Lease holders at the Kenai Airport approached the city council last week to express their discontent with the management and city administration.
Soar International Ministries has been at the airport since 2000. Founder and Director Richard “Dick” Page said Kenai’s Airport Leases are the second highest in the state.
Page: “For the Kenai Airport to have a bright future, businesses and investors need to see stability and consistency. When we have unpredictable, skyrocketing lease rates, with no limits, that’s not very attractive for businesses coming to the Kenai Airport.”
Page was joined by five other business members who agreed that Kenai’s airport should be flourishing considering the growth of the Kenai Peninsula but the management has stunted that growth.
Jim Bielefeld co-owns Kenai Aviation with his father who started the business at the Kenai Airport in 1961. He said in the last year their rent has doubled.
Bielefeld: “I grew up there, I’ve been watching this show for many years. Development is very slow by the Kenai Airport and we’re seeing a reason why. We can’t count on stability of pricing and sometimes treatment by the city is a little difficult. I was told today that I can’t wash my truck in my yard because of a new Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan.”
The group claims that they have tried to work with city administrators with no luck.
City Manager Rick Koch…
Koch: “There are a couple of lease holders that this was the year that they were no longer protected from going back 30 years where it could never increase more than 50%. So this year because that protection that was provided for in the lease expired, the lease rates went from very depressed lease rates to market.”
He said city administration and lessees are working through a process agreed on in the leases.
