Ports and Harbor Commission - Regular Meeting

Thursday, August 14, 2025
Transcript
Video
Agenda

About this meeting

Government Body
Ports and Harbor Commission
Meeting Type
Ports And Harbor Commission
Location
Valdez, AK
Meeting Date
August 14, 2025

Transcript

106 sections (from 114 segments)

0:00 – 0:410

Call the regular meeting of the special meeting, sorry, of the Ports and Harbors Commission to order. And for roll call, we have Commissioner Steed, Kelly, Pierce, and Stevens present, and Commissioner Day, I'm guessing, excused? Or did we not Unexcused. Unexcused, okay. I know where it's at. We need to. Okay. Those are our five, correct? Okay. Next up is election of chair and chair pro tem. I guess we get to do this for the chair. Open nominations for the seat of chair.

0:411

I nominate Colleen Stevens as chair. I'll

0:46 – 1:090

oppose. No, I'm just kidding. Are there any other nominations? Hearing none, we will close nominations. And all in favor of Pauline Stevens remaining as chair, say aye. Aye. All opposed? And for chair pro tem, opening nominations for that position.

1:101

I would nominate Chairperson Kelly.

1:142

I'll second it.

1:15 – 1:300

Are there any other nominations? We will close that. And all in favor of Commissioner Kelly as chair pro tem say aye. Aye. Any opposition?

1:312

All right.

1:320

Other than yourself, Vince.

1:332

Ruthless if you

1:36 – 1:590

I don't believe we have public business from the floor. I see no one. So moving on, next is to review the formal recommendation to city council in support of the resolution to rename the Valdes Container Terminal to the Ryan J. Santang Valdes container terminal. Do we have the motion to move that recommendation forward?

2:022

This is commissioner Kelly. I will recommend we move that recommendation forward.

2:080

Is there a second?

2:101

Yeah. I can second that.

2:110

right. Any discussion on the item before intro for staff?

2:202

This was something that the governor asked the mayor, and so I think the mayor directed it back to us for a recommendation.

2:301

Is there any trade negative reason from No. Ports and arbors?

2:372

Staff always supports it. Long time out there. You know, somebody was in the early days in this building.

2:451

I I will imagine even if it gets renamed, the it'd still be the VCT. I mean, it just

2:542

I think the Zontag doc at some point, like the Kelsey doc.

2:570

Zontag terminal.

2:582

Yeah. Zontag Terminal.

2:590

Yeah. That evolution will take Yeah.

3:01 – 3:122

We just I I discussed it with Ryan Junior and said, you know, can we keep all these container terminals still in there? And he said, yeah. That sounded good. So Yeah. The family was for that.

3:131

I I just imagine, like, a mouthful on the radio when you're trying to talk to traffic and whatnot.

3:182

We'll put a we'll put a sign up up front. It needs a new sign anyways. We we'll do that next year.

3:261

Well, if there's no negative reason, I don't see why it can't be done.

3:330

Either of you have feedback or comments?

3:362

Oh, I think it's appropriate. Yeah. Sounds good to me.

3:390

So we can vote on the recommendation to counsel to rename the container terminal to Brian J. Sontag. All these container terminal. All in favor?

3:481

Aye. Aye.

3:49 – 4:250

Anyone opposed? Right. So those are two two big voting items. The next is our discussion of goals, and just make sure this is our our last chance before they get thrown in the packet tomorrow to be sent well included in the in the packet to go to city council for our work session next Tuesday. So this is kind of our chance if you see any edit, modifications, questions. I don't know, Jeremy, if you have anything to intro it with. But

4:252

We'll build them out a little bit more. Just getting them in at the wire. Mhmm. I know you've

4:330

done a lot of work on this. And I don't if you can change your initial

4:412

Yeah. Colleen had some feedback and raised

4:450

everything that I've that seems to be in alignment with what we

4:562

think we should be doing. And

4:590

Jamie, do you have any specifics?

5:03 – 5:302

No. The one thing that Nate when we had the work session that it is not covering our goals. Well, it kind of is, but just the three things that you guys want council to know if we have an opportunity to move forward on something. And so I think if we can't deliver that, it's a work session. We should quickly work on that, those capital projects. We can review them, see where we're at, what

5:301

mean, like, our top three?

5:310

Which is

5:32 – 5:442

those type of If we get funding, we'd we'd like to fund these three things as the top Mhmm. I'm assuming Kelsey got because probably for the port priority one. Oh, for

5:441

the Dalton. Yeah. Was gonna say.

5:45 – 6:012

Just the whole revision. I just like to see that whole thing. We're the port infrastructure development grant we're turning on September 10 for kinda has design aspects. That grant has the Kelsey Dock in it as well as the Sea Otter. So Yeah.

6:011

I would say Sea Otter and Kelsey. Yeah. Probably.

6:072

Office. Harbor office. Yeah.

6:091

Oh, yeah. On Harbor office. Is there any news on the agreement with the state Of Westbury Terminal?

6:152

There's no movement. I think they're agreeing this fall. We'd come back at it

6:190

with the DOT. And I think it'll help that session go.

6:22 – 6:422

Yeah. Mhmm. They were they were generally like, the DOT director was positive about it. So we'll we'll come back this fall. I think they're busy. The permits, I I haven't checked my email, but we're supposed to get the permit back for the. Okay. On the shore. She moves through this week.

6:471

And then how long would that once you get the permit, how long is that to implement that hauler installation?

6:562

Okay. I don't know. It shouldn't take more than two weeks, but

7:000

It's gonna have to

7:002

change traffic. Yeah. And there's a there was

7:040

a sale of the Yeah.

7:06 – 7:172

There's a few variables. So there's some moving parts. Nate was here, I would ask because he's been dealing. Oh, good enough. But once we get the go ahead.

7:180

Elise, did you have

7:19 – 7:523

Oh, so I just wanted to comment that there is a section that's very little used on the council agenda, which is reports and referrals from commissions. So, you know, the goal of your work session Tuesday with council is to talk big picture and what your priorities are and to get their feedback. And, but if there's things that come up along the way like these capital projects, it's totally appropriate to submit something for the council agenda through Jeremy at any time. So Okay. Thank

7:52 – 8:030

you. Yeah. Do we want to roll those priorities into here or let them know that in the next month, we'll be back to them or the next I mean, is there you guys are in budget.

8:04 – 8:332

Yeah. We're budget. I think we can probably get in under the line. If we if the we do the the meeting in September, we can probably get it in before the council gets the way it all set up. There's not a lot of money to do big capital projects right now anyways. We're kind of on hold until this cap settlement Twenty four months is probably no big project. It's my read on things. So

8:330

for the But goals?

8:36 – 8:482

For the design, if we get that port infrastructure development grant, We need to take full advantage of that so that when we come out of that, when CAPS is all settled out that we are in the. Yeah. Any

8:51 – 9:020

other add ons or changes for Tuesday? Are we looking for a formal to vote and approval on this or just consensus to move it forward to the work session?

9:022

I'll take either one. Consensus works. I will put it on the agenda, and it's just a work session, so I don't think it's anything formal. Those are your goals.

9:100

Any any opposition to You

9:122

want formally adopt them, then it works.

9:160

Alright.

9:182

Good to go.

9:19 – 9:310

And, Jeremy, I guess my question on that is and or Luis is, will you be presenting? Should I be prepared to present? Because I just need a copy of what you're submitting if I'm prepared to present.

9:333

Oh, the only one we've done so far

9:362

alright. Parks and rec.

9:38 – 10:043

Holly Stormberg, deputy city clerk for the record. So the only one we've done so far is parks and rec and kind of how it was structured. We had everyone down on the floor here, which was really nice and conversational. And then Ken just gave a high level overview, and then they went through kind of item by item and talked about, like, oh, here's our questions on this, and we're able to have a conversation between the commission and the council. So

10:052

And I do

10:053

think you'll have to present formally. You can put that

10:070

on Jeremy. Yes. I mean, I don't mind. Just if I do, I wanna prepare.

10:122

So It's it's an hour and a half, I think, 05:30.

10:143

We're starting at 05:30.

10:152

And there may be, finances coming with some budget stuff too to work through at the same time. So just a discussion on some Okay.

10:271

Can we be in our seats up here and have a.

10:312

Roll them or something.

10:320

Facing you at this point. I love that.

10:352

You didn't get to be the chair. He has to work through his chair for that.

10:420

Alright. Then, staff reports, I guess.

10:45 – 11:042

Yeah. I just submitted one. It was we've had a lot going on, so I just want everybody kinda up to date on just about everything that we've been doing. So, the harbor's had some good stuff going on with the clean harbor and ports. Just one cruise ship after the other. So

11:040

And a few fish.

11:052

Yeah. Lots of fish coming up.

11:071

Has there been any information about the necropsy on that?

11:12 – 11:272

Nope. And that's funny because I we talked about that last night at the dinner party that we were talking about. Nobody has heard anything. And so, I will reach out to them and see if we can get some feedback on that because we wanted to know that. Donna wanted to know that.

11:27 – 11:411

Well, I I heard rumors about the animals missing its tongue. Oh. And they thought that it was starvation because it worked out. It took its tongue, and it couldn't feed. But I don't know how good those rumors are.

11:440

Any other questions for what operations or other operations other than the process?

11:502

Any any pain points besides air fishing lures?

11:560

As long as it's not our rafts this year or our rail.

12:012

We can put a sign down.

12:100

Know. That's very clean up.

12:122

Places we look the other way, not there. It's been

12:160

it's been okay so far. Full break.

12:212

So I'm just glad people are catching fish.

12:240

There is one massive feline from Florida right now.

12:272

Yeah. It is huge.

12:290

Anyway, sorry. We digress. Anything else on your report?

12:322

I don't have anything else

12:330

on file. Commission business from the floor?

12:362

Mm-mm. None here. Nope.

12:380

Alright. Then we can

This transcript was automatically generated from the official public meeting video and is presented unedited. It reflects remarks made on the public record by elected officials, staff, and public commenters. Transcript accuracy may vary; view the original recording for reference.