Unalaska, AK – The city council is shifting tracks again on the funding and amenities of the Carl E. Moses Boat Harbor. After a four and a half hour long meeting on Saturday morning the six member council voted to not only to unanimously support all of the options that supplement the base bid, but to beef up the drive down float even further.

Multiple local fishermen attended the meeting and spoke in favor of options such as strengthening the C float to allow large boats to moor there, adding electric and water access for smaller boats, and building a drive down working dock with a crane. However, they felt that the current plan for the drive down dock would not be able to handle enough weight to load and off load pots, seine nets, and fresh fish.

In response, the council decided to remove the drive down dock from the construction contract so that the proposal for the dock could be improved then added back into the contract in its final form. They also discussed building a separate working dock at the facility during phase two of the project.

At the March meeting, council members Dick Peck and Dennis Robinson voted against adding the additional amenities. The add-ons would have added $4.6 million to the $39 million dollar project. Robinson argued that it would cost too much money.

Now Robinson says he actually just voted against the amenities so that the council would hold another meeting. "The arguments that I put on the second reading were probably not accurate, but they were an argument. I had to jump on and do something about stopping that small, inadequate float."

He said he didn't feel the council or the city staff heard his concerns about the boat harbor. "If I can't answers as to questions that we ask, then I'll look at stopping something legislatively til we get the answers we need."

He said his actions during the March meeting also forced city staff to clean up their budgets.

City staff looked at other projects and re-appropriated the excess budget amounts and the excess income from fish taxes to gather together the $4.6 million necessary to fund the boat harbor options. However, it is unclear exactly how much the entire project will cost if they build an enlarged drive down float.

So far, the city is budgeting about $43.7 million for the project, though that could go up once they decide on a final design for the drive down float.

At Saturday's meeting the council decided not to apply to for a bond to pay for the harbor. If the council had applied for a bond, they would have had to repay the bonded amount and the interest on the bond out of the 1% sales tax fund. That would mean paying back about $700,000 per year for 20 years for the bond instead of just funding the project internally right now. The council voted 4 to 2 to not pursue a bond.

The council will discuss the boat harbor project and the size of the drive down dock again on April 20.