Overhauling the city’s water supply is on the agenda for Tuesday's council meeting. Unalaska occasionally runs out of fresh water during peak processing season, and previous studies have shown the city needs an additional two to four million gallons a day of capacity in order to fully meet demand during those periods.

Council has previously considered several options for increasing the amount of available water: building new wells, raising the penstock on Icy Lake, and refurbishing existing wells. At a December meeting, the penstock and new well proposals drew criticism from council because of their expense, and in the case of new wells, their potential impact on subsistence salmon stocks.

City council breezed through an agenda Tuesday night that included rezoning two properties, adjusting the budget and appointing a new member to the planning commission.

They unanimously approved the rezoning proposals, with Councilor Dennis Robinson commenting that he’s happy to see the private sector building houses.

“Hopefully some more land gets out there for housing so the city doesn’t have to take Kelty Park, which is unused, and convert that to a housing project.”

Two proposals to rezone commercial property for residential use are on the city council’s agenda for this evening. Tonight’s vote is the final step in the rezoning process for the properties, which are respectively owned by Coe and Phyllis Whittern and the Ounalashka Corporation. If the changes are approved, the properties could hold up to 60 new housing units, although only a fraction of that number are planned for the immediate future.

City council advanced a plan to rezone two chunks of commercial land for residential use at last night’s meeting. The proposals from the landowners, Coe and Phyllis Whittern and the Ounalashka Corporation, got unanimous approval from the council.

The Whitterns are trying to rezone four lots along Broadway, in the Hillside Estates subdivision -- possibly for resale. Before council voted on their request, assistant city manager Patrick Jordan advocated for it.

At tonight's meeting, city council will consider two proposals to rezone commercial land for residential use -- possibly setting the stage for the construction of more than 50 new apartments in Unalaska.

The landowners are Coe and Phyllis Whittern and the Ounalashka Corporation. The corporation wants to rezone a lot on Biorka Drive, across from Sitka Spruce Park, for high-density residential use.

After months of discussion, city council has approved a plan to raise utility rates.

Water rates will go up by about 22 percent, wastewater rates will go up by 42 percent, and solid waste fees will go up 32 percent.

The extra revenue will help get the utilities operating at a slight profit, instead of a deficit as they've done on and off over the last few years. They'll also help defray the cost of major construction on the plants, to get them up to federal standards.

Council will vote on a final plan for paying off big upgrades to the city’s utilities at tonight's meeting.

The city's consultant, Mike Hubbard, has put together a plan that would raise water rates by 7 percent, wastewater rates by 14 percent, and solid waste fees by 11 percent. Those increases would start on July 1. But the rates would increase again next July, and again the year after that, by the same percentages.

City council made big progress on the 2014 budget at their meeting last night, but that didn’t spare them from a tough discussion about funding capital projects.

In all, the city is planning $60 million in intensive upgrades to utility plants. About $40 million of that will come from loans and grants, but the rest will need to be paid out of the general fund. After a presentation by Mike Hubbard, of the Financial Engineering Company, council hammered out a basic strategy for handling these costs.

City council will meet early tonight to award a contract for building the new wastewater treatment plant. City staff are recommending that Alaska Mechanical of Anchorage get the $19.3 million contract, since they were the lowest responsive bidder.

As the city nails down the budget for that project, and other substantial upgrades at the city’s utilities, it looks like Unalaska residents will see big increases in their bills to help cover the costs.