The Kenai City Council enacted an ordinance that would authorize a budget revision in the Airport Special Revenue Fund and increasing estimated revenues and appropriations in the Terminal Improvement Capital Project fund for design services for the Terminal Landscaping Project at the Kenai Municipal Airport.
The FAA grant funded Terminal Rehabilitation Project that was completed in 2020 removed previous landscaping and irrigation. This ordinance will appropriate $15,000 to hire a professional landscape architect to design the landscaping plan in FY22, allowing construction on the project in early FY23 with completion before next winter.
City Manager Paul Ostrander said:
“First of all, this is $15,000. It comes out of the Airfield Utilities. So, it comes directly from the airport for this $15,000. So, it still will be $15,000 remaining for the landscaping at the terminal. There were some trees that were in the front of the terminal that I believe had to be removed. As far as the scope and what the $100,000 would pay for, that’s really what the landscape architect is going to identify. I will tell you that there’s been several discussions about irrigation there and the need for irrigation. I think ultimately, we want to make sure that when you drive up to the terminal building, because it is oftentimes the first thing that people see and the last thing that they see that we want to make sure that it’s nice. I know that the airport commission and airport administration would like to see some type of feature there that would be appealing to the eye when you come up to the terminal. There are several things that I know they are discussing. We’ll know much better whether $100,000 is the right number once the professional architect gets done with the design itself.”
As many as 180,000 passengers may pass through the Kenai Municipal Airport, being the Kenai Peninsula’s primary air transportation hub. Ostrander said that the Kenai Municipal Airport is the first and last impression visitors have of the city of Kenai.
To appropriately bid the landscaping project in FY23, a professional landscaping scope and design is required, according to memo documents.
The ordinance was enacted unanimously.
