The Kenai City Council accepted and appropriated funds in the Airport Fund and accepted two grants from the FAA under the American Rescue Plan Act. ARPA was signed into law by the President, which includes $8 billion in funds to be awarded as economic assistance to eligible U.S. airports to prevent, prepare for, and respond to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Kenai Municipal Airport, in December, received an Airport Rescue Grant Offer in the amount of $1,719,887 for costs related to operations, personnel, cleaning, sanitization, janitorial services, combating the spread of pathogens in the airport, and debt service payments. In addition, on December 31st, an additional Airport Rescue Grant Offer in the amount of $81,591 would provide relief from rent and minimum annual guarantees to eligible in-terminal airport concessions as the airport concessionaires are reportedly struggling or unable to meet the terms of their lease.
Paul Ostrander, City Manager, told council:
“We’ll receive these funds and these amounts from the federal government through the ARPA Act. There is a formula to be used to divide this up within the concessionaires. I’ve only had preliminary discussions with Mr. Conway, our airport manager, but we will be providing these funds to the concessionaires based on the formula they provided.”
Council Member Teea Winger told council:
“I’m happy to see this come forth and move through. I’ve had a restaurant in the airport. I’m familiar with what it takes to run a location. You really do rely on the air travelers to pay for the overhead. There is a lot of overhead in a restaurant just with all the little things when you look at like staffing. Continuing our efforts, I know we’ve been working with them in rent reliefs and different things this entire pandemic, it’s much appreciated. I know it’ll definitely help and I’m just happy to see this go through and I’ll be supporting it.”
In approving the ordinance, council accepts this grant money to keep the Kenai Municipal Airport in reliable, safe operation.
