City Council to Look at Fire Safety and Building Code Needs

logo-w-sunburstKayla Desroches/KMXT

The Kodiak City Council is at the beginning of its fiscal year 2018 process and at its work session tonight will review revenue projections and take a look at its draft federal CIP list – its capital improvement project list. The fire station replacement is a top priority, but the city needs quite a bit more money before it can start construction.

The city is currently requesting $1 million for phase II, which includes site selection and design.

It’s on the cusp on demolishing the old library building on Mill Bay Rd., the same site the city has been considering for the new fire station, but City Mayor Pat Branson says updated data on tsunami safety may make a difference in whether they choose that location. They are now working to accommodate new tsunami inundation zones.

“That information on the 100 foot level or where it might lie may make a difference where we put a new fire station, so that’s what we’re waiting for. This was new information that came from our city manager, so we’re waiting for that to be done.”

Depending on the analysis, they may look at different sites.

Also on the agenda is the memorandum of the agreement the city holds with the Kodiak Island Borough to share a building department. The borough recently returned to using the 2012 international building code after a stint with the 1997 uniform building code.

The Kodiak Island Borough Assembly voted to readopt the 2012 code last week, and voted down possible code exemptions for residences in the borough. However, Assemblymen Kyle Crow and Dennis Symmons will bring the exemptions back before the assembly at its next regular meeting, and that means the city still has a while longer to wait before the matter is sealed.

Branson says the council is happy the assembly chose to return to the 2012 code.

“Where it goes from here, depending on what the borough decides to do, I can’t speak before the council because we really have not had those discussions. As I said, the ball is in the borough’s court right now and we will need to see what happens with the borough. It’s been in their court for quite some time. I think the city’s been quite patient with that in that regard with the MOA, but there’s good reason for us to have been patient.”

The council and the assembly have a joint work session scheduled for Feb 15, but Branson says the discussion about code will likely be brief, because the assembly will talk about the exemptions the following night. That regular meeting may or may not be the assembly’s final word on whether it will allow exemptions.

The city work session will be tonight in the Kodiak library multi-purpose room starting at 7:30 p.m.

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