The Soldotna City Council voted down the ordinance that would have donated $350,000 for the purchase of Birch Ridge Golf Course.
At the February 11 meeting, discussion started with council member Pete Sprague saying he would like to see it before the public and supported introduction.
Keith Baxter, Regina Daniels, and Meggean Bos all said they would not support the introduction as the idea is fiscally irresponsible.
Bos: “So to spend that much money when we don’t know what we’ll be able to have come from the state, that’s a huge question right there. Some other things are, I feel that there are other ways that we can go about with the golf course for people who would like to keep the golf course around.”
Council woman Linda Murphy expressed extreme disappointment.
Murphy: “Generally governing bodies show other members of the body the courtesy of letting something go forward, not that they are going to adopt it later but when someone introduces an ordinance they give them the courtesy of allowing it to go to the public. And yes this has been before the public before in different iterations but this would be the first time the public would have a chance to weigh in on giving essentially a grant to the Health Foundation as matching funds for another grant.”
Murphy said another reason for her disappointment was that she had told supporters that there would be two public hearings to speak at on February 25 and March 11, that they did not need to participate in Wednesday’s meeting. Now they do not get that chance to weigh in.
Paul Whitney said the issue has been before the council in one form or another for the past 18 months and also voted against its introduction, stating he didn’t know why they should revisit it.