Unalaska is charting its future and planning for aging infrastructure by reorganizing city leadership and setting aside $50 millions in a new investment fund.
At Tuesday night’s City Council meeting, City Manager Bil Homka pressed council members to confront rising issues he said the city is facing. He warned of city buildings in need of repair and said the city can’t afford to kick the can down the road.
“We can’t keep putting things off,” Homka said. “When you think about how long things take, it could be 40-year-old buildings before we know it.”
Homka says he’s working to improve coordination across departments and keep projects moving forward. That means adding a deputy city manager and a deputy director of public works — positions he says will help oversee the city’s roughly 200 employees.
Air travel has been central to the community’s struggles for decades – thanks, in large part, to geographic constraints like a short runway, frequent storms and limited flat space. The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities began work to update the airport master plan, but nearby historic landmarks have made the project difficult.
“We've heard about the airport for a long time. Well, we have a terminal building, we just had someone look at it and tell us, basically, it's worth tearing down,” Homka said. “How are we going to function until we figure out where we're going to put it? We keep hearing about the master plan, but we're stuck.”
At Tuesday’s meeting the council unanimously approved the new fund aimed at supporting these big-ticket projects. Similar to a permanent fund, the city will transfer $50 million into a sustainability fund managed by outside investors.
