The Kenai City Council accepted and appropriated funds from the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, Division of Forestry, and the U.S. Forest Service to support the city’s spruce beetle mitigation and hazard fuel reduction program. Kenai was notified that they were approved for a grant to support the city’s mitigation efforts outlined in the Community Wildfire Protection Plan.
City Manager Paul Ostrander told the city council in late September, “The federal fiscal year ends at the end of this month and this ordinance does two things – it authorizes me to execute the MOA and it also appropriates the funds. If council passes this tonight, that’ll allow me to sign the MOA before the end of the Fiscal Year and I do anticipate that the $385,000 will be approved prior to the next meeting. Passing it tonight would be appreciated.”
According to Fire Chief, Tony Prior, this project has one of the highest urban interfaces within the city. The funding from the state qualifies for the matching funds from the USDA grant, allowing the city to accept both and proceed with the projects identified in the Community Wildfire Protection Plan.
“Once we receive the funds, it’ll go out to an RFP to hire a contractor to first do the work in the gully that you can see in the attachments,” added Ostrander. “I would anticipate that we’ll be able to award that contract sometime in late October or in November, which is actually a good time of year, according to the contractors who we’ve discussed this with. I would expect you to see work on the ground sometime in that October/November time frame.”
Chief Prior says that this mitigation will improve the safety of homeowners, businesses, and recreational users, while improving the aesthetics throughout the city.