The Aleutian East Borough has hired a new administrator. Rick Gifford took over at the borough last month, coming to the job from 7 years in Kodiak as a borough administrator.

While Kodiak’s government tended to focus on education, Gifford says infrastructure will be one of his top priorities at the Aleutians East Borough. He’ll be involved in the proposal to build a road through Izembek National Wildlife Refuge to link King Cove to the Cold Bay airport.

Two contracts sparked some debate at Tuesday night’s city council meeting. Councilor Dennis Robinson voted against awarding Northern Mechanical a $321,000 aggregate materials contract, saying the city discriminated against the other bidder, Bering Shai Construction, by including a per-mile road tax in the contract.

“That being 20 cents a mile to Department of Public Works, it puts Ugadaga quarry at an unfair advantage to any other quarry in the community, unless that quarry was built next to Public Works," Robinson said. "It is unfair, it is unethical in my belief. I have really serious problems with it and I think it should go.”

City council meets tonight to vote on four separate contracts.

The first would let the city manager sign an agreement with R&M Consultants to do work on the pavement resurfacing project. That contract is not to exceed $177,000. The second is an annual contract with Northern Mechanical for $321,000 worth of aggregate materials. The third contract would pay Industrial Resources, Inc., $215,000 for work on miscellaneous maintenance projects. The fourth and final contract would allow the city to do business for All Wall Contracting for painting done over the next year. That contract is valued at $207,000 and could be extended for another three years.

The arrival of the oil and gas industry could bring major infrastructure changes to Unalaska. How to plan for those changes was the primary focus of last night’s Planning Commission work session. City planning director Erin Reinders says the goal over the next year should be to develop a comprehensive land use plan, identifying areas where development should happen and areas where it’s off-limits.

City Council will meet tonight to vote on new traffic regulations and the fee schedule for the coming year.

The meeting will open with a public hearing over those two issues. The road ordinance has been a contentious issue previously, and if passed it would create a prohibition on the use of tire chains by truck-trailers, barring any special exceptions by the Department of Public Works. That ordinance would also require commercial vehicles to operate with fifth wheels in the bottom position. The purpose of the amendment is to reduce wear and tear on the city’s roads.

A proposal to restrict chain use on Unalaska’s paved roadways generated some controversy at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting. The ordinance only allows truck-trailers to use chains on days when the Director of Public Safety or the Roads Chief deem them necessary.

That idea was not popular with truck drivers, several of whom testified at the meeting that the restrictions would imperil safety - both the drivers’ and the public’s. Here’s Doug Leggett.

An attempt to minimize damage to Unalaska’s paved roadways might mean some changes for truck drivers. At Tuesday's meeting, City Council will consider a proposal that would limit the use of tire chains on semis and modify regulations covering the truck’s attachment point or 'fifth wheel.'

If the ordinance passes, truckers would only be able to use chains on days when the Director of Public Safety or the Roads Chief deem them necessary. They would also be required to keep the truck’s fifth wheel in the 'down' position, to make sure the trailer’s load is evenly distributed across the axles. 

The lawsuit over Unalaska’s wastewater treatment is officially over. The Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency signed off today on an agreement that requires the City to upgrade its treatment facilities and pay a $340,000 fine.

When the EPA filed the lawsuit last June, it was asking for a $150 million fine. The agency said the City had violated the Clean Water Act thousands of times during the previous six years, discharging harmful levels of heavy metals and fecal coliform bacteria into Unalaska Bay. The City disputes those facts, saying today in a written statement, "There is no evidence of actual damage to the environment or diminishment of any threatened species by our current waste water [sic] treatment system."

In a surprising turnaround, City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to provide grant funding to the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association for a conference the group is holding in Unalaska in September. When the initial request for $75,000 was presented in February, councilors were divided on whether it was appropriate for the City to donate money to the event.

Then-councilor Dick Peck said at that meeting, “I don’t recall in my tenure of eight years on the island that we’ve ever funded any activities of this nature.”