Shell Oil was in the spotlight during a special Saturday City Council work session to discuss 2013 budget priorities.

 Although it remains an open question whether Shell will actually be staging in Unalaska this summer, discussion focused on preparing for potential development.

City Manager Chris Hladick said many of the issues are salient with or without oil, like improvements to the airport and a plan for housing development.

Councilor Dick Peck said that while he supports planning, he isn’t confident that it will have much impact if the oil companies do move in, calling his experience with oil and gas development “organized chaos.”

Nevertheless, councilors spent more than two hours discussing port expansion, lobbying, housing development and utilities.

Hladick says the city needs to make replacing the pile-supported docks at the Unalaska Marine Center a priority.  They would be switched out for sheet-pile, extending the length of the dock to accommodate larger cargo ships.  The city is planning to put in for $40 million for the project through a proposed state bond package, but if that doesn’t pan out, Hladick says the other option is to enter into long-term leases with industry.

Councilor Dennis Robinson said it’s important to keep developing the port.

"Any way about it, whether it's drilling or whether it's shipping, the port, the deepwater port we have here is key.  That's the only thing that's going to be bringing people in here."

Housing also generated quite a bit of discussion, especially with regards to utilities.  Hladick said Shell would likely try to develop out by Crowley and OSI.  He said that might be an opportunity for the city to extend water, sewer and electricity out Captain’s Bay and up Pyramid Valley.

Utilities Director Dan Winters said it would cost $23 million to run utilities out to Crowley and an additional $13 million to get them up to the Pyramid Valley loop, which is zoned for housing.

Winters also detailed the need for more power-generating capacity, urging Council to purchase a fourth engine for the powerhouse.  He estimated the combined cost of the engine and installation would be $7.3 million dollars.  Geothermal energy, liquid natural gas and wind power were also discussed.

The meeting ended without any clear budget priorities, but Hladick says now that council has a detailed overview of potential projects, they can start making decisions.

"And with that, I think we're at the end of our list.  We've spent more money than anybody has in a short two hours.  We've got to winnow this down and figure out how we're going to do it all.  And start scoping out some of it and as staff and I work through this we'll be coming back you with what we think we can get done and where we think we might need more people if this happens or that happens."

The 2013 budget doesn’t need to be finalized until May.