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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1980-04-01 Harbor Commission SummaryKENAI. HARBOR COMM I SS ION P. O. Box 580 Kenai · A1 aska 99611 AGENDA - April l, 1980 REGULAR HARBOR COMMISSION MEETING- April l, 1980 - 7-00 p.m. at the Public Safety Bui'lding, Kenai HARBOR COMMISSION MEMBERS' Mr. Mr. Mr. Mr. Mr. Mr. Robert Peterkin, Chairman John Wi 11 i ams, Vi ce-Cha i rman Tom Ackerly Tom Wagoner Wi 11 iam Burnett Ron Issacs EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS· A-G-E-N-D-A Mrs. Mr. Betty G1 ick, Councilwoman Vince O'Reilly, Mayor · 1. Call to Order 2' Roll Call & Oath of Office 3. Approval of minutes - Special meeting of March 13, 1980 4. Introduction of Guests (a) Mayor Don Gilman, Kenai Peninsula Borough (b) Mr. Larry Farnen and Mr. Doug Sweat (c) Mr. Craig Freas 5. Communi cations- (a) Documented packets. (b) Pacific Northwest Waterways Association (c) Letter from Senator Mike Gravel Id) Letter to Mr. Roper from ACting City Manager 6. Reports (a) (.b) ('c) (.d) Chairman Peterkin meeting with Craig Freas Commissioner Wagoner & Commissioner Dragseth - Juneau trip Mayor. Vince O' Reilly - Juneau trip Chairman Peterkin - update on correspondence with the Corps of Engineers 7. Old Business Be 0 NeW Busi ness (_a) Meeting of April !9, All Committees, Mayor & C~ty Manager Persons present not scheduled to be heard lO. Adjourn KENAI HARBOR COMMISSION MEETING PUBL I C SAFETY BU I LD I NG KENAI, ALASKA April 1, 1980 HARBOR COMMISS ION MEMBERS: Mr. Robert Peterkin, Chairman Mr. John Wi 11 i ams, Vi ce-Chai rman Mr. Tom Ackerly Mr. Wi 11 iam Burnett Mr. Tom Wagoner Mr. Ron Issacs Mr. Marvin Dragseth EX-OFFIC IO MEMBERS: Mrs. Betty Glick, Councilwoman Mayor Vince O'Reilly OTHERS PRESENT: Mr. Larry Farnen, City Manager, Homer Mr. Doug Sweat Mr. Craig Freas, Wince-Corthel 1 Mr. Brent Drage, R & M Engineering 1. CALL TO ORDER Commissioner Peterkin call-ed the meeting to order at 7'05 p.m. 2. ROLL CALL AND OATH OF OFFICE The Oath of Office was administered, to Mr. Marvin Dragseth by Admin. Assistant Kim Howard. Present' Chairman Peterki n, .Commi ss i oner Wi 11 iams, Commi ssi oner Ackerly, Commissioner Wagoner, Commissioner Issacs & Commissioner Dragseth. Absent' Commissioner Burnett, Excused. 3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES The minutes of the Special Meeting of MarCh 13, 1980 were approved with the fol lowing changes' Commissioner Wagoner requested that page 8, third line, 600 - 650 be changed to 400 - 450. Also on page 8, last line, ~.$I05,000 be changed to $150,000 Commissioner Wagoner reques~e~1~ that these changes be sent to Captain Reynolds and. Mr. Chuck Welling both of the CorPs of Engineers. 4. INI~RODU~TION OF GUESTS (a) Mayor Don Gilman was not able to attend the meeting due to a Borough Assembly meeting. Therefore,' Chairman Peterkin proPosed that the next Harbor Commission meeting, regularly held on April 15, be changed to April 22, so that Mayor Gilman could attend. '.(b) Chairman Peterkin requested that Mr. Sweat give an outline of what his project is, where he is at on it, and a comparison with the Harbor Commission's potential project. -1- HARBOR COMMISSION MEETING April l, 1980 Mr. Sweat stated that his group has purchased 70 acres, roughly the center section of the Homer Spit. The purpose is to create a boat basin and upland fill. The actual date of filing for the Corps of Engineers permit was December 15, 1'978. Kachemak Bay is a critical habitat area. They hired an engineer for the basic facility layout. They secured the permission of the City of Homer and as many of the local people as possible. They will move about 850 thousand yards of material and relocate it as upland fill and construct an entrance channel. Because Kachemak Bay is a critical habitat area, they had to secure an addtional permit from the Department of Fish and Game. The Corps of Engineers permit is at the top of the pyramid. Something else we will have to make application for is a water quality assurance permit through the Office of Environmental Conser- vation. He found it beneficial to invite all the agencies involved to Homer, as well as the City and any people that would voice any opposition to it, for an inter-agency caucus. They had some problem with EPA and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. EPA asked for water quality assurance above the State of Alaska water and assurance ADC water standa.rd. There was a condition placed on a permit for water quality sampling periodically during the year and they were required to submit thOse samples to EPA and Alaska Dept. of Conse'rvation and the Corps of Engineers. Some of the Departments they dealt wi.th were' The Coast Guard, U. S. Fish & Wild- life, Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game (there were 2 permits, 1 for cr. itical habitat area, and 1 for structural i~ntegrity of the project). Others were the Dept. of Natural Resources (.Divisions of Historical and Prehistoric Sections), The .City of Homer, the Environmental. Protection Agency, ~'and the Dept. of Transportation. Mr. Woody Yanks, of the Dept. of Environmental Conservation in Juneau, is. permit coordinator for all state agencies. The. Corps of Engineers will assign a project coordinator; correspondence will go to him, and he will send it off the the various agencies., they will send a copy to the Corps, and one back to us. If they have any o.bjections, they will say so. An example he gave was that Ak. F & G asked them to take into consideration the depth of the channel, so they went to Anch. to meet with them and saved a month's worth of paperwork. He suggested we take into consideration if we want the COE to maintain.the harbor, or if we want to take on that responsibility ourselves, The Historical & Prehistorical work was fairly simple and basic The Dept, of Transportation had no objections. The Coast Guard asked two thi'ngs, a bilge' water pump out and an oily water separator. We will probably want some fire protection; the Water and sewage disposal are covered with ADEC permit. He suggested incorporating these people early in the permit and notify them of any design changes, He,also suggested followin.g their recommendations strictly as they ~carrY ~a consider- able amount of weight. . . -2- HARBOR COMMISSION MEETING April 1, 1980 Commissioner Williams asked Mr. Sweat if this was a private project? Where were they obtaining financing? Was it a commercial harbor, or for sport fishing? Mr.-Sweat commented that it was a join.t venture. Arctic Slope Native Corp. owned one-third of it, a group of attorney's from Anchorage another third, and he owned the remaining third. It will be a commercial harbor, basically a work area. They looked at several types of docking, and preferred sheet piling, cost was .35¢ a pound, Seattle prices. Commissioner Ackerly asked if they would have to dredge yearly. Mr. Sweat replied that the COE estimated every two years. They're permit is good for five years, with renewable clauses. On funding, Farm Home has mOnies available for industrial development, They went to jac'k Roderick and Frank Muncy. EDA had funds available for Industrial Park Development-. There are funds available' for municipalities through EDA and the State Economic Development office in Juneau. The Division of Tourism may have money for tourist related slips If.you have a fisheries unloading area, you may want to address the Fisheries and Agricultural branch, they will have a branch on the Peninsula in the near future. They contacted most of their Senators and State Representatives and asked fo'r political support. Mayor O'Reilly asked if they were involved with Coastal Zone Management. Mr. Sweat stated that they were not affected wi th i t spec i fi cal ly. Commissioner Ackerly 'asked if it took one and one-half years to get their permit? Mr. Sweat stated that they applied in Dec, 15, 1978 and they received the pe'rmit August 6, 1979. There were three men working on the permit and they spent approx. 1500 man hours on it. EPA had selected a circular design for a small boat harbor, This proved highly impractical. Mr. Sweat suggested that we have adequate flushing and containing areas for spills and cleanup. With no further questions, Chai.rman Peterkin thanked Mr, Sweat for his attendence, Mr. Larry Farnen requested that Chairman Peterkin give a breif outline of where the Commission stood on their plans for a facility, which Chai'rman Peterkin did: Mr. Farnen stated that they began with the Corps of Engineers permit, Other agenci.es he became involved-with that Mr. Sweat did not mention are the Office of the Governor, Division of Policy' Development & Planni"ng, the State Dept, of Waters & Harbors, Coastal Zone Management, and th.rough th'e COE; .Friends of the Earth, the Audubon Society, sportsman associations and nati've groups, We may not be as involved with some of these agencies as they were. His estimate was that it would take 2 years to get the permits, and would cost about $150~000. We must file a plan of what the intent is along wi'th the permit. -3- KENAI HARBOR COMMISSION April l, 1980 The Borough is a planning agency. The funding must come from the State to the Borough to the City.. Commissioner Ackerly asked if the project is related to the oil industry, would there be any way to move through the red tape any quicker.* Mr. Farnen stated that the agencies don't want to be fast tracked. He would suggest hiring a man on the payroll to bird dog it. Chairman Peterkin questioned if the existing boat harbo,r in Homer pays it's own way? Mr. Farnen replied that they make it pay it's Own way. The rates are adjusted so it does. That's a requirement by the State. The federal government paid to dig it; the State put the floats in, the City. maintains and mans.the harbor. The maintenance dredging is done by the COE' The material mov. ed out is sand and gravel, a valuable resource. Commissioner Acker!y asked about the rate schedule. Mr. Farnen said it runs about .80¢ a linear foot per month. They made a summer adjustment. They run the cost up in the summer. There were 1800 boats and only 400 stalls. About 60% were commercial, 40% recreational. TheY have initiated a $15.00 charge for boats to be kept on the waiting list. It will go from 16 acres to 48 acres, from 400 stalls to 1500 stalls. They may have a moorage area for large boats. There was further discussion on possibilities of new species fishing and trans- portation services. Commissioner Williams asked how the 26 million dollar docking facility Senator Tillion is talking about tie into the Homer area. Mr. Farnen stated the actual figure is 85 million dollars over a 20 year period. 26 million dollars is only the first phase. Mayor O'Reilly asked Mr: Farnen if they had it to do over again, how w~uld he do it? Mr. Farnen said that they would go through the COE even though it was a long process. They have a Port Director. They would hire an engineer to work with him. There needs t~ ~e someone to negotiate width the ~va~?-ous~a§enci~'es- He ~.~wou!d be accountable to the City Manager who in turn i~s accountable to the Ci.~ty Council, RECESS- At 8-30 p.m...Commissioner Peterkin called a recess, E-CONVENE- At 8'45 p'm. Commissioner Peterkin called the meeting back to order. 4(c) Craig Freas of Wince-Corthell-B'ryson & Freas gave an outline of what they plan to include in their final report. Mr. Freas quo.ted and remarked on 'various parts of the Kenai Peninsula Borough Coastal Development Program, Part II'. Commissioner Williams su.ggested that we contact the people doing the report and let them know we should~e involved. ' ~ -4- 6(c) MOTION- HARBOR COMMISSION MEETING April 1, 1~980 Mr. Freas intorduced Mr. Brent Drage, of R & M Consultants, Senior Engineer. Mr. Drage made comments on the hydraulic aspect of the harbor facility. If the amount of sedimentation could be reduced, the amount of dredging required could be reduced. He thought the State might be interested in approaching this with the idea of sol- ving other problems in ~the State. There are three types of sediment- ation. One is in the river in a suspended form, the second is transported, from the bed, and the third is glacier flower concentration. Perhaps we can deal with them separtely and divert or flush it and decrease the total amount of sedimentation, so .it won't ~have to be dredged as routinely. Chairman Peterkin asked what variety of sediment was causing the most of the problem, and would the time of year the study was done make a difference on the resui ts? Mr. Drage stated that we are talking about a combination of glacier and bedload. The time of year was the sedimentation study was done was two weeks'in July, and the results could va~ry greatly. Mayor O'Reilly reported on his trip to Juneau. (See attached copy of review). He asked Mr. Frea$ if the cost of the project could be identified at this time. Mr. Freas stated that they could make very preliminary cost estimates, but he was under the impression that we did not want that done. The COE will ~give a cost estimate in their repor~t. Commissioner Wagoner moved that the Harbor Commission continue to support the efforts to gain the $500,000 for our total engineering study and continue with the Wince-Corthell report as originally intended. The motion was seconded by .Commissioner Issacs, roll call vote; motion carried unanimously. Mayor O'Reilly stated that the Harbor COmmission would need monies for staff and secretarial assistance as well as for engineer~ing and hydraulics. He suggested drawing up a job description, the applicant s-hould have some experience working with grants, is familia.r with the legislative process in Juneau, and has done engineering and design and harbo~r work. It will be on an interm basis until June 30. The City Mayor can hire this person. Mayor O'Reilly commented on the Energy Committee. It's purpose is to look at the a.vailablity of gas that is not being used, look at the cont~racts wi th Kusco, Un ion, Susitna Power, Bradley Lake. There was some discussion as to whether the study done by Wince-Corthell could be done any sooner than the 15th. Commissioner's Wagoner and Williams would be going down to Juneau with the study.on the 15th. Mr. Freas stated that he would try to have the study done earlier. -5- HARBOR COMMISSION MEETING April l, 1980 MOTION: Commissioner Williams moved that as soon as we receive the material on the morning of the 15th a telephone call followed by a letter be sent to our legislative group in Juneau advising them that the report is completed, and adVise them we will meet with them on the morning of the 17th. Commissioner Wagoner seconded the motion, roll call vote; motion carried unanimously. RECESS: At 10'40 p.m. Commissioner Peterkin called a recess. RE-CONVENE: At 10:55 p.m. Commissioner Peterkin called the meeting back to order. Mr. Freas reported that the report would show a schematic harbor and wouldn't relate to a specific site. It would be written so that the average individual, or someone not familiar with Kenai would be able to understand it. There will be an aerial photo and a land ownership map taken out of R.W. Thorpes report. It will also include a summary. There was further discussion on the report and Chairman Peterkin thanked Mr. Freas and Mr. Drage for' their attendence. He' felt the Harbor Commission was satisfied with the progress of the report thus far. 5 (.a) The-documented packets were discussed. Commissioner Wagoner noted that of five letters, there was $65,000 worth of damage. He suggested Commissioner Dragseth write a letter on the $35,000 damage when his boat bu'rned in the River in 1973. Chairman Peterkin suggested that any letters supporting a small boat harbor continue to be forwarded to 'Captain Wayne Reynolds.and Mr. Chuck Welling. Commissioner Williams requested a list of names that Commiss~'oner Wagoner saw on his last trip to Juneau. Commissioner Wagoner commented that Mayor O'Reill-y should have that list. (b) On the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association, Chai'rman Peterkin requested that someone read over the information and report on it at the next meeting. Referring to catagory 5 Commissioner Williams suggested we send a letter telling them we are a city with a population less than 5,000 attempting to get into the business. By virtue of our City Council we are a civic body and would they accept a annual investment of $100.00. Chairman Peterkin added that he could compose a letter. (c) In reference to Senator Gravel, Chairman Peterkin stated that he is prepared tomorrow to approach Senator Gravel's representative for a direct federal grant. Chairman Peterkin reminded the Commissioner's that there would be a break- fast meeting, at 7:00 a.m. at the Sheffield House the following day. -,6- HARBOR COMM I SS ION MEET I NG April l, 1980 (d) 6. (a) (b) (_c) (d) 9. Ca) Chairman Peterkin noted the letter from the Acting City Manager rejecting Mr. Roper's offer. Chairman Pete~kin:s meeting with Craig Freas was-discussed earlier. Chairman 'Wagoner reported on his trip to Juneau with Commissioner Dragseth. He mentioned that they carried down with 'them a Capital' Improvement package. He stated that he had never seen such a well received item as the Kenai Boat Harbor. It creates an economic base and has veery little over-head on the maintenance end, and it creates jobs for construction. Commissioner Dragseth added that we are talking about a lO-15 million doll'ar project. He felt we needed a man on the job, working on this full time. Chairman Peterkin remarked that we would hire someone for $1200.00 to $1500.00 per month until July-1. At that time we would '-have appropriations money. He believed we could get someone that is politically wise and and involved in the process in depth. .~e must:-~get someone Who is going -to go after the monies available. Vince O'Reilly has someone in mind who will take the minutes; I am not sure that this person will have time to do that.. We need that person and secretarial help also, especiallY when we get involved with the airport There was further discussion and Commissioner Wagoner stated that he would write up a job description. The most important qualification he felt was knowing and understanding grants, contracts and political work. Commissioner Dragseth commented that at the present time there were more people in Juneau over 40 than under 40 years old. He felt 'there was a definite split. He thought an older person would be more beneficial. Mayor O'Reilly reported on his trip to Juneau earlier in the meeting. Chairman Peterkin discussed communications with the Corps of Engineers earlier in the meeting. There will be a meeting-on Saturday, April 19, at the Sheffield House from 10'0(] a.m. until 12'00 p.m. to meet with the new' City Manager and briefly explain what our.purpose is. He encouraged the Commissioner's to attend if possible. Chairman Peterkin reported that there is a Transportation Commission which Mr. Sweat had referred to him. This is a Governor's Commission. Commisstone~'~eterkin ~ave an~-example that any.place in the U.:S. there.. is. a road in and out of that town. We need an inte'r-road system of air or water. The Commission is is developing a water system. Water dosen't. need to be paved, you don"t haYe to gravel it, etc, The Commission looks over and' advises the Governor and. the appropriate committees. We don't have anyone on 'the Peninsula on the Commission, we should stress this to Senator Ti 11 i on, -7- HARBOR. COMMISSION MEETING April l, 1980 ADJOURN- .. .. There was. further discussion and Commissioner Wi'lliams pointed out that it was the same group that was responsi.ble fo'r the 3 ~hydrocrafts traveling between Knik and Anchorage. Chairman Peterkin suggested that with the harbor we should incorporate our own hydro-plant. The federal government is giving all types of monies for energy, grants. With. no further business, the meeting adjourned at 11'35 p.m. : rman _ Respectful ly submitted, (Mrs.) Ki'm Howard Administrative Assistant -.8-