HomeMy WebLinkAbout02062019 PACAB Minutes City of Seward,Alaska Port and Commerce Advisory Board Minutes
February 6, 2019
CALL TO ORDER Volume 3, 361
The February 6,2019 regular meeting of the Port and Commerce Advisory Board was called
to order at 12:06 p.m. by Chair Christy Terry.
OPENING CEREMONY
Harbormaster Norm Regis led the pledge of allegiance to the flag.
ROLL CALL
There were present:
Christy Terry presiding, and
Laura Schneider Carl Hughes
Lynda Paquette Erin Lemas
Colby Lawrence Bruce Jaffa
Comprising a quorum of the board; and
Absent—
Also, Present:
Jeff Bridges, Interim City Manager
Brennan Hickok, Assistant City Manager
Norm Regis, Harbor Master
GeNeil Flaherty, Executive Liaison
Suzi Towsley, Council Liaison
CITIZENS' COMMENTS ON ANY SUBJECT EXCEPT THOSE ITEMS SCHEDULED
FOR PUBLIC HEARING - None
APPROVAL OF AGENDA AND CONSENT AGENDA
Motion(Lawrence/Lemas) Approval of Agenda and Consent Agenda
Terry asked to have under New Business, item A, to have the minutes removed from the agenda.
Then suggested that to move under the Informational Items, Reports and Presentations, item B to
under New Business for action,this will make item F and then item C also under New Business for
the same reason which will make this item G.
Motion Passed Unanimous Consent
SPECIAL ORDERS,PRESENTATIONS AND REPORTS
Blue Pipeline—Justin Sternberg,Seward Blue Pipeline Manager
Sternberg provided a power point for his presentation. (This will be added to the minutes for
legislative history.) His presentation introduced that the purpose of BPI (Blue Pipeline Business
Incubator)is to cultivate and grow scalable,innovative ocean related businesses in Alaska.The goal
of BPI is to increase the capacity and resiliency of the Alaskan economy specifically in coastal
communities. BPI is designed to build greater market share, increased revenues, expanded
workforce,and export potential of marine-based companies.The graduating entrepreneurs will have
City of Seward,Alaska Port and Commerce Advisory Board Minutes
February 6, 2019 Volume 3, 362
the skills, knowledge and networks to meet their growth and sales goals and to build successful,
sustainable and scalable ventures.
Alaska Railroad Report—Christy Terry did not provide an electronic or written report but she
spoke about a few things. She said the rail road partnered with the city and paid to remove the
excess gravel from the Lowell Creek outfall and distribute it onto the rail road property. Also,the
Aurora Ferry just came into port today and will be going over to JAG for some work to be done
tomorrow. The rail road leadership team went to Miami to talk about the passenger dock with the
cruise lines and that went extremely well. The Safety Ball will be held at the terminal and tickets are
on sale now and the proceeds go to scholarships. Last,we have done almost$1 million almost$2
million in repairs to our pilings for our cruise ship dock and those will be complete the end of this
week. So,the cruise ships will have a dock to come into this season. Jaffa asked if the rail road was
still on schedule for their proposed improvements. Terry said that they are working on funding right
now and possibly design in 2019 and design and permitting into 2020-2021 then demo and
construction in 2022-2023.
Chamber of Commerce Report — Cindy Clock, in addition to the written report said that the
Chamber is excited for the Blue Pipeline and congratulated Justin. Since this report was written
another member joined the Chamber,Alaska Fisherman Seafood Direct. Our destination guides are
here and can be picked up at the Chamber.
Harbormaster Report—Norm Regis in addition to his written report he said that hopefully after
this week's inspections the dock will be open on Friday.
Administration Report—Brennan Hickok said that the hydro project with Andy Baker is almost
complete and a joint work session with council and PACAB will be scheduled to go over the results.
Also,the city has received Andy Baker's proposal for the heat loop design and engineering and that
is tentatively going before council at the February 25th meeting. He and Jeff Bridges,the interim city
manager, went to Anchorage last week and met with some people from Enstar, a natural gas
company. He said that they are interested in coming to Seward. They also met with DOT and FAA
to talk about the runway at the airport. They will be going to Washington D.C.soon and they intend
to discuss the needs for the longer runway. An RFP for on call engineering services has been
submitted.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS—None
NEW BUSINESS
Motion (Jaffa/Paquette) Postpone approval of the December 19,
2018 and January 2,2019 Minutes until the
next meeting
Motion Passed Unanimous Consent
Discussion about Commercial Fishing
Trawler Fleet impact to Seward was
concluded that a separate meeting will be
conducted to evaluate how PACAB can
take action on supporting the local fisheries
City of Seward, Alaska Port and Commerce Advisory Board Minutes
February 6, 2019 Volume 3, 363
and reducing the amount of by catch that
the Trawl fishing industry is allowed.
Motion (Schneider/Hughes) Set Work Session February 20,2019 Topic
as PACAB Priority Calendar 2019
Motion Passed Unanimous Consent
Discussion concluded that follow up direction from the Joint Work Session with Planning and
Zoning Commission held on January 22, 2019 will be to conduct several more meetings as
things progress.
Discussion from the January 7, 2019 Anchorage Chamber of Commerce meeting about the
Anchorage Climate Action Plan. Schneider reported that the people that put this together
were excited that Seward was interested in participating in the same type of program. Terry
added that at the February 20th work session to discuss this further.
Terry provided a proclamation for the US
Coast Guard Mustang showing support for
their presence here in Seward.
Motion (Jaffa/Paquette) Motion to have Chair Terry sign it and have
it presented to the US Coast Guard crew.
Motion Passed Unanimous Consent
Terry provided a Certificate of Welcome
for the US Coast Guard SPAR to welcome
them and thank them for supporting
Seward.
Motion (Jaffa/Lawrence) Motion to have Chair Terry sign itand have
it presented to the US Coast Guard crew.
INFORMATIONAL ITEMS AND REPORTS (No Action Required)
A brief review of the Resolution 2019-001 -PACAB Priorities and the PACAB calendar that were
included in the packet will be thoroughly worked on at the February 20th work session.
BOARD COMMENTS
Vice Chair Jaffa -Thank you to everyone for attending. Thank you to those who have presented
and it was nice to see and work with a full board.
Lawrence- I apologize for missing a few meetings, due family matters, but I'm glad to be back in
Seward.
City of Seward,Alaska Port and Commerce Advisory Board Minutes
February 6, 2019 Volume 3, 364
Paquette-Thank you to everyone who had presentations today and it was nice to sit on a full board
for the first time. A few thoughts about the Anchorage Climate Action Plan meeting that I also
attended. Thank you to Schneider for taking notes and writing it all up. It was stated over and over
about energy efficiency. She said that she sat next to a gentleman that drives an electric car and he
can't come to Seward because there aren't any charging stations. He said that Tesla gives them away
to municipalities that are willing to put them in. Also,the Seward Civic Engagement will be held at
Apollo's this Thursday in the backroom.
Schneider-Thank you to Justin for coming and doing a presentation. Thank you to Chair Terry for
being so thoughtful for doing the certificates for the US Coast Guard. I talked with the city clerk and
she said that PACAB is sort of the economic development arm for the city. The city council is
having a work session next Monday night at 5:30 to go over the budget and the city clerk is going to
be asking council for funds to go towards a website and brand redesign and anyone who would like o
go to show support would be great.
Chair Terry - It is great having everyone here and I appreciate everyone's work adding to the
agenda. This board of all the boards is a working board. So,the more we can bring forward to the
grassroots and move to the top would be great. Thank you to Schneider and Paquette for attending
that meeting with councilmember Towsley and also congratulations on your Chamber awards those
are well deserved. Thank you to administration for your support. The SeaLife Center Gala has a few
more seats open now and last thank you to councilmember Towsley for attending our meetings.
CITIZENS' COMMENTS
Anthony Baclaan- We always get thanked for being here but thank you for all the work you get
done. It is much appreciated by the community. I spoke to the food vendor that was across the bay
and I do agree with you in way. A lot of people that are on their lunchbreak do have to go into town
for something they need. So,a small convenience store would be helpful. I am glad we are working
on a climate action plan and I'm looking forward to get involved as a citizen. Thank you again for
your time and congratulations to Lynda and Laura.
Councihnember Suzi Towsley-I think this was a great meeting with a full board. Thank you for
the Blue Pipeline presentation and I look forward to working with the board. Congratulations to
board member Schneider and Paquette on your awards at a lovely Chamber event as always. I'm
excited to hear from Mr.Baker and his findings at Lowell Canyon. I fully support any action that we
can take and that council can take to help protect our local fishery resources by addressing the impact
of trawling bycatch.To help develop healthy bycatch management policies. Thank you to Jen Leahy
for your information. Thank you for everything and for having me.
Justin Sternberg-In a previous job position,I worked with a company in Anchorage that managed
the LED streetlighting retrofit and that was the first one in the world of any scale that became a
model that got replicated elsewhere. That team of people are based in Alaska and there is a lighting
firm out of Boulder, Colorado that we worked with that has since done the Empire State Building
and they had originally done the Pentagon and White House, so they're world class. But they are
always looking for a small-scale city where they can implement the next level designs. Particularly
around smart street lighting. Street lighting would be a fantastic way for the city to save money and
if we implemented a smart street lighting system where we could dim the street lights at night,that
hasn't really been done. It's kind of still being worked out but the technology is available and I
believe the lighting design firm would love to work with us. So, something like that would be a
relatively easy way for us to gain major savings. Save the city a bunch of money, and it would be
City of Seward,Alaska Port and Commerce Advisory Board Minutes
February 6, 2019 Volume 3, 365
something we could tout as a significant initiative, showing our development of a climate action
plan. I'd be happy to resources to you. Thank you.
BOARD AND ADMINISTRATIVE RESPONSE TO CITIZENS' COMMENT-None
ADJOURNMENT
Jeff Bridges-I actually did what Justin just talked about in my last job. I designed a lighting system
in our historic district that you could turn up the light or turn down the light during public events.
They should be installing it this year. There's a pin controller that you put in the LED light that you
can control by computer. I just thought of the idea,the engineers have to figure out the technology.
It's a great thing to do. You don't want to turn them off at night because of security reasons but you
don't need a Walmart parking lot at 2 am either.
Harbormaster Regis-Our entire harbor is all LED lighting and we got rid of the really expensive
bulbs and we have started saving money. About dimming the lights,on D-float the lights dim down
and as you walk up it senses you and lights up. I am actually kind of excited about Enstar wanting to
come down here. Regarding giving money(as a donation)to the coast guard,they can't accept it.
But we can have dinners and other things like that for them.
Vice Chair Jaffa-The United States has reduced its energy consumption 24%over the last 8 years.
Great deal of that is the use of LED lights, energy efficiency,conversion to different types of fuel,
improved generating facilities. That is an ongoing effort. The general population needs to support it.
I hate the idea that we have street lights. I have headlights. The lights on the highway are an
interference to me. I can see for safety reasons downtown.
Justin Sternberg-To what Bruce was saying,when we were doing studies,we actually found that
we could dim the lights by 75% and get better visibility on the roads because everything is
completely over lit. As you move to LED,which the majority is white light, it improves our color
contrast. Which is how we actually see at night. We could do some innovative things here and save
a significant amount of money. The other thing is that I think we have an opportunity to really
promote and market our dark sky here. When it's clear we have incredible,sky viewing. That could
be another thing if we wanted to become a dark sky certified city and that could play well into our
tourism marketing.
The meeting was adjourned at 1:46 p.m.
GeNeil Fl erty Chris al Terry
Executive Liaison Chai
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