During September 2nd’s Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly meeting, borough resident Tami Miller addressed a City of Soldotna project of concern.
Miller stated that the development of a water pump house on a section of borough land that was granted to the City of Soldotna in 1987. That land, which was originally vacant, is now in a residential area and the 24 x 32 foot pump house, driveway, and fence will be built at the base of a hill used by families for sledding.
Miller: “We were given no notice, I realize the borough gave them the land 27 years ago for this project but there was nobody living there at the time, there were no homes, there were no people and they gave absolutely no notice, the only reason we even know what they’re doing is because we started asking questions. I have talked to Mr. (Kelly) Wolf and the Mayor and I’m hoping we can get some help getting the building moved down to a location where there’s woods on both sides and they’re not impacting the homes or the sledding hill.”
She said she had also addressed the City of Soldotna about the project however had received no response from them.
Borough Mayor Mike Navarre has said that the borough has looked into options like trying to make the pump house look more residential but indicated the project may be too far along to change now.
Mayor Navarre: “We’ve asked them to look at moving it down the hill but that requires changes in the pump and change in the project, would delay the project, also would incur additional ongoing operating costs in the event that they would have to pump the water up to the tank. We asked them also to look at what other alternatives might be and they’re estimating additional costs somewhere between the cost of $50-100,000 to relocate the facility and those would be City of Soldotna costs.”
According to Title 21 of Borough Code of Ordinances, the public notice requirements were met at the time the actions took place in 1987.
Mayor Navarre added that due to the land easement, the borough has no authority to include additional restrictions at this time. He said that although this is a unique situation, the borough may look into future projects where there may need to be additional public notice.