The Kenai City Council passed an ordinance increasing estimated revenues and appropriations in the Airport Special Revenue and Terminal Improvement Capital Project Fund to provide additional local share to the terminal rehabilitation project and to provide funding to install wireless internet service. It was determined that the terminal doesn’t have public wireless internet for the traveling public or users of the rentable conference room. It was estimated that the cost to purchase and install the needed equipment throughout the airport terminal would be $19,000.
Councilman Jim Glendening asked Finance Director Terry Eubank about the specifications and bandwidth:
“It will serve as wireless inside the facility. The access points that had been laid out were not intended to provide access outside of the building, but it will provide throughout the entire facility. Essentially, the same Wi-Fi that’s available whether you’re at the visitor’s center, the library, the senior center, here at city hall available to the public, it will be the same quality that’s provide in all of our facilities. In talking with IT, we have sufficient bandwidth to accommodate this. Most of these costs are just the equipment. Frankly, the most expensive piece is the network switch down there. The entire port terminal, right now, operates off an eight-port switch, which that means eight devices for the entire facility. This will require a 48-port switch, which will also provide us the capacity for cameras or many of the things that may be necessary in the future as well. This provides more capacity than just what the wireless will do.”
The cost includes installation of a network switch with the necessary room for expansion of network devices in the future and installation of cameras in the terminal if they are deemed to be needed for security. In addition to the supplemental funding for grant expenditures, City Administration recommended installing wireless internet for the public to use in the airport conference room that’s now available to rent.
Ordinance No. 3216-2021 unanimously passed the Kenai City Council.
