The Kenai City Council passed an ordinance that would accept and appropriate funds from the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services, Division of Public Health, for the Healthy and Equitable Communities Program. It provides funding for communities to improve infrastructure that would build and promote living healthy and future pandemic prevention. Grant funding is to emphasize high risk, underserved population groups. In addition, it would authorize the city manager to execute a memorandum of agreement for this funding.
Council proposed a list of projects that were approved with the City’s Municipal Park Trail Boardwalk Project selected as first priority in November, which was included in the Capital Improvement Plan and is anticipated to utilize the available funding.
City Manager, Paul Ostrander explained:
“This will establish a capital project fund for this project, however, we’re fully aware that ultimately an easement needs to be procured before this construction would begin. Design for this project would probably happen sometime and we’ve got a significant backlog of capital projects, as you know. Design of this project probably wouldn’t start for quite sometime still. We’re not talking about construction next summer. We’ve got time to procure that easement. This does establish a fund for that, but again, administration is aware that we need to procure that easement before we begin the process of expending this money.”
Ostrander said:
“To construct the project as it’s designed right now would not require approval from the landowner, however, without approval from the landowner for an extension of the trail itself, we essentially have a bridge to nowhere. That still does need to be pursued, but construction of the bridge itself doesn’t need approval of the landowner, but as you get to the east side of that creek, eventually the trail’s going to head north towards the highway, and we’ll need to procure an easement there. Administration will plan on pursuing that easement and get that easement procured before any construction begins.”
The City is eligible to receive $86,596.90 comprised of the City’s allocation of $43,298.45 and an additional $43,298.45 from the KPB allocation that was approved.
