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Home My WebLink About01142013 City Council Laydowns LAYDOWN VERSION Sponsored by: Port and Commerce Advisory Board CITY OF SEWARD,ALASKA RESOLUTION 2013-002 A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SEWARD ALASKA, REVISING THE 2013 HARBOR TARIFF TO CHARGE ONLY ONE ELECTRICAL CUSTOMER CHARGE PER BILLING CYCLE TO TENANT CUSTOMERS AT THE SMALL BOAT HARBOR AND TO CHARGE ONE ELECTRICAL CUSTOMER CHARGE PER LOCATION FOR TRANSIENT OR GUEST CUSTOMERS WHEREAS,several harbor tenant customers have been unhappy when required to pay two electrical customer charges per month; and WHEREAS,a better way to bill electrical customer charges to tenant customers is once per billing cycle; and WHEREAS, transient or guest customers (that stay more than 15 consecutive days) sometimes move several times per month during the busy boating season; and WHEREAS, each move requires both administrative time and dock labor. NOW,THEREFORE,BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SEWARD,ALASKA that: Section 1. Subsection 225 MI(2)(i)of the 2013 Harbor Tariff is hereby amended as follows (addition listed in bold italic,deletions listed in "trikethrough): Subsection 225 LABOR AND SERVICE CHARGES (a) Specific Services. The following rates shall apply for services provided by the City of Seward: (2) Electricity- Small Boat Harbor (i) All Vessels(except Transient Vessels staying 15 consecutive days or less. Electricity(per kilowatt hour) $0.24 Customer charge for tenants(once per month billing cycle) ....... $19.10 Customer charge for transients or guests(once per location).....$19.10 Section 2. This resolution shall take effect ten days after adoption. ►- -7013 MOUNTAIN 4e 111 STATES fr N EWS LEGAL 4 FOUNDATION 2596 South Lewis Way 4`""" Lakewood,Colorado 80227 ' 303-292-2021 • Fax 303-292-1980 A+ www.mountainstateslegal.org =' ' FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: JANUARY 4,2013 Alaska Property Owners Bring Class Action Suit Against Alaska Department of Natural Resources Officials Landowners in Juneau and Seward have filed suit against Officials of the State of Alaska Department of Natural Resources on behalf of themselves and similarly situated landowners throughout the state seeking to block the state's claim to the beds of small streams that cross their property. The land in question was patented and sold as homesteads,mining claims, and townsites between the late nineteenth century and statehood in 1959. When these lands were surveyed, federal surveyors were required to set aside navigable rivers—rivers that were `highways of commerce'—for the future State of Alaska. The surveyors found that many small streams were not navigable and included them in the property that landowners bought from the government. From the time of patent until the present, landowners have treated these streams as their private property. They have been a principle source of sand and gravel in several cities. In other places they were filled and are now the sites of commercial and residential development. In the past few years,the Department of Natural Resources instituted a"Navigability Policy"which revisits the decisions of federal surveyors. Department employees determined that if a recreational rubber raft could be floated down a stream,it would be"navigable." They then used air photos from 1959 to redraw the property lines from the old survey plats. When a landowner sought a permit to use their land,the state asserted ownership and demanded a lease. "The state's claim is without basis. The landowners' predecessors bought and paid for this land and they and the current owners have paid taxes on it. Congress specifically confirmed their ownership in the Submerged Lands Act and the Alaska Statehood Act,"said William Perry Pendley of Mountain States Legal Foundation(MSLF). In Juneau, Lacano Investments sought to mine gravel from a portion of Lemon Creek that was patented in 1913 and has been mined for gravel for about seventy years. The state demanded a lease and royalty and submitted air photo maps to Lacano purporting to show new property lines. In Seward,the state has demanded leases and royalties from private owners and the Kenai Peninsula Borough for removal of gravel from small streams that it found"navigable." This has hindered flood mitigation efforts and added to the extensive damage that Seward suffered in recent flooding. Mountain States Legal Foundation, created in 1977, is a nonprofit,public-interest legal foundation dedicated to individual liberty,the right to own and use property,limited and ethical government, and the free enterprise system. Its offices are in suburban Denver, Colorado. FREEDOM IS NOT FREE • FREEDOM IS NOT FREE • FREEDOM IS NOT FREE • FREEDOM IS NOT FREE • FREEDOM IS NOT FREE You are Invited to the Seward Schoolyard Habitat Program Presentation / w Project Planning February 27th 6:30 to 8:00 PM Seward High School Auditorium Great project ideas for the School campuses include: ❖ Enhance and beautify the school grounds by developing native plant gardens to attract birds, pollinators and small wildlife ❖ Expand and upgrade existing wooded trails and design new trails to improve access to the amazing wild areas within the school grounds ❖ Design interpretative signs and build bird feeders and bird houses for along the trails ❖ Build a covered outdoor classroom and wildlife viewing area ❖ Develop a wildlife monitoring project using motion cameras within the school grounds 05' 1 — � ! � �t e ; ars r • - 4 Your attendance and participation is needed to ensure our Schoolyard Habitat project benefits not only the students and the school but also the community! To learn more about the Seward Schoolyard Habitat project and to provide input, click rIE to visit the blog-site For more information about Schoolyard Habitats visit: •, ,: http://alaska.fws.gov/fisheries/restoration/pdf/,_hoolyard factsheet.pdf http://www.fws.gov/cno/pdf/HabitatGuideColor.pdf • ekxyscome hist r ' Hello Seward City Council Members, The following is a press release that RBCA will be sending to local media later this week. We just want the Seward community to realize the amount of work we are doing relative to salmon habitat. This text does refer the reader to our website for more information. We are currently working to update our website content and will have significant new information on our site soon. Thanks and Happy New Year! Healthy salmon habitat: Important for all of us! During a recent City Council meeting,the Chamber of Commerce and the City expressed an interest in finding ways to protect and improve our local salmon habitat. Resurrection Bay Conservation Alliance(RBCA)was excited to learn of their interest, since maintaining healthy salmon habitat is not only good for our local ecology it is also good for our local economy. These ideas are not new and several local agencies and organizations have been working on habitat-related projects. The following is a list of salmon habitat related projects that RBCA has been working on or contributed to recently. To learn more about these projects and all of RBCA's other programs please visit our website; www.rbca-alaska.org • Scheffler Creek streambank restoration and creek viewing decks • Stewart property mitigation fund buy-out • Timber Lane culvert replacement(replaced culvert that blocked fish passage) • Working on a Levee Rd. (Dieckgraeff Rd.)culvert replacement • Getting unlisted salmon streams added to the ADFG anadromous waters catalog • 5 years of water quality data collection w/the Citizen's Environmental Monitoring Program(has utilized 37 trained volunteers who have donated a total of 1,330 hrs) • Keeping invasive plants out of our most important habitat areas • 7 years of Res. Bay beach&river cleanups(has utilized hundreds of volunteers who have donated thousands of hours) • Monofilament line collection and recycling program • Removal of 12 derelict cars(probably leaking fluids) from public lands • City-wide storm drain marking program All of these projects are completed with numerous local and regional agency and organization partners. A partial list of these groups includes • AK Dept. of Fish& Game • Alaska Department of Transportation I, • Alaska SeaLife Center(ASLC) t l • ASLC AmeriCorps Volunteers • City of Seward v • The Conservation Fund • Homer Soil& Water Conservation District(SWCD) • Kachemak Heritage Land Trust • Kenai Fjords National Park • Kenai Peninsula Borough • Kenai SWCD • Kenai Watershed Forum • Seward Bear Creek Flood Service Area • Seward Chamber of Commerce • Seward Community Foundation • Seward Schools • UAF Seward Marine Center • US Army Corps of Engineers _ • US Fish&Wildlife Service - • US Forest Service :.. • Habit-A Division 0 s •.. 6 'X" -R':''' i pfsoil over ht,. ��Q, -- ,_ S aboutwi '.aiderlayer + _ , ,jir. June z6,arua Carol Griswold ,1_ 1.J +`_ = ...i t x Iilb i '•T volunteers shovel soil •i. S. I over willow and alder layer ar "\ .' j June.e' aoii Carol Griswold V 77(7 �. f `,.-; 4 ilirt; 41111141:. i ;,„,0/./ '!.4.:1:\k' `+5 pr 1 ; (01f,T ...'' , .". i 1 •._ , ., • r, qt. {_. 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