Yesterday, Borough Mayor Mike Navarre appeared on KSRM talk shows, chatting about anything from medical care to service areas to the LNG Project.
When asked why he wants to stay the borough mayor for another 3 years, Navarre responded.
Mayor Navarre: “Well I think that borough has been well managed over the last three years. We’ve got a good team in place, and there’s a lot of issues that are upcoming that I think are important to the residents of the Kenai Borough and quite frankly the state. One is, of course, the LNG project and what happens with that. I’m on the Governors Municipal Gas line Board that’s taking a look at that information, and trying to make sure that economic impacts are addressed.”
He said that he would be meeting with LNG representatives today and one of the biggest hurdles yet to come is the permitting of the project.
Mayor Navarre: “Once they file with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, then it will trigger an environmental impact statement, and also an open public docket before FERC. What that means, is that they have to do twelve resource reports that talk about potential impacts and how they’ll be addressed as the project moves forward. That environmental impact statement, will probably take as many as five years and its one of the things that has to be addressed. The most important one is the social economic impacts that have to be done, that will address the infrastructure needs, what the impacts are going to be from population, how we pay for the cost associated with the influx of population and impacts from that project.”
Mayor Navarre is running for re election in the October 7 municipal elections.