The Soldotna City Council passed a resolution last Wednesday that would have provided $25,000 in ARPA funds to the Triumvirate Theatre. The resolution has, since, been vetoed by Mayor Paul Whitney, something a sitting Soldotna mayor hasn’t done since Dave Carey on February 29, 2008. The intent was to produce an outdoor community theatre production at Soldotna Creek Park.
Mayor Whitney told KSRM on Monday that his addressed veto letter is very similar to what he told the city council in why he couldn’t support the resolution:
“The main reason being is the process. I see nothing wrong with having the event, it’s the process we went through to possibly fund it. We have created the mini grant program for people to apply for. Those applications are reviewed, and decisions are made on whether they’re granted that mini grant. We also have the budget, a non-departmental budget system, that we review those during the year. We also have, last year, we did CARES grants. Every group, organization, and project had the opportunity to file an application and have it reviewed for funding. That was advertised and notified, and groups had the opportunity, an equal opportunity to obtain those funds. That’s not happening in this case.”
Council Member Justin Ruffridge, who sponsored the, now, vetoed resolution told KSRM:
“Well, I mean, I appreciate the mayor’s position and I support having a work session to clearly define ARPA fund use for the city, but I was definitely disappointed by that decision. I mean, the goal of the resolution was taken directly from that Envision Soldotna 2030 Master Plan and, simply stated, the resolution would just use a small amount of these ARPA funds and we can have a work session to decide how to use the remainder of them and, since we hadn’t discussed uses for the funds in the past, I thought the resolution was a good first step.”
Ruffridge was asked if he intends to override the veto through vote:
“Probably not at the point to say one way or the other on that. I think, given the fact that it passed 4-2, I think we have the votes to do so. I want to be respectful of the mayor’s position as well. I’m going to think through that. We have a little bit of time before our packet deadline.”
According to Ruffridge, the resolution was to say that if the production moves forward and at the end, Triumvirate Theatre came up short, whatever the dollar amount would be, up to $25,000, the city would have granted funds to make them whole so that they wouldn’t lose money.