Speaker numbers apply only to this recording.
The Valdez City Council held a regular meeting on October 20, 2026, at 7:00 PM in the Council Chambers. The meeting included public comments, appointments, approvals of contracts and budgets, adoption of ordinances and resolutions, and reports from city officials. Councilmember Foster was absent and excused.
Yes, Mayor, all uh council members are present this evening, except for council member Foster who's absent and excused. And uh first on our is uh public business from the floor. Public business from the floor. Um anybody that would like to speak about anything that is a non-agenda item, can you step up on the podium there? State your name, and you have five minutes. Mr. Mayor, thank you. Council good evening. Is it on now? All right, great. Thank you. Um my name's Rob Bridges. I'm with the Tatilla Corporation, and I'm here to formally request the council waive the municipal solid waste and disposable disposal fees at City Baylor facility for the upcoming renovation of the former Mountain Sky Hotel located at 101 meals. We estimate the total volume of construction and demolition debris to be approximately 900 cubic yards. It's gonna be quite a bit. Our rehabilitation project will uh involve a complete remodel of the property, all new furniture, carpet, paint, bathrooms, lobby, exterior aesthetics, etc. Uh demo's already begun. Uh we began a little bit over a month ago. Um we expect construction to begin in the coming weeks and are optimistically planning on completing the project by June 2027 or at least stage it through the summer and have different wings open up through the summer. Uh, we feel the project uh lines with the public interest and economic benefit for Valdez. Uh obviously rejuvenating the hotel, add more beds, um, uh support visitors, seasonal workers, tour groups coming into Prince William Sound and we have all these, and uh we think revitalizing the aging structure will also improve local uh property aesthetics, eliminate potential code safety hazards, um ultimately increase the local property values, and um wanted to let the council know also that we're using local contractors uh and tradespeople keeping project dollars here in Valdez. Uh, we plan to spend between three and four million dollars on the project over the next year, and of course, once fully operational, the hotel will support numerous permanent and seasonal employees, and so um we can also coordinate that haul off with the facility to make sure we don't overload them in that, and we've kind of been doing that for the past uh couple weeks. But uh I thank you very much for your time and consideration. If you have any questions, I'll be glad to ask answer. Um I actually do have a question. The all the debris that you guys are pulling out of there, is there any concern for asbestos, lead or hazardous materials? No asbestos or lead. We had both those checked. Uh, about the only thing we had was we had some mold in about three or four of the rooms, but as I understand that's really not a concern once you get it out of there and into the dump. Um we did have uh Bering Streets has a uh uh safety company that came in and did a whole uh site inspection, did not find any asbestos. The only thing they found was a couple of the old thermostats that have mercury switches, and we'll make sure that we uh tag those and dispose of those properly. Thank you very much. Yes, sir. Any other public business makes my microphone, speak by? Go ahead. Oops, mine's working. Um so the process would be to bring that back for you as an action item if there's no objection at the next meeting.