City Council has Nearly $1-Million Up for Votes Tonight

Kayla Desroches & Jay Barrett/KMXT

The Kodiak City Council has before it at its regular meeting tonight (Dec. 8), a contract to demolish the old A. Holmes Johnson Public Library building downtown next to the post office. The city is considering the property as the site for a new fire station. While the current Kodiak Public Library is marking its third anniversary this week, its old home has been left unused and in disrepair. Of the eight bids the city received in November, the Kodiak-based B-and-R Fish By-Products Incorporated was the lowest responsible bidder at $263,245.

The council will also vote on reallocating $147,000 from the budgets of the public works, finance and police departments to fund two new positions in the city manager’s department. They are for a human resources manager and a human resource specialist. In her memo to the council, City Manager Aimee Kniaziowski says the two new employees are needed to deal with the workload she anticipates will come from the passage in the recent municipal election of a measure to allow the city’s workforce to unionize if they choose. Along with the assistant manager, the HR specialists will be the second and third additions to the city manager’s staff in the past year.

The council will also be asked to vote on the purchase of a dewatering centrifuge system for the sewer treatment plant for the price of $390,400. It will be a replacement for the old belt-press dewatering system, which will be kept as a back up. The new system should provide a drier, more concentrated sludge for use in the city’s composting facility.

Approval of the city’s Capital Improvement Projects list is also on the agenda. It prioritizes for the Alaska Legislature what projects the city would like the state to at least help pay for. Number one is $4-million for phase 2 of the new fire station project, which is the design as well as site work once the old library is torn down. Second on the wish list is pedestrian improvements on Rezanof East. Third is simply a plea not to discontinue State Revenue Sharing, which is a cash sum given to communities based on size. The city received $294,635 in the current fiscal year. Expanding parking on Shelikof Street over the corner of Saint Paul Harbor is number four on the city’s list, with an ask of $1.1-million.

These items and more are on the agenda for tonight’s Kodiak City Council regular meeting, which will air live on KMXT starting at 7:30 p.m.

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