Municipal issues were discussed as KSRM’s coverage of Decision 2022 focused on the Kenai City Mayor’s race on Tuesday evening. Incumbent Brian Gabriel and challenger Teea Winger spoke on issues impacting the city of Kenai in advance of the Municipal Election Race on Tuesday, October 4. The subjects discussed included the news surrounding the City Manager leaving in January, bluff erosion, public involvement, retail and bringing businesses to town, city finances and economic development.
The candidates talked about what fruit could grow from the City of Kenai spending $100,000 on the Waterfront Redevelopment Study.
Teea Winger:
“In this process, we do have a brewery and a restaurant that will be coming in there. The Port of Kenai actually announced in our meeting that they had sold. Their plan for their property is about 16 acres, it’s the key part of that land. They want to put a historical museum in there for the fishing industry so that they can showcase the over 100 years of history that they have on their property. They wanted to put a hotel, condos, and if you’ve been down there and seen the view, it is absolutely beautiful.”
Brian Gabriel:
“The power of messaging can’t be overstated here. Once we made that announcement shortly thereafter there was a property owner that worked with Kassik’s to bring them in. Kassik’s Brewery from out north, they’re expected to start breaking ground here in the spring. What this does is it just provides the possibility of a public/private partnership. What can we do to help facilitate the growth down there, but obviously having an anchor business down there to bring other people and businesses is key.”
On the role of Mayor in Kenai, incumbent Mayor Gabriel said:
“The mayor is the official face of the city. If there was an official function that required a representative from the city, then yes, that would be the mayor’s job. It would be to greet and follow through with whatever information that particular person would like or to attend functions outside the city as a representative of the city.”
Winger said:
“A lot of the time with the mayor, it is public engagement. I know if I was mayor, I would be out there welcoming our new businesses. If I heard that a business was struggling, I would go through and ask them what we could do to assist them and help them. Again, it’s staying engaged with the people in our community.”
Click the player below to listen to the candidate election forum in case you didn’t have an opportunity to: