The Soldotna City Council voted to postpone supporting the efforts of the Kenai Peninsula Peace Crane Garden Trails to secure grant funding. Originally through Ordinance 2020-06, the Kenai Peninsula Borough authorized a community trails management agreement on borough lands within the city of Soldotna and Shimai Toshi Garden Trails, Inc. doing business as Kenai Peninsula Peace Crane Garden Trails, a non-profit organization that is dedicated to promoting mental health and educational opportunities through community activities, gardens and trails.
The agreement with the Kenai Peninsula Borough identified the purpose of the Trails Management Plan was to establish the scope of physical trails and garden facilities and their respective locations, along with means and methods by which Peace Crane Garden Trails shall develop, manage, and maintain those trails and garden facilities. In addition, the agreement further established that the trail facilities shall be open to the general public.
Vice Mayor Lisa Parker, “I was contacted by the Peace Crane Garden Trails committee representatives and they had stated that they wanted to get support so that they can get better grant funding and that they had some issues in the past. I realize that the Borough Assembly had given them this land next to SoHi for the peace gardens, not giving it to them but leasing it to them for a period of time. I offered to introduce and draft this resolution in support. The impetus behind why this resolution is before us is they reached out and asked.”
After nearly an hour of public comment as well as deliberation, Councilwoman Linda Hutchings stated, “I know it’s going to be a great park, but I just have some concerns that I think need to be addressed before we go ahead and approve this resolution. My reasoning is monetary, is policing, is sanitation, is insurance, it’s all of these things rolled into one and all of the neighbors in that neighborhood that didn’t get a chance to visit with Matt and Sarah (Pyhala) and I think it’s really important that that component is handled before we actually vote and so I would move to postpone until our April 28th meeting.”
Council voted to postpone till the next meeting to vote on the resolution with Mayor Paul Whitney casting the deciding tiebreaking vote.
