money for basically, a housing expert - this is all he does around the country - to come here and put together all the various components from AHFC to Aleutian Housing Authority to OC and try to I don't know, I'm not sure what comes out of it, but to try to put those resources together to go, How can we do this?'"

Community members ranked improving the clinic's administrative services, like billing and customer service, at number six, and building a regional hospital at number eight, but that's up to the clinic to deal with not the city.

Other priorities include exploring alternative energy, creating a recycling center, and broadening and diversifying the economy.

However, "it is very hard to envision what would replace fishing here," Hladick said.
This is the third time the company has developed a 10 year vision plan for the city, "In the beginning, it was easy to choose what needs to be done. We need water, the basics: we need water, we need sewer, we need roads, we need a library; things like that. As the community matures, it becomes harder to pin point what it is, what direction the community would like to go."

The entire community vision is available on the city's website. Hyetta and Palma, the consultants who compiled the vision, will come to Unalaska in April to give an in-depth report on their findings and how the findings will be worked into the comprehensive plan for the city.