Plans to upgrade Unalaska’s docks -- and even create new moorage -- will dominate tonight’s city council meeting.

Ports director Peggy McLaughlin will present a plan for renovating the Bobby Storrs small boat harbor. In a memo to council, McLaughlin writes, “This is more than a replacement project.”

That’s because the design by PND Engineering completely reconfigures the harbor. The A and B floats would be rearranged to make better use of the space in the water basin, McLaughlin writes. And all three concrete floats would be swapped out for steel, like at the Carl E. Moses small boat harbor.

A challenger has emerged in the race for city council seat C.

Katherine McGlashan Labert is running a write-in campaign against incumbent Roger Rowland. Labert filed financial disclosure paperwork with City Hall last week, and has been posting campaign ads around town. 

Labert, a hair stylist and the owner of Cape Sarichef Salon, has previously served three terms on council. She lost her re-election campaign in 2011 to Zoya Johnson. In 2007, Labert ran for mayor, but lost to incumbent Shirley Marquardt.

City council whipped through a condensed agenda last night, at their first meeting in a month.

The council was supposed to take up a proposed 30-year tideland lease with Bering Shai Marine. But business owner Bill Shaishnikoff asked to have the item removed from the agenda before the meeting.

According to a draft lease, Bering Shai Marine would have developed the 2.7-acre tract in Captains Bay to create moorage space. Over the next 30 years, the company would have paid $140,000 in rent. Shaishnikoff already owns the tract of land just above the tidelands plot.

A 30-year tideland lease with Bering Shai Marine is up for consideration at tonight’s city council meeting.

Bill Shaishnikoff wants 2.7 acres of city-owned tideland at the back of Captains Bay, to build a ramp and mooring space. Shaishnikoff currently owns the land just above the city’s plot.

The candidates for city office are in, and there’s not a single challenger on the ballot.

Unalaska mayor Shirley Marquardt, and incumbent city councilors Dave Gregory, Roger Rowland, and Alejandro “Bong” Tungul, are all running unopposed.

Marquardt’s seeking her fourth term as mayor. City clerk Elizabeth Masoni says this is the first uncontested mayoral election in Unalaska since at least 1989.

City council made quick work of their agenda at last night’s meeting, and focused on planning for big visits from Arctic policy groups.

Council voted unanimously to accept a $3 million legislative grant from the state of Alaska for building the new wastewater treatment plant. That money will be put directly in the construction fund. They also advanced a proposal to accept a $14,000 state grant for emergency planning at public safety.

At tonight’s meeting, city council will weigh a proposal to get more municipal services online or digitized.

The finance department is requesting $151,000 worth of new software from Tyler Technologies of Dallas. A big piece of that is a new digital record-keeping system.

With just three days to file for candidacy, few people have stepped up to run in October’s municipal elections. Three spots on city council, three school board seats, and the mayor’s office are all on the ballot.

The city is moving forward with plans to increase its fresh water supply. At Tuesday night’s meeting, council awarded a $270,000 contract to the environmental consulting firm Shannon & Wilson to do exploratory work for new well development, and to refurbish existing wells.

Public utilities director Dan Winters explained to council that the city has been unable to meet the fish processing plants’ water demand on five separate occasions since 2005 -- although he noted that most of those times, it wasn’t because the city had actually run out of water.