Council decided during their Tuesday night meeting to fund a study of alternative energy sources. It’s been ten years since the last study and in the interim fuel costs have risen and technology has changed. Currently the city runs on diesel generators but the study will look at tidal, wave, wind, geothermal and liquid natural gas. Council awarded the $47,000 contract to the Maine-based Financial Engineering Company. FEC will do a cost-benefit analysis of the various potential energy sources and present the results to council later this year.

Council also hired independent contractor Ronald Moore to remove all scrap metal and junk cars from the landfill and the island this summer. City Manager Chris Hladick noted that the $60,000 contract is significantly less than previous contracts for the same service.

The city's planning director, Erin Reinders, gave presentation about proposed updates to the city’s tidelands policy.  According to city staff, the current leasing policy is outdated and subject to unreasonable fluctuation.  They propose a number of changes designed to make the policy more consistent.  The largest changes would be calculating the rental rates based on 10 percent of the appraised value and making long-term leases possible without Council approval. 

A budget amendment and a resolution authorizing the auction of city property passed without discussion.