A creative request was made for discussion at the Kenai City Council meeting on April 3rd, which would authorize the City Manager to request a community purpose exemption to donate sand for the construction of the Triumvirate Theatre.
According to City Manager Terry Eubank, this is the first donation that requires a community-purpose exemption. The city will provide justification for and request an exemption through the FAA’s Anchorage office.
“The city was deeded a significant amount of property by the federal government. The FAA and I are charged with utilizing the assets of the airport for the betterment of the airport. Sometimes, what that means is even when, say, the general fund of the city would like to use a piece of airport property, airport equipment, or an asset, in this case sand. We have to pay the airport the fair market value of that asset, just as if, we were any other customer. So we have sold sand from the airport in the past,” Eubank explained.
In a memo from the city manager, the airport said it no longer uses this sand in its operations, making it available for sale. The FAA grant assurances typically require that proceeds from the sale of the sand, like other airport resources, be used exclusively for the benefit of the airport. However, one allowable exception to this grant is the assurance of a community-purpose exemption.
A community purpose exemption allows for the use of airport resources for the benefit of the community without compensation to the airport.
According to Jenny Neyman, the President of the Triumvirate Theatre Board of Directors, she understands this is a creative request. Still, she explains that the theatre has fundraised all that it can and is now looking for ways to limit construction costs as much as possible.
“That lot, when we started looking at developments, we realized the water table was quite a bit higher than. We had anticipated, so the initial cost estimate just for all the film we were gonna have to bring in was over $800,000, which shot a pretty giant hole in our construction budget. So with with the help of our architect and city administration, we were able to bring that down to about $468,000 by reducing the size of the parking lot we’re gonna need. But we still need fill in order to make this work. So the donation of sand, the value of that was estimated at about $32,500. Just to give you an idea of what that means in Triumvirates budget, that would cover our utility costs for three years in the new building. That would be a summer camp for 25 kids for 12 years,” said Neyman.
After unanimous consent was requested, the item was approved.
