The Soldotna City Council failed to approve a resolution that renames Kenai Avenue to Wright Avenue. This item was taken up at the most recent council meeting after having been postponed from the previous meeting earlier in July.
A request in April was received hoping to rename Kenai Avenue to Wright Avenue, which would honor former Mayor of Soldotna, a founder of the Chamber of Commerce and Progress Days and longtime resident, Kearlee Wright. Additionally, it was determined that ‘Wright Avenue’ is not a name already in use in the Kenai Peninsula Borough.
When it came to deliberation on the subject, opinion was mixed from both the general public and the Soldotna City Council, and John Czarnezki, Director of Economic Development and Planning said:
“We did receive several letters of objection and people spoke in opposition including Mr. Wright. Many of the folks who did testify spoke of the hardship that an address change would cause and with that testimony, the planning commission unanimously rejected the street be renamed.”
Council Member Jordan Chilson said:
“I do however struggle though when we’re considering a street rename that is not fully accepted by all the people that live on that street and especially when we’ve had a handful of people come forward and give public comment during our last meeting with some pretty legitimate concerns as far as the impacts that it would have on their business. As a former business owner, I do empathize with that. I, again, after carefully reviewing this, I don’t know if I can support this.”
Chuck Winters, the individual who requested to rename Kenai Avenue to Wright Avenue mentioned the civil service his uncle, Kearlee Wright, has given to the city, adding that naming the street after him is intended to make a connection between the street name and the city of Soldotna.
Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously rejected the resolution of the name change and recommended the street not to be re-named and, when it came time to vote, the resolution failed to pass on a 4-2 vote.
