The Kenai City Council voted to authorize a new agreement with the Boys and Girls Club of the Kenai Peninsula to operate the Teen Center at the Kenai Recreation Center and terminate the facility management services agreement.
City Manager Paul Ostrander:
“I think it was actually almost a year ago that the Boys and Girls Club approached administration and requested that this contract to provide services at the rec center be terminated. The Boys and Girls Club has been operating the rec center for over a decade in that facility, but they felt strongly that it did not meet the mission of the club in that they were providing recreational services for the adult community primarily and their mission was really about the youth. So they wanted to terminate the contract, but they wanted to continue to provide the services at the teen center. We began looking in as administration and figuring out whether or not there was an economical way for the city to provide the administration of the building, to run the facility, and, at the same time, allow them to continue to run the teen center. What you’re seeing in front of you tonight, it is a termination of that contract. It also has an agreement specific to the Teen Center, utilization of that by the Boys and Girls Club, which would assume that the Council would continue to appropriate $10,000 a year towards the operation of the teen center as you have for the last number of years and provide that teen center to them at no cost.”
The agreement recognizes that the Teen Center is a program of the Boys and Girls Club, and is not a service provided on behalf of the city, however, the Agreement acknowledges that the city provided a $10,000 grant each year to support reduced membership costs for teens to participate, and that this grant funding is expected to continue annually subject to Council appropriation and availability of funds.
Under the new agreement, the city of Kenai will assume management of the Kenai Recreation Center officially as of July 1, with the exception of the upstairs portion (Teen Center) of the facility.
Resolution 2021-045 unanimously passed the Kenai City Council.
