A portion of the money brought in from the Kenai River Marathon will help improve Kenai facilities and parks, the Kenai City Council approved on Wednesday night.
Some of the proceeds will be designated for the installation of bike racks and repair stations around the city.
According to the memo attached to the ordinance (3438-2024), the Parks and Recreation Department in Kenai worked with the Chamber of Commerce and the Kenai Community Foundation to identify a project that would benefit health and wellness in the city. “The bike repair stations will be added at high-traffic locations next to the bike rack,” the memo states.
Bike rack and repair stations will be located at:
- Steve Shearer Memorial Ball Park
- Kenai Rec Center
- Kenai Little League Fields
- Daubenspeck Family Park
- Old Town Park
- Kenai Sports Complex, Visitor Center, and Municipal Park (front).
Locations with a bike rack only will be:
- Kenai Greenstrip
- Kenai Dog Park
- Kenai Library (rear entrance)
- Beaver Creek Park
- Cunningham Park
- Bluff Overlook
The revenue generated by marathon registrations is given to the Kenai Community Foundation, which has a specific fund set aside for Kenai community wellness.
“I think it makes us a bike-friendly community, and I think that’s a really positive thing for Health and Wellness in the city,” said Kenai Parks and Recreation Director Tyler Best. “The hope was to open up that like health and Wellness activity and show, yeah, you can bike to [a] municipal park, you can bike to the soccer fields, you can bike around our city and secure [bikes].”
Best added bike racks and repair stations like these would ave been useful when he was growing up in the area. “I biked around Soldotna and Kenai in my whole life and these would have came in handy several times.”
