Update, 5 p.m. Tuesday:  Turnout started strong in Unalaska’s local election today, but it’s tailed off this afternoon amid rough weather.

Just over 260 people had voted by 5 p.m. There was a steady stream of residents coming in and out of the polls after getting off work. City clerk Cat Hazen hopes that’ll mean more voters before polls close at 8 p.m.

(Courtesy: Dennis Robinson)

Dennis Robinson’s four terms on city council span four decades. He’s seen a lot of transformation in that time – first, the growth of the fishing industry, and now, shipping and oil.

Through it all, Robinson says one concern has risen to the top: 

"The housing issue will make or break our ability to capitalize to our fullest on these new developments," he says, "because without the housing, we won’t have the workers to handle the work required to support new opportunities."

(Courtesy: Yudelka Leclere)

Yudelka Leclere knows that community turnout tends to be low at city council meetings.

And that’s part of why she’s running for a council seat – she sees herself as a community member stepping up to be a bigger part of the process.

"I don’t see a whole lot of us community members attending, speaking yea or nay," Leclere says. "Maybe it’s time for me to take it up a little higher and be that advocate."

(Credit: Pipa Escalante)

For Zoya Johnson, being part of city council comes down to a simple goal: "My first priority will always be the quality of life in this community," she says.

Since she’s running unopposed for her second full term, Johnson’s already looking ahead to the city’s to-do list for the next three years. And she says the biggest variable is Arctic oil and shipping development.

If new industries do arrive in Unalaska, Johnson says she wants to be prepared to make sure the community doesn’t suffer.

When Fernando Barrera won his election last fall for an open seat on the Unalaska school board, he had a clear vision for the one-year term that lay ahead of him.

Barrera wanted to improve STEM education -- science, technology, engineering and math. But he says he had some misconceptions about how to get there from his position on the board.

"We can propose things, but you don’t decide as a person what to do," he says. "It’s a team."

(Credit: Pipa Escalante)

This fall, Cathy Jordan is running unopposed to keep seat B on Unalaska's school board.

As a former resident of Michigan and Texas, a parent to two sons, and a frequent class volunteer, Jordan has spent time in classrooms across the country. 

"Given where we are, we know there are restrictions on some things that we can do and some things we can offer," she says. 

City council will hold a public hearing tonight on expanding their powers for hiring contractors other than the lowest bidders.

The ordinance would let council consider new factors when picking contractors for city projects -- anything from whether a company’s caused problems for staff in the past, to whether they have a tendency to submit expensive change orders.

Councilors favored the ordinance when it first came up in late August. They’ll take a final vote after the hearing tonight.

Unalaska’s city council will consider expanding their power to reject low bidders for city projects at their meeting tonight.

Right now, the council has to explain their reasoning if they award a contract to someone other than the lowest bidder. An ordinance up for discussion tonight would give them more reasons to choose from.

They include a company’s conduct during meetings, or whether a contractor’s asked for ”grossly inflated” amounts of extra payment in the past.

The race has begun for a seat on Unalaska’s city council.

Yudelka Leclere has filed to run against incumbent Dennis Robinson for council seat B.

It’s the first time someone's officially challenged a sitting councilor in three years. But for now, it's the only contested race set for this fall. 

Zoya Johnson is running unopposed to keep city council seat E. When Leclere first filed her paperwork this week, she'd planned to run against Johnson. But she changed her mind just before Friday's deadline, according to city clerk Cat Hazen.