The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly held a special meeting early Tuesday afternoon to officially extend the borough’s emergency declaration through March 31 of next year. It was held virtually via the Skype online platform.
The borough’s most recent Disaster Emergency Declaration was set to expire on December 30.
Dan Nelson of the Borough’s Office of Emergency Management explains the need to extend the declaration: “Obviously, as folks that have been following the news know, we have case numbers that are still high. Things are still developing very, very rapidly in this situation. We now have – tomorrow – our first recipients of COVID-19 vaccine, the healthcare workers and some of our first responders, will start to be receiving that. This extension allows us to continue to help plan and assist with the vaccine and also our recovery.”
He added: “One of the more critical issues that comes into play here is that we’ve received CARES money, which does expire on December 30, at this time, to help the borough and the cities within the borough with its response costs and with the additional costs that we’re incurring. So, it’s a very important step for us to be able to get the reimbursement that we may be owed and offset expenses that the general fund might incur if we can get those reimbursed back to us. So, it’s a little bit of a technicality, but it’s an important legal instrument that the assembly has to extend for it to continue to be eligible for any type of reimbursement.”
James Baisden, Mayor Charlie Pierce’s Chief of Staff, added that the intent of the extension is not to push forward any mandates, nor does it give the borough administration any additional powers.
The resolution was passed unanimously and is set to take effect immediately.
The cities of Kenai and Soldotna are each set to discuss extending their own emergency declarations to the same date during their respective City Council meetings on Wednesday. Stay with KSRM News for further details.