The creation of a committee to study the feasibility of an events center in Kenai’s Millennium Square was put on hold this week.
In a July 9 memo, Kenai Vice Mayor Brian Gabriel introduced his intention to allocate $25,000 for that study .
Vice Mayor Gabriel: “The idea is to create more of a permanent stage structure and area that we can have community events, something that we could schedule out before the summer starts, a family could look at a calendar and see an event they want to attend in August and know in May that’s what they want to do on that weekend, is come to the City of Kenai.”
Due to Gabriel’s absence from this Wednesday’s Kenai City Council meeting, the approval item was moved to the August 19 meeting agenda.
In the City’s 2003 Comprehensive Plan, administrators wrote that residents felt “Kenai lacked a well-defined city center. The old business district did not project a positive identity of a thriving Kenai. Instead, it was losing vitality and looking faded.” They suggested Millennium Square as a location for the City’s “strong, attractive, busy city center.”
According to Gabriel’s memo, the committee would consist of “business interests, performers, musicians, and other interested parties.”
The committee’s design would then come back to the Council for planning and construction during the next budgetary cycle.