None of Governor Bill Walker’s vetoes were to any of the City of Kenai’s capital projects.
Among the top of Kenai’s projects for upcoming years is the Beaver Loop water transmission extension project, just one facet of the the city’s ongoing improvements to the water system.
The state capital budget signed by the governor on Monday included approximately $1.8 million for that project to continue.
City Manager Rick Koch said those funds will allow the city to finish those water system upgrades.
Koch: “That we’ve been working on for now the last five or six years, beginning with treatment of water, higher production, more storage, and we are hard at work for moving that project forward for construction through this fall, winter, and next summer.”
Earlier this year Finance Director Terry Eubank said the city is working to rely less on state funding due to the state’s current budget situation.
Eubank: “We’re expecting pretty lean capital budgets coming out of the state for the next few years, especially, we had our annual dance with healthcare this year trying to maintain good benefits for our employees but not break the bank and that was another one of our big dances.”