Nome Common Council requests the utility board to meet at city hall

The Nome Common Council welcomed new council member Randy Oles in its regular meeting, held on Tuesday, Oct. 13.
Deputy City Clerk Wali Rana swore in Oles as well as two planning commission members, Jennifer Dean-Johnson, newly appointed to seat G, and Greg Smith, re-appointed to seat E. Nome Mayor Ken Hughes said with the expiration of John Odden’s term on the planning commission – and no interest by Odden to be re-appointed- there is one open seat to be filled on the city’s planning panel.
With the council fully seated, two new business items were on the agenda. One dealt with an appeal of the city clerk’s denial of a chauffeur’s license to Harold Michael Ahmasuk. The other was a resolution to strongly urge the Nome Joint Utility board to change their board meeting location from the noisy powerhouse to council chambers at City Hall.
Both measures passed.

Ongoing cab drama
The cab situation in Nome is still causing the city grief. After a short time of being in business, the only properly licensed company, Bootz and Co. Cab LLC suspended their operations on Sept. 10, due to lack of interest of drivers to be employed and other reasons. Another cab entrepreneur, Steven Longley, has operated in legal gray zones with a “shuttle” or “ride for donations” service and employed Harold Ahmasuk to drive for him. One of the requirements to be a legal cab service is a valid chauffeur’s license, and Ahmasuk’s chauffeur license application was denied by the city clerk. Ahmasuk appealed the denial in writing with a single sentence and no reason given. During citizen’s comments Longley made the case on behalf of Ahmasuk that the city ordinance quoted as the basis of the denial had contradicting language and that the Chief of Police had signed off on Ahmasuk’s application and therefore should be granted the chauffeur’s permit. About 35 years ago, Ahmasuk was convicted of sexual abuse of a minor in the second degree. Despite this disqualifying fact, he had been granted a chauffeur’s license in the past. When he recently applied for a chauffeur’s license again to drive for Longley’s EZ Shuttle service, City Clerk Dan Grimmer denied the application based on the city ordinance and state law. “In this particular case, this gentleman had a sexual assault or sexual abuse of a minor in second degree, which is a Class B felony. There is no statute of limitations for such a charge. It stays and has consequences indefinitely, according to state law, and so I’m following the state law and following our code, which is why it was denied,” Grimmer, appearing via Zoom, explained to the council.
The council, asked to vote on the issue, delivered a split vote. Council members Adam Martinson, Randy Oles and Kohren Green voted to grant Ahmasuk’s appeal and let him drive cab. Council members Adam Lust, Mark Johnson and Scot Henderson voted no. Mayor Ken Hughes cast the tie-breaking, affirmative vote, with the result that Ahmasuk won the appeal and can obtain the chauffeur’s permit from the City.

However, the vote on Tuesday is not the final word. On Wednesday, the city sent out a notice of a special Nome Common Council meeting set for Friday, Oct. 16 at noon to discuss the appeal decision. 

Nome Joint Utilities
In an unusual move of micromanaging the meeting location of a city-adjacent board, the council voted on a resolution to request the utility board to hold all regular meetings and special meetings at City Hall, instead of the NJUS power plant on Port Road. Other panels, such as the port commission, the planning commission, the defunct public safety advisory commission meet at council chambers. The school board meets at the Nome Elementary School library.
Council member Scot Henderson summarized the intent of the resolution to formalize a repeated request by several individual council members and issue a strong ask in form of a resolution – not ordinance –on behalf of the city council.  Council member Mark Johnson successfully made a motion to soften the language in the resolution from “requiring” to “requesting” the meetings to be held at city hall. If the utility board balks and continues to hold its meetings at the NJUS power plant, the city council can issue an ordinance to make the “ask” binding.
Mayor Hughes explained that the meetings at the powerhouse are in a location with poor acoustics which makes it hard to hear the livestreamed meeting broadcasts and are just not very friendly to invite public participation. “This resolution is an attempt to get them to please hold their meetings here so that they can be attended by more members of the public,” said Hughes. The council’s ask, albeit not formally transmitted to the NJUS board, has been not met. “So now, with this resolution, it should have a little more weight as it comes from the entire council, as opposed to simply one or two council members.”
All council members voted in favor of the resolution.
Nome Joint Utilities General Manager John Handeland joined the meeting via zoom and expressed surprise to the resolution. He reiterated that the reason for the powerhouse meeting location came out of necessity. The utility board used to meet at city hall but often encountered the situation where council chambers were overbooked and they needed to find an alternative location, either at the XYZ Center or even the Visitor’s Center. So, they decided to hold the meetings at the powerplant on Port Road.
Handeland reported that the amount of dust created by the heavy haul traffic associated with rock hauling from Cape Nome to port laydown areas for both the Port of Nome expansion and rock export to Utqiagvik’s seawall project is causing problems to the powerplant. “We were definitely not liking the amount of dust that was being kicked up in that area and getting into the engine filtration systems,” Handeland said. “We do have filters, but those have to be changed much more often if we can’t keep the dust down.”

He applauded the State of Alaska’s DOT crew for getting their street sweeper back on the streets to sweep the dust and the city’s Public Works Director Cole Cushman and the crew for their efforts to keep the dust down.
Handeland also reported that the line crew responded to an accident on Front Street, where a truck on Friday night hit the Cavota building and wedged itself between the utility pole and the building. Nobody was injured. It was lucky, he said that the truck did not knock over the control panel for the lift station which collects wastewater from the east side of town and pushes it the final mile to the wastewater treatment plant next to the Mini Convention Center. Handeland said he appreciated that he police, fire, and ambulance responders were there, in addition to the NJUS line crew.
Council member Henderson then asked burning questions that NJUS customers are dreading to hear answers to. How much will power costs increased for rate payers?
With the ongoing war in Iran, oil prices increased significantly and diesel availability decreased. The good news, Handeland said, is that Crowley committed to NJUS’ order of two million gallons of diesel and this promise would be kept. As to the cost to the NJUS customer, however, Handeland could not give an answer. He said the price jumped from last year’s $3/gallon to over $4.55/gallon. But that does not include delivery fees or other variables. “The next meeting, we will have a number that I can report to you,” Handeland said. The fuel surcharge is also unknown yet. Henderson kept drilling down, asking what the rate payer can expect in terms of percentage. Handeland wouldn’t confirm Henderson’s hypothetical scenario that rate payers who receive Power Cost Equalization funds from the state could look at a 20 percent increase and those who don’t (businesses and second accounts) would have to absorb a 40 percent increase in energy costs.
Handeland said that the higher rates would go into effect with the November bill.
NJUS bought two million gallons of diesel and took out a bank note for $8.6 million.
Henderson asked if NJUS used a competitive process to find the best possible rates to borrow this amount of money. Handeland said he approached both Wells Fargo and Northrim. Wells Fargo said, “thank you but no thank you,” Handeland said, and Northrim was more than happy to work with NJUS. Why did Wells Fargo decline, asked Henderson. “Just because we didn’t have all of the documentation and stuff that they would need to run it through their people that are in Minneapolis and San Francisco,” Handeland said. NJUS is years behind on financial audits. Henderson pointed out that if there is no robust competitive process to find the best rates and if NJUS negotiates with only one bank that would work with them for the lack of audits in place, it’s the ratepayers that literally pay. “This is one of these things that cost ratepayers money when we don’t have audited financials. It’s not just a box that we check to make sure we have all of our paperwork. There are serious financial costs associated with this issue,” Henderson said.

Nome Police Department
In other reports, Chief Heintzelman reported that according to statistics from July to September 2025 compared to the same time frame this year, sexual assaults have doubled this year. “That’s something that is very difficult to quantify,” Heintzelman said. “I hope that someone who is a victim of sexual assault feels confident enough in the police department that they can report it. And we’ve had quite a few people report sexual assaults, and every one of them is getting investigated.”
He said in the same time frame, officer activity is up 30 percent but calls for service are down anywhere from 20 to 30 percent. Currently, six of NPD officers – half of the officer force – live in Nome, and he has hired two Nomeites, both of whom will attend the law enforcement academy in Sitka next year. Upon their return from Sitka, and if nobody leaves the department, he said, NPD will be fully staffed.

Port of Nome
Port Director Joy Baker reported that in water work continues on the port expansion despite weather and equipment delays. Stormy weather hampered the demolishing of the spur last week, and once the weather let up, equipment breakdowns caused setbacks. “But they still anticipate having the spur completely demolished and the nose of the end of the causeway built back up by late October,” said Baker. The contractor is scheduled to wrap up operations for the winter in mid-November and be back in mid to late April, to start setting up the equipment and working the quarry and be back out on the end of the causeway sometime in May, depending on ice, said Baker.
She reported also that there are still fuel barges and cargo barges en route. “The big last cargo barge was AML. I don’t know how many of you looked out there, but the place was buried, just buried. That’s one of the largest inbound cargo barges I think I’ve seen in my time at the port,” she said. The port staff is busy with facility cleanup to make room in every nook and cranny for laydown areas to accommodate increased demand for vessel and equipment storage.
When asked about the typical length of the season, Baker said that it varies, but the shoulder seasons are broadening. “We’re no longer a five-month operation. We’re six to seven, especially at the port, not so much in the harbor. That fresh water freezes fast, but the port is open longer and longer,” she said.
Finally, City Manager Lee Smith reported that filled the executive assistant position with the local hire of Jolene Medlin.
The council is scheduled to hold a revenue work session on October 26, followed by the regular meeting.