The Soldotna City Council has a variety of topics scheduled for their Wednesday meeting, from food trucks to mixed martial arts promotions.
First, public testimony will be taken on an ordinance to ease the permitting process for food vendors within the city.
Previously the council heard from brick and mortar restaurants like Hooligan’s Lodge owner Molly Poland who was worried about the impacts of having more mobile food vendors in the area.
Poland: “I love food trucks. I’m an eater. This figure does not happen overnight, I have to maintain it, but I think that it does, like everything, go through some regulations so that it’s fair to everyone.”
The council may also further discuss whether or not to award the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex’s mixed martial arts promotions solely to “6 or 5 Times Productions.”
City Manager Mark Dixson said the resolution aimed to simplify the process.
Dixson: “Over the years we’ve not had a generally good experience with promoters of mixed martial arts, during last December I believe our promoter never showed and forfeited the deposit. This year we had two promoters who put on successful events, and the decision was made administratively for a lot of reasons that we really just wanted to work with one sole mixed martial arts promoter and so we decided to go out for an [request for proposal].
“6 or 5” had been deemed the most fitting promotions company by a scoring system from the Parks and Recreation Department after submitting their request for proposal(RFP) paperwork.
Members from Peninsula Fighting Championship testified that they were not aware that when entering the RFP process timeline, that meant only one promoter would be chosen.
That resolution was postponed from the July 8 meeting in order to investigate further options.
Soldotna’s meeting will begin at 6:00 pm Wednesday, July 22, at the Soldotna City Hall.
