Map of proposed trawl closure boundaries

City Council will decide whether to support a proposal by the Unalaska Native Fisherman’s Association to ban pollock trawling in Unalaska Bay at its Tuesday night meeting.

This isn’t be the first time the issue has come up. In 2008, the council voted unanimously to support a similar proposal. But this time around, the vote could be different. Councilor Roger Rowland, who also sits on Unalaska’s Fish and Game Advisory Committee, voted against the ban during that committee’s meeting last month, citing a lack of data.

The Unalaska School Board has appointed Abner Hoage to fill a vacant seat. Tonya Miller served on the board for nearly five years, but recently moved to Georgia.

Hoage is Unalaska’s fire chief. He moved to the community last June, and says he’s excited about the prospect of being more involved.

“After 20 years in the military, with the constant moves around, during that time, I wasn’t available to do this kind of service.”

City councilor Zac Schasteen will be stepping down from his post next week in order to take a job with the city.

Schasteen accepted the position of senior fire captain with the Department of Public Safety earlier this week, and will start in mid-March. Because city employees are banned from holding office, he'll officially resign his council seat at the February 26 meeting.

Schasteen says it was a tough trade-off, but that he feels he’s accomplished a lot during his three and a half years on council.

Less than a year after completing one small boat harbor, the City of Unalaska is beginning the process of overhauling the other one. City council voted Tuesday night to start scoping work for replacement of the floats at the Bobby Storrs harbor. 

“We want to build a dock that is similar to the Spit Dock and CEM [Carl E. Moses], so that we are maintaining like facilities," said Public Works director Nancy Peterson.

An overhaul of the Bobby Storrs small boat harbor is slated for the near future, and that process could begin at Tuesday night's city council meeting. Ports Director Peggy McLaughlin is recommending that the council award PND Engineering a $22,000 contract for scoping work on the new harbor. That includes determining the current condition of harbor facilities and drafting a conceptual plan for the redesign.

The long-planned paving of Ballyhoo Road could start as soon as this summer. Tuesday night, city council approved a $380,000 contract with PND Engineering for design of the project. As city manager Chris Hladick told council, the design will replace an earlier one by the state of Alaska that city staff determined was too complex.

"We’re just trying to get this thing paved. It's long overdue,” Hladick said.

There will be no refund for vessel owners who tied up at city docks during the last six months. At city council’s last meeting in December, ports director Peggy McLaughlin pointed out that the published schedule of fees for the city’s harbors was inaccurate, and in some cases lower than what boat owners were actually being charged.

The city sought a legal opinion to determine whether the published schedule had actually been adopted by Council. In a memo, city attorney Brooks Chandler concluded that it hadn’t been voted on, and therefore was not legally binding. McLaughlin says any refunds would be have been extremely small anyways -- the differences between published moorage rates and actual billing was only a few cents in most cases.

Unalaska’s city hall is scheduled for more turnover in the next few months. Finance director Tonya Miller will leave her post on February 15 after six years of service, and head to another municipal job in Georgia.

Unalaska’s human resources manager, Kelly Stiles, says Miller is originally from Georgia, and had made it known that she wanted to move to be closer to family.

Governor Sean Parnell released his proposed capital budget for fiscal year 2014 Friday, and two of Unalaska’s projects made it onto the list. Gov. Parnell recommended $6 million for Unalaska’s water and wastewater treatment facilities, both of which need upgrading by the end of 2014.

Mayor Shirley Marquardt says she’s very pleased.

“It really feels good to know that not only has the Governor’s office heard our concerns, but really appreciates the tremendous financial hit that the City of Unalaska, and everyone who works here or lives here has to pay in order to try and keep up with these mandated projects. And every little bit helps -- and that’s not a little bit, that’s a really good chunk. So, hopefully it’s going to be quite helpful when we take another look at the rates.”