Soldotna’s discussion of a proposed new visitors center and convention center has gone on for a very long time.
City Manager Mark Dixson and other city council members voiced the need to just make a decision.
Dixson: “This has been going on for 20 years so I don’t know but I imagine that everything has been brought up before.”
Dixson said that city owned conference centers across Alaska do not make money and are often subsidized by various taxes.
Dixson: And we understand with moving forward that if we do expand our conference center that it will be at a cost but at the same time you also have to factor in what it would do for the entire community you’re going to have more people coming in, you’re going to have your hotels filled more often, you’re going to have your restaraunts filled more often, you’re going to have people shopping more often so there’s an economic benefit that doesn’t show up on the bottom line that you can’t quantify but we believe that for the most part we believe that the offset will make up the difference that the city has to subsidize.”
He said that to facilitate the feasibility of that decision there will be ordinances brought forward to the council within the next few months.