To promote Kodiak as the homeport for a new research vessel, the City Council will write to University of Alaska officials touting the potential for synergy with other activity here.

In a joint work session Tuesday, Borough Assembly members threw their support behind the effort to lure the university’s planned Alaska Regional Research Vessel to Kodiak. Seward also wants to provide a home berth for the ARRV, which will be more than 200 feet long. Neither city has an appropriate dock available now.

“I don’t care what Seward’s doing,” assembly member Pat Branson said. “I think Kodiak needs to focus on getting this vessel here.”

In an earlier letter to the assembly, Murat Balaban, director of the UAF research facility on Near Island, named an estimate of $9 million for constructing the necessary facilities.

However, City Manager Linda Freed noted the figure was “not accurate or even recent,” because it was based on costs from eight years ago, and space in St. Herman Harbor is now committed for the large boat lift. The city staff is in the process of budgeting for a facilities evaluation aimed at finding a place for the ARRV. Freed named the transient float as a possibility.

Borough and city officials agreed building the dock and warehouse for another large research vessel will take federal funding.

Borough Mayor Jerome Selby said Kodiak and Seward are at a similar place in their bids to attract the ARRV, but with different advantages and disadvantages.

The assembly and council also agreed to move ahead on a pair of land transfers.

The city will deed property on Near Island to the borough for a new building for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, while the borough wants to transfer ownership of the city’s watershed to the city.

There is no official link between the two planned transfers, but at a previous council meeting, some members worried about repeating a past disappointing experience. Freed said that past case involved a transfer to the Kodiak Electric Association, not the borough. Assembly members agreed the city mayor and council members will get invitations to the ADF&G groundbreaking as a mark of gratitude.

Emergency dispatch authority on the road system will rest with the city, under a new plan to update the current system of billing.

“We pay ACS about $35,000 per year, and frankly, they do nothing,” Freed said.

The equipment used for dispatching, housed at the city fire station is also out of date, Freed said, and cannot take advantage of modern features that allow locating cell phones.

“It’s not worth moving that piece of equipment out of the firehall, except perhaps to the landfill,” she said, adding a new system will cost about $300,000.

The joint session concluded with a discussion of the Fisheries Advisory Committee, an entity set up by the city and borough.

But assembly member Sue Jeffrey, a member of the committee, said it often fails to get a quorum at its meetings, and does not generate the input the borough and city hoped for.

“The last meeting was interesting,” city council member Terry Haines said. “We might have to goad the Fisheries Advisory Committee.”

City Council member Jack Maker said the diversity of the fisheries council made it unlikely for it to come up with consensus on a policy for Kodiak.

Officials discussed deadlines and more detailed guidance as ways to make the committee more responsive.