The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly enacted an amended ordinance that would provide for the submission to qualified voters of the Borough the question of the issuance of a $65 Million General Obligation Bond question to pay the cost of educational capital improvements on October 4, 2022. KPBSD officials met with Borough officials to develop a list of school capital projects for the purpose of requesting voter approval in the municipal election.
Based on existing projects and needs identified in the review, a project list has been created totaling an estimated $225 million in capital improvements and major maintenance project needs. Twelve school projects were recommended as priority and critical to maintaining and improving key infrastructure for community and educational needs.
The estimated costs of the projects submitted to the Alaska Department of Education include the following:
- Soldotna Elementary Reconstruction – $21,500,000.00
- Soldotna Preparatory Renovation (School District Administration) – $18,500,000
- School Student Drop-off improvements (Area Wide) – $5,500,000
- Seward and Nikiski High School Track and Field – $4,500,000.00
- KPB/KPBSD Maintenance Shop – $5,000,000.00
- Various School Roof Replacements – $4,800,000.00
- Kenai Middle School safety/Security renovation – $2,500,000.00
- Kenai High School Field Restroom and Concession – $500,000.00
- Homer High School Front Entrance Improvements – $750,000.00
- Soldotna High School Siding repair – $2,000,000.00
Assembly Member Jesse Bjorkman:
“I would like to support this bond package proposal. Ultimately, as we have a lot of deferred maintenance across the borough, the longer we wait to conduct that major maintenance and other capital projects, the more expensive these things are going to cost in the future. It really is a scenario of pay to do the work now or pay much more later. This is something that I brought up in the past here as well.”
The issuance of $65 million in general obligation bonds is expected to have annual debt service requirements of approximately $4,560,000. Assuming a 50%-70% reimbursement rate from the state, the net annual cost to borough taxpayers would be $1,825,000, resulting with an impact on the annual tax levy to be $25 per $100,000 of assessed taxable property value. Without state debt reimbursement, the impact on the annual tax levy would be $45 per $100,000 of assessed taxable property value.
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