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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1983-01-25 Harbor Commission SummaryKENAI ADVISORY HARBOR COMMISSION Regular Meeting, January 25, 1983 Kenai City Hall John Williams, Chairman AGENDA 1. CALL TO ORDER 2. ROLL CALL a. Installation of New Member 3. AGENDA APPROVAL 4. APPROVAL OF MINUTES of November 18, 1983 5. GUEST SPEAKERS 6. COMMUNICATIONS a. PNWA Minutes b. PNWA Newsletter 7. REPORTS a. Presentation by TAMS Corporation 8. OLD BUSINESS a. Budget - include additional money for public relations material 9. NEW BUSINESS a. Proposal submitted by Mr. Palm & Mr. McMillan b. Trip to Juneau 10. PERSONS PRESENT NOT SCHEDULED TO BE HEARD 11. ADJOURNMENT KENAI ADVISORY HARBOR COMMiSSiON Regular Meeting, January 25, 1983 Kenai City Hall John Williams, Chairman 1.. CALL TO ORDER.. The meeting was called to order at 7:04 2. ROLL CALL Present: John Williams, Tom Thompson, M.W. Thompson, Leon Quesnel, Paul Weller, and Allen Houtz Also Present: Council representatives Sally Bailie and Tom Wagoner Mr. Allen Houtz was given the Oath of Office and welcomed to the Harbor Commission as its newest member. 3. AGENDA APPROVAL Agenda approved with no corrections or additions 4. APPROVAL OF MINUTES of November 18, 1982. Chairman Williams noted that the name of Allen Houtz was spelled incorrectly. Minutes were approved with the correction. 5. GUEST SPEAKERS Chairman Williams called for anyone wishing to speak, there were none. 6. COMMUNICATIONS a. PNWA Minutes Chairman Williams explained to those present, and to the new member what PNWA is and does for water related activities. No action necessary. b. PNWA Newsletter No action necessary KENAI ADVISORY HARBOR COMMISSION Regular Meeting, January 25, 1983 Page 2 7. REPORTS a. .P..resenta..tion by ..T .AMS C0rP0ra. tion Mr. Michael Horton presented written material which will be included in the packet. Mr. Gary Schnieder submitted the request to the Corps of Engineers for the modifications to the permit and there were no objections from the Corps, the permit has been drafted and the signed copy should be back in 3 to 4 months. The permit will need the signature of the city manager. Mr. Horton explained the ~drawings for the basins. In the drawing it was shown that the basin would have to be pulled out every winter and the piles would have to be stiff. Maneuvering into the boat grid without sticking out into the current appeared to be very dangerous .and for those reasons TAMS opted for dredging a basin, the other reason is that it conserves a trial dredge for the main harbor project when t hat one comes. Mr. Horton felt that this is hopefully a temporary facility that will be moved out when the main harbor scheme comes along. This wO. uld have a 3 to 5 year life span. Mr. Horton feels that there is going to be alot of sediment in there, the bottom being put at -6' which is the same depth of the river, the idea that if there was quite a bit of siltation during a 5 year problem it wouldn't be a very big problem, this could still be used at a half tide or most tides. If the main harbor project does not go, then it can still be used then the basin could be cleaned out every 5 years or so. The drawings show a sediment barrier which would deflect the current away from the entrance should the sediment prove heavier. The fuel float shows a capability for 4 boats at 120' long with room to put smaller boats on the back side as well, the pumps will be flush with the boats so that 4 boats could be fueld with 2 pump installations in the center of the floats. The grid itself has room for 2 boats as. well and combined the approach trestle with the fuel float with the boat grid so some money could be saved. It's 12' wide so a pickup will fit on it with a 4' approach, the idea being that 1 pickup could park close while another could pass. The discussion then centered around time for construction of any part of the project, Mr. Horton suggested a good time for starting would be the end of May with dredging starting during the winter. Mr. Gary Schnieder indicated that after talking with the Corps of Engineers, there may be a time limit set by the the Corps for dredging and if it isn't done around May, the city may have to wait to around mid-July or later. KENAI ADVISORY HARBOR COMMISSION Regular Meeting, January 25, 1983 Page 3 Chairman Williams opened comments to the Commission. Mr. Horton and Mr. Schnieder detailed the drawings for the Commission and public. Councilman Wagoner stated that when this harbor idea was first introduced, the question came up as to who was going to operate it and asked if the Commission had made any provisions in it's plans. Chairman Williams stated that the fuel terminal would be done as a concession business and the actual policing of the repair grid had only been discussed to a point where it was felt that this could go along with the person running the fueling concession, with this person setting a fee rate and the city taking a portion of it. In terms of return from the harbor, Councilman Wagoner stated that to give some sort of idea of where the fishing industry is, last year his catch was 55,000 of fish and he quit fishing earlier than alot of fishermen. Mr. Wagoner had to load those into a dory and deliver them to the dock instead of pulling up to the dock in his fishing boat to offload. If he could have he would have gained another~ $.10 per pound or over $5,000 per fisherman if he could offload his own fish. Mr. Horton then went into a report, on the progress of the sedimentation study stating that from the data available from the dips already done they fed it into the computor model, using figures from the worst possible day 'in the year just to see what the worst conditions would be and came up with a Sedimentation per year of 1.3' on the highest tide. The model can predict a whole years tides, and even taking the very worst year it came up with half of what the Corps of ~ Engineers predicted, and at this very preliminary stage it looks as. though the yearly sedimentation rate is one that is very acceptable in general terms. It appears that this is in the sort'~'~of range that is going to come out. There are 3 alternatives to consider for the main harbor, 1) the excessive siltation alternative would be to build in a siltation lock where in the summer time locks could be open'.ed depending on the tide taking 10 minutes for each boat to go through, which would be unacceptable during the fishing season in the summer, plus it is expensive, 2) if the sedimentation is less than excessive or a medium level, a~ sill could be used which would stop the silt coming in on the lower end of the tide and this would creat a half tide harbor, 3) and if it was a reasonable silt situation there would be no problem, it would go into the 5 year dredging (once every 5 years) and again to keep in mind, this is very preliminary, there being no way to try to guess figures at this point. Mrs. Bailie asked where the fishermen were currently getting their fuel. Councilman Wagoner stated that fuel availability was scattered, KENAI ADVISORY HARBOR COMMISSION Regular Meeting, January 25, 1983 Page 4 coming from Salamatof, some of the processors have floating barges in the river, Columbia Wards, etc. Mrs. Bailie asked if the fueling facility went in would there be alot of boats coming in. Chairman Williams stated that on the river, Kenai is subjected to major fuel spills every day that they are there. There are alot of fueling facilities now, however each and every one of them in surveys that they would gladly give up the fueling in that right now its a courtesy thing and does not make them money and the do get alot of problems from environmentalists and indicated that they would like the city to take it over, Salamatof does have an agreement of some type with the city where the city owns the fueling facility and Salamatof runs it however is a very poor fueling facility, there being alot of problems with fuel spills, and on the other side, water in the fuel putting boats out of work. This basin is designed so that any fuel spills can be boomed off and won't go out into the river. Councilman Wagoner indicated that for the independents, there is a lack of places for them to get fuel except the Kasilof River and if Kenai had fueling facilities they would certainly want to come back to the area, benefiting businesses in Kenai. Chairman Williams stated that one of the things we tend to forget is that the harbor is servicing facility for a form of transportation and commerce the same as roads are a servicing facility for transportation and commerce on land. Chairman'Williams asked the Coast Guard representative to speak on items such as the fueling on the river. Mr. Sparks stated that right now there any number of regulations on. all aspects of fueling including nozzel size as an example. The public is becoming more aware due to programs, the importance of keeping the rivers and waters clean and effects of spills. Mr. Horton pointed out that one more reading will be taken at break up time so that the sedimentation that builds up.~under the ice during the winter could be checked. Armondo Ballofet will be doing the measuring about the month of May or whenever it breaks up. The two TAMS representatives had been to the river to check the amount of ice. The mathematical model is set up and can tell what the "critical velocity" and current flow will be and an example of a worst case is a 1.3' however, TAMS is optimistic as the reading is not a comparatively high one. The design for the basin is available and will accomodate 38 boats, the entire harbor concept to accomodate 400. Mr. Horton stated that TAMS is very aware as is the Commission that "if you have a 400 boat harbor here at Kenai it's going to be full in a week, you will get a demand from Anchorage and all around, this is a very good location, its near Anchorage and alot of people are going to want to use it so KENAI ADVISORY HARBOR COMMISSION Regular Meeting, January 25, 1983 Page 5 there will be a bigger demand than just commercial, there are going to be alot of recreation people that are going to want to use it. One of the things we tomy want to look at is a dry harbor, boat ramps, and fish unloading docks, there are alot of things that are going to happen as soon as this scheme gets off the ground." 8. OLD BUSINESS a.. .Bud. ge.t The Commission discussed the funding for the harbor and the bid documents needed at length, Chairman Williams reading the figures as accumulated by. the finance director. A vote for support for seeking funding from the legislature was taken 'with the Commission responding unanimously. Since there is some money available through the grants and bonds part of the project will be broken out of the bid documents TAMS will prepare. Chairman Williams went on to the in-house budget detailing the line items in particular items to be included which .would allow Commission members travel to lobby for funding and the preparing of brochures on the harbor project similar to those presented by TAMS Jto promote the harbor to the public, last year's budget totalling $24,000. MOTION: Commissioner Weller moved to adopt the budget request for 1983-84 for $24,000, seconded by Commissioner Thompson. There were no objections MOTION · Commissioner Weller moved to send a copy of the budget on to the city manager's office, seconded by commissioner M.W. Thompson. Motion passed unanimously 9. NEW BUSINESS a. P.ro..p.o. sal.. su. bmitted by Mr. Palm & Mr. McMillan Mr. Palm introduced the proposal stating that the land they were intereste in was Tract B in the boat launch area that was used at one time by Mr. Roper and what the tract would be used for is a 40'. fishing dory for unloading of fish during peak fishing seasons, taking the fish from the boats to the shore and then by truck to the canneries thus releiving some of the congestion in the harbor during peak fishing seasons. KENAI ADVISORY HARBOR COMMISSION Regular Meeting, January 25, 1983 Page 6 Commissioner Weller asked if those plans would interfere in any~With the plans the commission has undertaken for the boat ramp, the answer was no. Commissioner T. Thompson asked if the land needs fill, Mr. Palm indicated it could either be done that way or perhaps rails laid temporarily, to be removed after the season was over. The Commission asked if any buildings were planned, there were none. Have the men checked with the Corps of Engineers, they had and the Corps had indicated there was no problem in that use was temporary and the land was not conservation and under jursidiction of the city. Basically the idea is to provide an alternative to the canneries for those independent fishermen who have no where to sell fish. Bill Brighton explained to Mr. Palm and Mr. McMillan that the city had spent $150,000 to get that land back and probably would not be in a hurry to again tie it up and asked if any other land would be acceptable to them. The Commission and Mr. Brighton agreed to help the gentlemen in any way with any other land they might find that would meet their needs.~ b. Trip to Juneau The Commission discussed what members might be available to go to Juneau to help in gaining funds for the harbor project. Both Commissioners Thompson stated that they felt they may be able to and would get back to the COmmission. Commissioner Quesnel stated that he may be available to go around mid-March and will also get back. 10. PERSONS PRESENT NOT SCHEDULED TO BE HEARD None 11. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned. The next meeting will be Tuesday, February 15, 1983 at 7:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers. Respectfully submitted: J~et Loper; S~c~etary