City Council will take up a variety of budgetary issues at tonight’s meeting.  The biggest money decision will be whether to accept a $4 million grant from the State of Alaska for construction of the new wastewater treatment plant.  On the expenditures side, Council will consider whether to grant construction contracts totaling a half a million dollars to a single firm and whether to fund a $50,000 power supply study. 

The meeting will open with annual reports from the library, PCR and planning committees.  The reports review 2011 and preview goals for 2012.  Significantly, the planning commission lists updating the tidelands leasing policy and identifying developable lots as priorities for the coming year.  The library will be seeking community input on a proposed expansion and adding computers and video conferencing equipment in 2012.

After the committee reports, Council will hear about fiscal year 2011 legal expenditures and capital projects.  The City spent $146,877 last year on legal services with the Anchorage firm Boyd, Chandler and Falconer LLP. The majority of that money went towards the ongoing Department of Justice lawsuit over the city’s wastewater treatment.  The wastewater legal bills for 2012 are expected to be more than $400,000 dollars.

Council will convene in executive session at the close of the meeting to discussion the city’s settlement with the DOJ.

Also on the agenda is a resolution awarding $498,200 in construction contracts to Regan Engineering.  If approved, Regan would provide construction engineering and inspection services to the City for a number of capital projects over the next year, including Summer Bay road realignment and Unalaska Marine Center fendering. 

Another resolution on the agenda would authorize the Department of Public Works to contract a consulting firm to do a power supply study for the city.  Unalaska currently uses diesel to generate power, but the memo about the study indicates that Public Utilities would like to diversify the city’s power sources.  The anticipated cost of the study is $47,000.

The final resolution on tonight’s agenda proposes city support for the creation of an Arctic Policy Commission.  If created by the State Legislature, the Commission would develop an Arctic agenda for Alaska, the only Arctic state in the nation.

The meeting starts at 7pm in city council chambers and is expected to last 2.5 hours.