KMXT 100.1 FM Public Radio in Kodiak, Alaska
Example of labeled trash can in Anacortes, Washington. Photo by Joe Mabel
Kayla Desroches/KMXT
Artistic trash cans and housing code changes were both topics of conversation at the Kodiak City Council’s Work Session last night.
Fishing company owner Bruce Schactler stepped up to propose that the council authorize trash cans with decorative labels on them. They would be wrapped much like food cans and Schactler suggests pictures of local fish species and depictions of Kodiak history.
Schaclter says businesses could place the trashcans in front of their stores.
“They’d be their own private dumpster, their own private use, for their private business,” says Schaclter. “But it would be just an expansion of this project so it would get that much bigger around town, you’d have that much more artwork around.”
City Manager Aimée Kniaziowski brought up a couple of challenges, including restrictions within the City’s use of Alaska Waste services.
“They don’t like to do those nonstandard, empty cans, so at staff level, we thought maybe we cancel the Alaska waste,” Kniaziowski says. “But then you’re talking a person that could come around and dump those and then pay the full landfill fees where the nice part about having Alaska Waste do it is that we don’t have to pay those landfill fees.”
The council discussed partnering with volunteers and local museums. It will talk about the budget and other possible participants at a later meeting.
According to a memo in the Agenda packet, the Borough Mayor and a Joint Building Code Review Committee member are interested in gathering the Committee together to reevaluate the residential code for the engineering of buildings over 200 square feet.
Building official Doug Mathers says they would like to revisit energy requirements and update electrical and plumbing requirements to the most recent state code. He says this is how they can achieve a good rating on residential and commercial buildings from the Insurance Service Office and therefore lower insurance rates.
“I went through the report to see where we could gain points and the only place we could do any good at all was adopting a newer code. Ted and I could both be engineers, we could have all the education, we could staff the place up better, but the only… the way to get the points is by having a newer code,” says Mathers.
The City Council and Borough must first appoint – or re-appoint – members of the Joint Building Code Review Committee before the updates can move forward. Councilmembers agreed they would look at potential committee members who might be interested.
The Kodiak City Council’s regular meeting is set to take place this Thursday night.
