On Tuesday night, the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly failed an ordinance that would have exchanged two properties on K-Beach Road.
The initial motion would have offered a 1.8 acre bluff property to Paula and Timothy Keohane for a 4.3 acre portion of their homesteading property nearby.
The proposal was spurred after the K-Beach flooding in 2013, when water that the borough had diverted nearby flooded the Keohane’s low-lying homestead property, requiring extra work by the borough on the property.
The trade of the borough’s small bluff property was proposed by Borough Mayor Mike Navarre as a way to retain a portion of the Keohane’s lang in case water mitigation in the area is ever needed again.
At the Tuesday borough assembly meeting, Dale Bagley voiced his opinion on the ordinance that has been continuously postponed since October of 2014.
Asm. Bagley: “I just think this is the silliest thing I’ve ever seen, first of all you’re rewarding somebody for having a low spot on their property that water can drain into and then your doing the swap with the piece on the bluff and selling to the neighbors in a three way deal, we just need to decide how much is it worth, to pay the Keohanes money to pump water out of this, if we should even do that.”
Mayor Navarre expressed frustration with how complicated the seemingly simple exchange had become.
Borough Mayor Navarre: “Some of the arguments that have been made in this are so ludicrous that it’s almost embarrassing to have to respond to them.”
Ultimately, Mayor Navarre says he appreciates all the assembly members’ questions as well as the thoroughness of the borough administration on the issue.
Although the borough assembly failed the ordinance stating they were not comfortable with the property trade, Navarre says the borough is investigating an easier way to reserve the portion of the Keohane’s property for a potential drainage easement.