City Council - Regular Meeting

Hey everybody. I'd like to call the April 22nd, 2026 city council meeting to order. If you're able, please rise and join me in the pledge of allegiance. I allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. Clerk, please call the role. Thank you, Mayor. Council member Sonar is absent. Mayor Naxad here. Council member Daniel here. Council member Grimmie here. Vice Mayor Asin

here. Council member Petty here. Council member Cassenna here. Student Rep. Bowling is absent. You have a quorum. Okay. Thank you. That brings us down to item three, certification of the April 14th, 2026 election results. the uh certification of results were provided in the layown. Does any council member want uh want those results read into the record? So, we got them laid out. Okay. Seeing no one, um I need a motion to approve the April 14th uh special election. Vice Mayor Asen,

I move that we certify the April 14th, 2026 special election results. I'll second it. Okay. Thank you. Clerk, please. Is there any discussion? Okay. Clerk, please call the role. Thank you, mayor. Mayor Naxstead, yes. Council member Daniel, yes. Council member Grimmie, yes. Vice Mayor Askin, yes. Council member Petty, yes. Council member Cassenna,

yes. and council member Sonart is absent. That is six yes votes. The election is certified. Okay. Thank you very much and thank you uh uh Miss Ser for all your work. Now we uh we're on to approval of the agenda. But before we do uh the agenda and consent agenda approval, like to point out a lay down item they have before us. It's add to item A3 certifying uh the April 14th, 2026 special election results um all the attachments and and data that for everything we just discussed we just approved. Pleasure of councel vice mayor asken.

I move that we approve the agenda and consent agenda with layowns and request unanimous consent. Second. Are there any additions or revisions to the agenda and consent agenda from council? Do you want to move the proclamation to the beginning? Yeah.

Okay. Uh would would the clerk clerk please call the uh uh please read the consent agenda into the record for for us, please?

Thank you, mayor. The regular meeting of April 1, 2026 minutes brought to you by the city clerk. The special meeting of April 8th, 2026. Minutes brought to you by the city clerk. Action approval bills to be ratified brought to you by the administration. An action and approval non-objection to the transfer of ownership of a marijuana product manufacturing facility license from transfer Uban extracts LLC to transfer Lady Gay LLC doing business as Urban Extracts. License number 14432. Brought to you by the city clerk. a special use permit to NIL CHIL Solutions, Inc. for an off-remise sign on city-owned property described as tract B, Gusty subdivision edition number two, located at 11631 Kenai Spur Highway, brought to you by the administration. Ordinance number 3513-2026 amending Kenai Municipal Code Chapter 7.15 purchases and sales to remove requirements to publish advertisements in newspapers brought to you by the administration with a public hearing date of May 6, 2026. Ordinance number 3514-2026 increasing estimated revenues and appropriations in the general fund and airport fund and awarding a contract for purchase of firefighting foam. Brought to you by the administration with the public hearing of May 6, 2026. Ordinance number 3515-2026, increasing estimated revenues and appropriation in the airport snow removal equipment capital project fund to transfer residual balance from a completed project back to the original funding source. Brought to you by the administration with the public hearing date of May 6, 2026. Ordinance number 35166-2026 increasing estimated revenues and appropriations in the general fund fire department for overtime costs and excess of budgeted amounts brought to you by the administration with a public hearing date of May 6th, 2026. an ordinance number 3517-2026

increasing estimated revenues and appropriations in the general fund and authorizing a consulting agreement to evaluate natural gas storage opportunities on Kenai municipal airport lands brought to you by the administration with a public hearing date of May 6, 2026. And that is your consent agenda.

Okay, thank you for that. Um, are there any public comments on any of the consent agenda items just read uh by the clerk? Seeing no one's consent was requested. Are there any objections? Hearing no objections here on the line. The agenda and consent agenda are approved. Now what I'd like to do, we do have a room full of young people here. And uh I have uh the honor of uh providing a a proclamation recognition of the Kenai Peninsula Hockey Association Ice Hawks, the the 12U girls hockey team. So girls, if if you want to want to stand and and coaches and I'll come forward anywhere you like.

Are they always this happy and cheerful? Yes. Good. Good.

Okay. Whereas the Kai Peninsula Hockey Association Ice Hawks 12U girls hockey team achieved a historic milestone by winning the 2026 Alaska State Hockey Tournament against a competitive co-ed field. And whereas this remarkable accomplishment marks the first time in Alaska history that all an all girls hockey team has captured a co-ed state championship, demonstrating exceptional skill, determination, resilience, and whereas the Icehawks secured their championship with a 3-2 victory over a previously undefeated opponent, showcasing perseverance, teamwork, and composure under pressure throughout the de demanding tournament schedule. And whereas the team's success reflects the dedication and leadership of their coaches Chris Chambos, Rainy Cassenna, Brand Branda Madrid, and Lenia Bran whose guidance, mentorship, and commitment fostered both athletic excellence and personal growth. And whereas the following athletes represented the Kina community with distinction, sportsmanship, and unity, forming lasting bonds, and serving as inspiring role models for future generations of girls in in athletics. And they are Alexia Lee, AnnaBth Dura, Chloe Chambos, Elliot Rainer, Edinburgh Cassenna, Harper Madrid, Aiden Ciphert, Irene Iverson, Bella Fuentes, Janessa Holloway, Alia Dto, Luna Felt, Maggie Schaefer, Ria Martin, Sadie McKenna, and Sophie Glick. And whereas this historic achievement advances opportunities for girls hockey in Alaska, inspires young athletes throughout the state to pursue their goals with confidence and

determination. And whereas the accomplishments of the ice hawks 12U girls team highlights the strength, pride, and supportive spirit of the Kina community, including the families, volunteers, and fans who contributed to the team's success. Now therefore, I, Henry Naxstead, mayor of the city of Kai, Alaska, do hereby recognize and commend the Kai Peninsula Hockey Association Ice Hawks 12th girls team for their historic state championship and their outstanding represent representation of our of our community. Thank you, GIRLS.

We're not We're not done yet. Yeah, I don't know. They'll watch you guys the best. Here we go. Yeah. Thank you, man.

Thank you. Well, you are welcome to stay for the rest of the meeting if you like or and I'd like to recognize me or maybe we are both here. You probably have somebody here that uh you're here four. So, welcome. Okay. So, uh we'll move on down the uh the agenda. We'll wait just a second here. Okay, I think we can continue our our meeting now. We uh we have no scheduled administrative reports and that brings us to scheduled public comments which we we do have one and uh tonight we have Doug Haymon um here from he's the principal of Connections Homeschool to request for consideration for the Challenger Center for a home school. Mr. Haymon.

All right. Thank you and and thank you for excusing those guys. I couldn't compete with that. That's congratulations. Nobody can.

Oh my gosh. But yeah, obviously throughout the whole state. That was that was a quite an accomplishment. So I'm I'm proud of those guys. Um tonight I came just to follow up on the last time I came over and talked a little bit about the connections program and the maybe the thought of using the con the um challenger center as a home base for it. Before I get started though, I wanted to assure you that I'm not representing KPBSD as far as official. They won't let me write a single check, any of that kind of stuff. But before you made any of your decisions around this um this building and and the facility, I wanted to at least let you know what we we could do with it if it was your choice to do that. So, I want to try see if I'll see if I can make that work. Oh, look at that. Now, I made this into a a PowerPoint. I was going to have, you know, you have the the overlay of the whole foot floor plan and it's going to have it all zap right into spots and stuff. I don't have that skill set. So, it's just kind of a list of things and I I'll let you guys read to it. But, generally, we have a program that serves 1350 kids on the peninsula. A little over half of those, somewhere around 800, um, are right here, like between Kenai and Satna. I I should have brought my little map with the little pins on it because you'll see that by far the majority of them are right here within the the cities. And so having a centralized facility is important because some people might think that, well gosh, they just closed some schools. Why don't you just go into those schools? and we could, but that that really wouldn't serve the population, wouldn't serve our our people. Um, I was also the principal of Tustinamino Elementary and I went to one of those um meetings about closing schools and stuff and I and I got to hear a lot of gut-wrenching testimony

and and um I'm just torn up that these schools got closed. But some of the things that I heard too that I took away besides that was how people actually moved to the community of Tustinamina because of the school. There was testimony at these and that just shows that the quality school does bring people to that community. I mean, right on the sign, I remember putting it up, the sign that says, you know, Testimina is a distinguished school. And so, highquality education matters to communities. And so, I wanted to make sure that you guys kind of saw what we can do. Um, and I threw some of these pictures in just to make it a little bit more interesting, but we we advise children. We don't actually instruct the way we are right now. If we had this facility, we would also be able to facilitate a hybrid system. Now, if you've ever listened to or looked into the Matsu central um facility and organization up there in in Matsu and Palmer, uh that is the model. Now, that's not our goal, though. I don't want you to think that, oh gosh, we want to be just like, no, we want to be better, even better. And we have the capacity. And we also have been in contact with a couple other facilities over in the Satna area that that would house the organization. It would house connections, but that would be more of a lateral move. The Challenger Center was made for education. It's built for it. And that's why I was wishing I could make those little things zap right into the picture so that you would see how all of that could be facilitated. Also, we want to bring with us the CTE, the career technical education um program so that we can really be part of it. And what's the most attractive, the most important, the part that's the most difficult to it for other um

things to adapt to is that it's on a school campus already. That would facilitate the hybrid model. high school kids could come up, take correspondence classes, make more of their education. And this is this is the trend. If you're looking at, you know, where schools are getting bigger or getting smaller, hybrid and correspondence and CTE schools seem to be the type of learning that um our population is asking for because you saw all of the schools getting smaller. Well, ours is getting bigger and so that's how that part is going. So, we need a library. But when I say library, I mean really it is a storage area where we store curriculum materials and equipment so that they can be reused. If they're reused, then the aotment money for our parents goes farther. They can buy even more. They can get higher level lessons. They can do so much more. And I I know I I'm going to try to keep it even a little bit faster than this, but I want you to get that in your mind. This is it's not just a matter of of a place to put books. It's so much more. And I did I did do some calculations that it would stretch their dollar about 25%. If we had a place to keep those things so that we could lend them back out. Now, the multi-purpose room, you know, I just I put a picture of this big area here that's from the Challenger Center, but all of the things that we could do, the cooperatives, that's another general area that we need because right now homeschool families who are fairly well off, they can have invite people into their home, you know, they have a big family room or a basement and they can have 15, 20 kids down there and do cooperative learning where they have,

you know, one of the parents or an expert comes in and they do expert instruction. Right now, we don't have that. We have the we're the back of the warehouse. I don't know if you guys have ever been there. It's not bad, but to move into just another cubicle would just be a lateral move. Tallinger Center would actually improve our program, give us options, and improve your community. So all of the things that we need to be able to do uh is includes special education. Some programs, especially homeschool programs, don't even have that opportunity for special education as far as facilitating a student's IEP and even in some cases providing service. We need to be able to do that. We we had and for testing and so forth, we had to um ask five different places if we could even do our state testing at their place because we test somewhere around 100 150 kids program wise and we've got to have a place to do that. The library couldn't do it because of scheduling. The the uh the burrow uh courtroom couldn't do it. There was and there was two three others. we finally ended up going over to the Christian college. Having a space to do those things is one of the things, but also having the space to do bigger things, things that we don't currently do. Now, I am completely against high school dances. I hate high school dances. But you know what? Our high school kids love them. If we had a way to facilitate that, that would also gain interest. And we currently we do go out into the area high schools and they they can get permission slips and be guests and so forth. But if we had our own place, we had our own space, they could have their own identity and our program would build up. And right now,

every no matter what they say on the radio, every um homeschool correspondent school is exactly the same. We all have the exact same state regulations that we have to follow. the spending of the money, the keeping of the records and so forth. But the if we were in a facility like this and associated with KPBSD, we could offer so much more that we could actually we'd blow them out of the water. You know, I could go into that too, but okay. The side note that I put on this part was is my own thought. And so this isn't a recommendation. I'm nowhere near an attorney, nor am I a financial adviser. But it would be my opinion that it would be in your best interest is if you leased it to the school district instead of sold it to the burrow. I really don't know. It's way outside of my wheelhouse to know exactly if that's who benefit, but it gives more flexibility to you if we have this for, you know, whatever term of lease that you said 10 years or whatever. and as things change because in the school district right now there's a holy cow a lot of changes going on and so to have that locked in or locked out um of that possibility I think would be well it wouldn't be ideal for you whereas if you kept it but we basically paid the bills for it um it would give you a lot more flexibility in the future as they're talking about uh different schools and so forth over in Sata and other things businesses is coming here, gas lines, pipelines, yada yada. There seems like there's a lot of lot of uncertainty right now. So, in my opinion, a lease would be beneficial. Um, the challenger center when I look in

it, it's it's it just screams education. There's nothing in there. And one of the things when I was attending last time and um you remember that presentation, one of the things was that there would be a whole lot of changes necessary in order to do that facility and convert it into a firehouse, police house. I think that's a great idea. By the way, I think the city of Kai does need those things. But we could walk into this building and quite literally set up shop just exactly as we have it right now. And then we would build from there into the hybrid that I was talking about earlier. and so much more. And and part of the scheme, the concept is not just connections going over there. I think I mentioned this last time, it's for all homeschool students. I want to build the best program with the best facility that it would just be completely illogical to go anywhere else. And there are a lot we only represent about half of the homeschool students within the Kai Peninsula burough. roughly 3,000 alto together. We have 13 to400. Um idea this another state one has roughly the same maybe a little bit more and then there's a few smaller ones as well. So it's built for longevity. It's built for education. And I just wanted you to be able to think about that. If you had specific questions that'd be great. I mean there's people who are way smarter than me that run the numbers and all of that stuff. But I wanted you to at least have an idea that we could work that and work it well for the community of Kai. Thank you guys.

Thank you for your presentation. Uh council, do you have any questions? Mr. Hayeman. Council member Brown. Hi. Hi. You mentioned that all homeschool programs are held to the same standard statewide. Um, as I understand it and as you mentioned, um, about half of the homeschool students in our area are enrolled in homeschool programs outside of the connections program. Correct. Would this building becoming home to connections um potentially give connections an an advantage or the ability to offer something different than the other programs that local students are currently enrolled in because those programs don't have

a home base. Okay. Excuse me. Microphone please sir.

Oh thank you. um the hybrid model that we could do that nobody else can do that because you need a facility. I'll give you a short explanation of just one of the hundreds of of things when I mean hybrid model. For example, if there were a group of kindergarten students or parents who had kindergarteners who didn't want to send their kid to the brickandmortar for whatever reason it is, they they just didn't feel comfortable or their child was ready. But in our hybrid model, we could have two hours twice a week where they come in, they get their basic um instruction, you know, by the experts, whether it's reading or if it's even just the socialization if we're talking about it in kindergarten. We'd be able to do that if we had a place to do that. And our staff, all of our staff are certified KPBSD students. Now, the reason that the kids go to other programs right now, it's a variety of reasons, and we would address each one of those. I mean, one of them they go to other programs because they're mad at KPBSD. And so, part of the whole thing would be even a rebranding to encourage that this is for everyone, every homeschool family, regardless of where you currently are enrolled.

Council member Cassana,

thank you. Uh, Doug, thanks again for coming. Uh, just had one question. And I know this year you've expanded to a number of different outside um called classroom events where you've gotten field survival things done uh and had to use other spaces like the Boys and Girls Club. Do you foresee this facility as a facility that would meet your needs for a a long period of time as you grow? Yes. the that facility because it's part of that campus right now. There isn't anything that we do that that wouldn't actually facilitate. Now, I wouldn't put the the lid on it because who knows? I mean, we want to actually reach the stars with these guys, but yeah, that's exactly that's a great example. We would have had that on campus. Do

we still have uh Council Member Daniels online? Any further questions, Vice Mayor Asen? Yes. Um, you mentioned the CTE program. You would be working with the um, Kenai Central High School with their vocational department. Is that correct?

That part's still under development, but we actually within KPBSD, we have an entire department that is career tech career and technical. some of the facilities, some of the classes would be at the KC KCHS classroom or in their shop, but the organization and the um certifications for the different classes, those are a step above what they currently offer at KCHS. Thank you.

Any further questions? I was curious based on your little side note there if you talk to the school district if they would be interested in a lease with the city. Yeah. And interested. Yes. But again, I don't I don't run the bottom line. I'm not the the bean counter. Um but yeah, and I do know I have had conversations. I'm not doing any of this behind anybody's back. Um I have had conversations with Clayton as far as if in the current even climate nobody I well no I shouldn't say nobody that may not be exclusive the idea of leasing would be much more palatable than a purchase when we have just closed four schools. So this it gives us a great deal of flexibility as well as the city of Kai.

Any further questions? See none. Thank you very much for coming tonight. All right. Thank you.

That brings us down to item D, unscheduled public comments. Are there any members from the public who would like to speak on any item not scheduled for public hearing on the agenda? If you please come forward and uh and state your name and uh general area you live in. We don't need your actual address.

Um my name is William Hubbler. Um I actually live out in Nikkis. Um, but I work 14 hours in Kenai High School every day. So, I'm usually here I most of my life I lived here the whole life since I was eight years old at Kenai. My kids all went through here and everything. Um, I'm here because of the pool, the Kina High School swimming pool. I've had lots of conversations over the meetings with different people and we've been working, the Peninsula Pro Swim Team has been working trying to help run the pool and um, we've been doing different business plans and everything. when we had meetings with Peter Machiki and looking at a reasonable way to run it and still, you know, make it available to everybody. It's 50 years for the pool. Um, this will be their 50th year for the swimming pool. I've been there for 36. So, I've know how to run this pool pretty well and reasonably. And, um, I was just asking for help. I like I mean, maybe the city can work with connections and we can work with getting the pool open. I we've had some other ideas with Peter Matriki and stuff like that and I know um Terry's been there with us too to help out. So I'm just up here as a face and if you know any if you have any questions for me that's what I'm here for and you can always reach out to me if you think of questions later on. Um we're kind of waiting for the school district to get back to us and see what's they have in plan with our offers.

Thank you Mr. Hubler. Any questions for Mr. Hubler? Council member Cassenna. Thank you. Thanks, Will. Thank you for being here. Yeah. Uh do you have an I I don't know how to I'm just thinking of this question as I talk, so uh bear with me. But uh I'm just curious if you could give uh a general idea of your user group and how often that pool is used by the community here.

Okay. by the community. Um, the swim team is right now 78 strong. It gets up to 110. We have 185 people when I average going through the pool a day off and on. That's our average. Um, we have user group for lap swim. We have open swim. We have a master swim team which is a bunch of the groups. We have the high school swim team which is a high school though but it's part of the user group but I do lots of swim lessons there. Um, get a lot of groups. I have 2-year-olds all the way up to 98 year olds at the pool and it's one of those things that you can do at any age and we have the helicopter trainer with a cold water aggress training and we also offer um I know a lot of the people come and do lifeguarding class and WSI class with us too. So we have a pretty good heavy user group that goes through there.

Thank you. Any further comments or questions from council? Council member Kimmy. Hi. Okay.

Um, I I appreciate your your willingness to seek out a creative solution. I mean, obviously this isn't what anybody wants, but um I I appreciate that you're here advocating for for students, for ath athletes, for safety. We live in Alaska and I think last I checked, we lead the nation in water related deaths. Um, I mean, I know my kids took swim lessons at your pool from you many, many years ago, and I I know I'm not alone. Um, I know lots of parents have been in that position, too. So, I I don't know what the solution is. Um, but I I appreciate your willingness to come and advocate for something that that's important to you.

Any further comments, questions, Mr. Her? We we will be taking this up later tonight in executive session and uh I think it's it's our interest to try to to see if we can get something to uh to work out. Um but that remains to be seen there. There's a lot of different players involved. You know, go ahead. If you guys have any questions, I can give you my sale number. You can call me whatever you want and that way I can help out if you have any questions later on. I know how that goes later on. You're like, "Oh, I have a question. We appreciate it." And I I would imagine the city manager has your phone number on speed dial. Thank you. Thank you.

Are there any other members of the public that would like to speak? Just come forward, ma'am, and state your name and the general area you live. And that light has a way of just turning itself off occasionally. Is it? There you go. And you can move move the mic down too if it if it helps. Okay, there you go.

Hi guys. Um, I'm Sher Powell. Um, I came in last year in tears. This year I'm not in tears. Um, but I still have the same problem. So, I just wanted to come back and say hi to everybody and let you know kind of what's happening on Kiana Lane, which is where I live. Um, I'm basically ground zero for a house next door that is a known drug house. Um, there's illegal activities going on there a lot. Um, after last year, I think the gentleman there was arrested. Things are pretty quiet for a few months. Unfortunately, I'm here to let you know that the last month or so, it has ramped right back up again. So, I first of all would really like to thank KPD. They answer all of my calls and they're never rude. They're never short. Um they always take my information and say thank you and I've never felt bad calling them even though I really kind of want to cuz I don't want to be annoying. I want to be a good member of the community. Um Kai has been amazing for me and my boyfriend both. We both have good jobs now. We love the area. We love the moose in our yard. I saw sandill cranes this morning. I've never seen that. That has been phenomenal. next door is not phenomenal. Um, let me get here because I'm just gonna cry again. Uh, the police within the last couple of days have shown up and I believe um or when I came here last time, multiple people were arrested. There was a stolen vehicle, drugs and weapons were found. For a while, it's been quiet, but slowly and surely all the same activity and most of the same players have reappeared. The property is covered in trash, vehicles, machinery, fish tubs, trailers, and junk. The back fence is broken down in a state of disrepair. Now with winter passing, all the cars are moving out into the street area. I did call and ask about what are the rules about the street. I know you guys have rules during the winter who can park on the street. We have a really small two-way street. So now we have all their trailers vehicle vehicles parking in the street. We all have to stop, let

each other go around. I'm just not sure where I need to go with that, but it's it's annoying. Um, in the meantime, we have people coming and going probably every 10 minutes. uh new cars, new faces, new people. It's obvious kind of what's going on next door and it's just not acceptable anymore. What I don't understand is why Justin Hart is not in jail. What I don't understand also is why his mother, Vicky Hart, who owns the property, is also not being um prosecuted in any way for allowing this behavior and these activities to happen on her property. Um, around, let's see, this morning, there was a white truck with a flatbed, a blue Dodge, and a small metal trailer in the road in front of my house. At 3:00 a.m., a small silver SUV was seen coming and going to and from the house. People were out in the yard with flashlights and headlamps. This is a typical night until about 5 or 6:00 a.m. There's a black dog that runs the neighborhood constantly, really ticking off all the other dogs in the neighborhood. Um there's I have tried to follow along with Court view to see what's happening with Justin Hart and others. I see a lot of um con continued dates. Um I'm just fearful of the situation getting out of control again. I just don't want it to. I came here from Las Vegas and it's a city that's full of crime to have a peaceful, quiet existence for the rest of my days. I just would like some guidance on where do I go from here? Who do I need to talk to? Is there another entity? Is there someone else that I need to be speaking with? I just need some help and answers besides, hey, we're aware. We know what's going on next door.

Thank you for for coming again, although it's unpleasant, you know. Is there any council members that might have some questions? Council member,

I missed where you said. You said what? Lane. Kiana Lane. K. Thank you. Of course. Well, um I do remember when you were here last and I think you might have spoke to our planner, Mr. Butner is here tonight and uh some of the things you talked about probably would be in his purview. You know, things in the yard perhaps, maybe not. I mean, just because it's unkempt maybe not be enough, but there might be some other things. So, you might if you have pictures or something like that, you might be able to provide it to him and uh and go from there. And it sounds like you've been in pretty good contact with the police. Yeah. Would you turn on the mic, please? Has Yeah,

I did just find an app. I think it's AK something um tips or something like that. And I can actually log on anytime and provide a tip and also upload photos and video. So, I just had that last night. We're going to be utilizing that quite a bit. Hopefully, that will go somewhere. That That should help. I think I hope so. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you so much, guys. I appreciate it. Thank you.

Is there anybody else from the public that would like to speak on any item not not scheduled for public comment? Well, we have two ladies. if you want to tell us your name and generally where you live.

Um, hi, my name is Annabelle Price. This is my friend Genevieve. And I'm here to be here today because I love swimming and I really don't want our pools to close. For me, the pool isn't just a place to have fun. It's where I go to practice and where I work go to work hard and where I feel proud of myself. I I'm on a swim team and I have goals. I really care about if the pools close, I won't be able to keep improving or even stay in my team. In Alaska, swimming is also really important for safety. We are we are surrounded by lakes, rivers, and and water. Knowing how to swim isn't just a sport. It can be there to save lives. Pool. Pools are one of the pools are one of the only safe places for kids like me to learn those skills to swim. The pools also give kids something positive to do. It keeps us active, healthy, and focused on instead of sitting at home, we're moving and learning and being part of something. You should come to our pool. It is an awesome place. It is more than just a pool. My dad struggle or signs it us up for swimming because it is a necessary life skill. He knew my mom um he knew my mom stress stresses at at out at out lakes. Sorry. Um I've made great friends at the pool. Some families have have very hard times in their life and we are there to support each other. My

brother has autism and he swims at our pool. He won his first and only ribbon at our pool. He loves to swim and loves to get his rewards. Our coach is very special to us. He is here now fighting for us even now so we can swim. Our pools our pool brings people together. For some kids the pool is the only place they can go to swim. Not everyone has the access to a private lesson or other or other places to learn to swim. Closing it would take away option option opportunities from a lot for a lot of families. My mom says my mom says be good and stay strong. But this, my mom says stay strong and stay healthy. But this is the pools are just so important to me and my all of my friends and to stay for our goals. Please don't close our pools. Please give kids like me a chance to keep swimming, keep learning, and keep growing. Thank you for listening.

That was a very good presentation. Thank you. Oh, thank you. Would you ladies be willing to stand for any questions council may have? Of course. Council member Cassenna. No questions. I will just say uh as I've said many times, I am impressed with all of the youth that comes and speaks in front of us and how well you do and uh um this is another great example. So, thank you for coming and uh giving us your testimony. Thank you so much. Thank you for that. Hold on. We have one more. You're asking. No. Good job. That's okay.

Good job on your presentation. And will you tell Arty congratulations, please? Oh, I absolutely will. Thank you so much. Okay. We may have somebody else. Does it there's anybody online? They're here. Okay. I thank you very much for your presentation. Thanks for coming. Okay. Hey, do we have anybody else from the public that would like to speak to any item that's not scheduled for public comment? Do you want to come forward and uh state your name and generally where you live?

Is this on? Okay. Hi, my name is Abigail Price. That was my little sister who just finished speaking and I live um off of K Beach on Sachansky and I'm here to address the pools. Um, so I'm a graduating senior and I'm finishing up my swim season with the club and I finished up my high school season and recently I just committed to a college and got a scholarship for swimming and none of that would have been possible without my coach or this pool and I'm super proud of everybody that's coming up and wants to learn and I want them to be able to have the same opportunities that I have had um with again same coaching and having that pool and a really nice facility to be able to learn how to swim. Um, it's been such a fun experience looking for colleges and talking to coaches um to go and further um pursue my sport and um compete at the collegiate level. And I'm want to fight as best I can. Even if I'm down in Arizona, I want my little sister and the rest of my community to be able to have the same opportunities. And I want kids to be safe. I teach lessons in the summer um on a lifeguarding program and we have a lot of kids come in and when they leave they're always so much better and so much more confident in the water and um they're also very cautious because we do have a safety portion where we teach them um water safety and without having our pools open kids would not be able to learn how to swim. They would be fearful of the water and have the wrong kind of confidence. So, I'm asking if we can find some sort of solution and hopefully um come to an agreement with the burrow um with keeping our pools open. So, thank you.

Thank you for that. I remember you you were here before, too, I think. Is there uh anybody from council that has any questions? Please, Council Member Cassenna, just going to thank you as well for coming again and uh saying your parents must be very proud of both of you. Any further questions? Well, thank you guys for your time. Good luck in Arizona. Thank you. Are there any uh any other members of the public that would like to speak to any item? Come forward. You know the drill.

Good evening. Thank you, members of council, Mr. Mayor. I'm Dan Castmore. I'm a parent of a piranha swimmer and swim afficionado in the area. I just wanted to follow up with some of the comments. Um, you'll notice that we've got quite a few people here today. We wanted to come tonight because we know it's on your agenda that you're going to talk about pools. Um, I think it's clear, it's important to be clear that we understand as a group that you're not closing our pool, right? And I've heard people say, "Please don't close our pool." And it's not about you closing our pool. Really what we're here today is to ask you to see if you can work with us to see if we can be partners in this. We want to make sure these pools stay open. I think they're community assets. I think you guys, most of you will agree that these are community assets. So, uh really it's just to say thank you and to make sure you know that there are members of this community that do value these pools. That's why we're showing up. We're not here to waste your time, but we want you to know that it's important to us. Um and that we really appreciate. I know that uh city manager Eubank and Mayor Naxstead have been participating in some of these discussions with the burough mayor and the team really appreciates it and we appreciate everything you can do and we're just hoping to partner with you and and say thank you.

Thank you, Dan. Any questions? Appreciate that. And that that's some good clarification and and the city the burough mayor has been helping quite a bit too. And it's a school district issue, not his. he's been facilitating. So, he's been doing a excellent job. I just want to point that out. Thank you very much for coming. Anybody else from the public that would like to speak to any item? Not scheduled for public comment. Seeing no one, we will move on to public hearings. First public hearing item is ordinance 3511 20226 accepting and appropriating funds from the Institute of Museum and Library Services pass through through the state of Alaska Department of Education and Early Development Division of Library Archives and Museums for Library employee training brought to us by administration. Pleasure of councel vice mayor Asen. I move that we enact ordinance number 3511-2026.

I second that. Okay. Moved and seconded. Is there anybody from the general public that would like to speak to ordinance 3511 2026? Seeing nobody. It brings it back to council. Discussion. Councel. I'd like to uh there isn't I'd like to thank the library director who happens to be here tonight. Katchcha Wolf on uh on on acquiring the uh the $1,250 that we'll be accepting for for training. Thank you very much. So, if there's no further discussion, clerk, please call the role. Thank you, Mayor. Council member Daniel, yes.

Council member Grimmie, yes. Vice Mayor Asin, yes. Council member Petty, yes. Council member Cassenna, yes. Council member Sonar is absent. Mayor Naxstead, yes. And student representative Bowling is absent. You have six yes votes. Ordinance number 3511-2026 is enacted. Okay.

Thank you. Now we have item E2, ordinance 3512,2026, amending Kenai Municipal Code Chapter 7.22, 22 investment of monies to broaden the range of permanent investments to extend the maturity profile of the city's investment portfolio brought to us by administration. Pleasure of councel, vice mayor asken. I move we enact ordinance number 3512-2026. I'll second that.

Moved and seconded. Uh is there anybody from the general public that would like to speak to ordinance 3512 2026? Seeing no one, bring it back to council discussion. Council, uh, city matters, Eubank, perhaps you might want to to lead into this one for us. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of council. Um, so ordinance 35126 will amend sections of KMC 722. Um, that's the, uh, section of code which governs allowable city investments. It will increase the investment options for the city to include uh investment grade both municipal and corporate bonds adding those into the portfolio. It also increases the maximum maturity for investments. Uh currently that maximum maturity for the city is 5 years. This will extend that maximum maturity for individual investments to 10 years. It also provides a limiting um a limit to the duration of the portfolio which measures the the um duration measures the total weighted maturity of the portfolio looking at every piece of investment that's within it. Uh these were these changes were recommended to the city by our investment advisor um as an opportunity for the city to increase yield on our investments while um uh taking on I think very minimal risk in doing so. And um that's how I would summarize it. If we get into specifics, I'll let our finance director, Mr. Sworner, answer specific questions.

Okay. Thank you for that lead in. Uh any any comments or questions to the city the manager? There's no further discussion. Clerk, please call the role. Thank you, Mayor. Council member Grimmie, yes. Vice Mayor Askin, yes. Council member Petty, yes. Council member Cassenna, yes. Council member Sonar is absent. Mayor Ned, yes. Council member Daniel, yes. Student Rep. Bowling is absent. You have six yes votes. Ordinance number 3512-2026 is enacted.

Okay. Thank you. Now we are on item E3 resolution 2026-18 accepting a sightsp specific emergency operations plan and continuity of operations plan for the Kenai senior center and incorporating these plans into the city of Kenai emergency operations plan brought to us by administration. Pleasure of councel. Vice mayor asken. Um, I move that we adopt resolution 2026-18 and request unanimous consent. Second that.

Okay. Thank you. Is there anybody from the general public that would like to speak to resolution 2026-18? Seeing no one, bring it back to council for discussion. Vice Mayor asking. Sorry.

Is there any other discussion item? As consent was requested, are there any objections? Seeing none, um, resolution 2026-18 is adopted. Next, we have item E4, resolution 2026-9, authorizing a contract award for external financial audit services, brought to us by administration. And before I get a motion to um enact or adopt, I'd like to point out that I do have a a conflict on this one as I was part of the uh the the review committee um that helped select that reviewed the different uh uh applica uh proposals and I basically have had my my bite at the apple. So with that, what I'd like to do is pass the I'll just pass the gavl over to our vice mayor.

And I too also like to report that I have a conflict as well as I was also a participant on the uh auditor evaluation committee. Thank you, Council Member Daniel and Mayor Nagstead. Um a conflict does exist exist for both Mayor Nagstead and Council Member Daniel. Um, is there anyone from the public who'd like to speak to this resolution?

Oh, sorry. I need a motion. I'll take a stab at this on the fly. Uh, move to authorize a contract award for external financial audit services. uh resolution number 2026-9. I'll second that and ask request unanimous consent.

Thank you. Um is there anyone from the general public who'd like to speak to resolution re resolution 2026-9? Seeing none, we'll bring it back to councel. Any discussion from councel? Anybody online? Nothing.

Seeing none. Um, no discussion from the council. Um, unanimous consent was requested. Are there any objections? If not, um, resolution 2026-9 is adopted. That brings us to item E5, resolution 2020 2026-20 authorizing a contract award for the 2026 Kenai city dock lease brought to us by administration. Pleasure of councel vice mayor asken. I move that we adopt resolution number 2026-20 and request unanimous consent.

I'll second that. Is there anybody from the general public that would like to speak to resolution 2026-20? Seeing no one that bring it back to council for discussion. Council, anybody online? Vice Mayor Askin. Um, who is the lease with? Can we have just a little bit of background information? City Manager Eubank. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, Vice Mayor Asin, it's with Make sure I get the canery name right. E foods but doing business as Packar most people know him as.

Thank you, Mr. Fry. Any further questions? Seeing none, uh, unanimous consent was requested, are there any objections? Seeing no objections, uh, resolution 2026-20 is adopted. Now we are in item E6 resolution 2026-21 approving a lease form for leasing of tide lands for shore fisheries and authorizing the city manager to enter in a shore fishery lease with Nathan Scow for the property described as tracks A and B city of Kenai Shore Fishery number one brought to us by administration pleasure of councel vice mayor mayor asken

um I move that we adopt resolution 2026-21 and request unanimous consent I'll second. Is there anybody from the general public that would like to speak to resolution 2026-21? Okay, seeing no one, bring it back to council. City manager Eubank, we have I think six of these and they're very similar. Um, but if you want to kind of go over what the lease is and if there's any differences on the other ones, but we could discuss them then or we can maybe just have the discussion now if they're similar or the same.

Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of council. So, yes, uh, resolutions 2026 21 through 2026 27 um are all of the same. The only difference in the resolutions is the uh lee. Um these are for 10-year um shore fishery leases um for commercial fishing activities. Um uh basically east side setnet sites. Um these is these the current leases are expiring. the leases, the current leases provide uh the existing lease with first right of refusal on um a new lease. All of the um shore fishery lease holders have exercised that option that is in the current lease and are requesting new 10-year leases. Um and uh other than that, I'm happy to answer any questions.

Any any discussion? Announcement consent was requested. Are there any objections? Seeing none, um, resolution 2026-21 is adopted. So now we have item E7, resolution 2026-22 approving a lease form for leasing of tidelands for shore fisheries and authorizing the city manager enter into a shore fisheries lease with the with the tide chaser fishery LLC for the property described as city of Kenai shore fishery number two brought to us by administration pleasurable council vice mayor asking

I move that we adopt resolution 2026-22 and request unanimous consent I'll second. Is there anybody from the general public that would like to speak to resolution 2026-22? Seeing no one, unanimous consent was requested. First off, is there any discussion? Consent was requested. Um is there any objection? Seeing none, uh that resolution uh 2026-22 is adopted. So that brings us down to e item E8, resolution 2026-23, approving a lease form for leasing of title lands for shore fisheries and authorizing city manager to enter into a shore fishery lease with Brian Scow for the property described as tract one shore fishery plat number 71 brought to us by administration. Pleasure of councel, vice mayor.

I move that we adopt resolution 2026-23 and request unanimous consent.

I second that. Is there anybody from the general public that would like to speak to resolution 2026-23? Seeing no one, bring it back to council. Council discussion. None. Unanimous consent was requested. Are there any objections? Seeing no objections that resolution 2026-23 is adopted. Now we're on item E9, resolution 2026-24, approving a lease form for leasing of tidelands for shore fisheries and authorizing the city manager to enter in a shore fishery lease with Nancy Hillman Scout for the property described as track 2 shore fisheries plat number 71 brought to us by administration. Pleasure of councel vice mayor asking.

I move that we adopt resolution 2026-24 and request unanimous consent. I'll second. Is there anybody from the general public that would like to speak to resolution 2026-21 24? Seeing no one bring it back to council discussion and consent was requested. Are there any objections? Seeing none, resolution 2026-24 is adopted. Next we have item E10. Resolution 2026-25 approving a lease form for leasing tidelands for shore fisheries and authorizing the city manager to enter into a shore fishery lease with Kenai Salmon Company Inc. for the property described as tracks 3 4 5 and six shore fisheries plat number 71 brought to us by administration pleasure of councel vice mayor Asen.

I move that we adopt resolution 2026-25 and request unanimous consent. I'll second that.

Okay. Is there anybody from the general public that would like to speak to resolution 2026-25? Seeing no one, bring it back to council. Council discussion. And as consent was requested, are there any objections? Seeing none, resolution 2026-25 is adopted. That brings us to item E1. Resolution 2026-26 approving a lease form for leasing of tide lands for shore fisheries and authorizing the city manager to enter into a shorefish lease with Aurora Holdings and Investments LLC for the property described as track 7 shore fisheries plat number 71 brought to us by administration pleasure of councel vice mayor Asen.

I move we adopt resolution 2026-26 and request unanimous consent. I'll second.

Is there anybody from the general public that would like to speak to resolution 2026-26? Seeing no one, we'll bring it back to council. Discussion. Seeing none, unanimous consent was requested. Are there any objections? Seeing none, resolution 2026-26 is adopted. Now we're on resolution 2026-27 approving a lease form for leasing of tidy lands for shore fisheries and authorizing the city manager to enter into a shore fishery lease with Thora Meccabe for the property described as a 3.29 29 acre portion of tideland survey number 272 within 35 within section 35 township 5 north range 12 west brought to us by administration pleasure of councel vice mayor asken

I move that we adopt resolution 2026-27 and request unanimous consent I second that is there anybody from the general public that would like to speak to resolution 2026-27 seeing none that brings Back to council. Council discussion. We won't have to do these for 10 more years. So, we're here.

Unanimous consent was requested. Are there any objections? Seeing none, uh, resolution 2026-27 is adopted. Next we have item E13, resolution 2026-28, approving an aid auto agreement and supporting operational plan with the Kai Peninsula Bureau for exchange of personal and equipment response to structural fires brought to us by administration. Pleasure of councel, Vice Mayor Raskin. I move we adopt resolution 2026-28 and request unanimous consent.

I'll second. Is there anybody from the general public that would like to speak to resolution 2026-28? Seeing no one, we'll bring it back to council for discussion. City manager Eubank, this is a pretty important uh um item here, so if you you want to discuss it, I'd appreciate it.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of council. So resolution 202628 will authorize um execution of a new autoate agreement with um the b the our neighboring fire departments. What an auto aid agreement um provides for is an automatic response um from all of the um signing departments including the Kenai Fire Department and how we will react when certain events happen uh both inside city boundaries and outside city boundaries um in in the boundaries of um both central emergency services and the Kiski fire. Um the predominant or or and I'm going to let Chief Teague get into specifics if you have questions. The one primary difference in this new autoate agreement is that uh the current agreement requires um the responding departments to provide uh a crew of two and the new agreement will require when personnel are available for that to increase to three. Um, and uh, I'd like Chief Teague, if he wants to take a minute, try to explain why the city's comfortable with that change now and and if there were any others that I'm missing in the in the new agreement.

Um, yeah, this has been a topic that's been discussed for a few years between the burrow and the city of Kenai. Um, one reason we have not supported it in the past uh was with our current call volume and staffing model. With the adoption of the new staffing model this last year, we have a little bit more flexibility on our side to provide um that extra staff member for an auto aid fire response. But uh it also benefits us that when we have a structure fire, we're getting that extra um firefighter coming from either CES or Nikkis on an auto call out. Another area that benefits us, um the insurance services office, ISO, that does our PPC rating, our public protection category, um that affects our insurance rates both private and commercially when they evaluate staffing matrixes. Um auto personnel, you only get one-third credit towards a firefighter staffing for auto aid. So with two firefighters coming in an auto agreement, that only counts as 2/3 of a firefighter against their staffing matrix. And so now that will bump us up to an extra basically an extra firefighter that we get credit for towards our ISO rating matrix even though that firefighter is coming from a neighboring agency. So it benefits all the departments. Um, as the city of Kenai, currently we maintain an ISO rating of four, and we are working very progressively to at least get to a three, if not a two. This is one of the next steps in our uh progression to improve that rating for our citizens here in Kenai. So, there's a tremendous amount of benefit to the city of Kenai to enter into this agreement with the bureau.

Thank you for that report, both of you. Any any council discussion, questions? Council member Cassenna, just want to thank you for your efforts, Chief. Appreciate the hard work to get that ISO number where it's at and trying to lower it every uh chance you get. So, absolutely, Council Member Granny.

I I would echo um your comments, but I would also say I I know that, you know, we have number of different communities on the peninsula with kind of no man's land in between. Um, I can't imagine how horrible it would be to lose your home or property to a fire. I can't imagine how much worse it might be to lose your home or property to a fire or to suffer more damage than you would have because maybe you're a few yards or feet or whatever outside of or inside of a of an area. So, I think that this agreement really I mean definitely works in the best interest of city of Kenai residents as well as other residents on the peninsula. And I I think it's a great example of how all of our communities and service areas continue to work together for the greater good of everybody that lives on the peninsula.

Vice Mayor Askin. Um yeah, I echo both um both of my council members um comments. In addition, um when the fire happened over at Canary Lodge, this very agreement I think was enacted, wasn't it? Yes, it was. Yeah. So, it just proves how helpful it is. Thank you. Any further discussion?

I I do think this makes all of us much stronger in in our fire response and and I support it wholly. Um is there any further discussion? Now consent was requested. Are there any objections? Seeing none, resolution 2026-28 is adopted. So that brings us down to item H9, action approval, the Parks and Recreation Commission 2026 work plan brought to us by parks and recreation rec park parks and recreation. Pleasure of councel.

I move that we approve um parks and rec commission 2026 work plan and request unanimous consent.

Second that. Is there any member of the public that would like to speak to the parks and recre commission's 2026 work plan? Seeing no one, back to council discussion, unanimous consent was requested. Are there any objections? Seeing none, the uh 2026 work plan is approved. So that brings us to item H10, discussion on the Kenai Central High School pool operations and coordination brought to us by administration. And uh I think I'd like to turn this over to city manager Eubank at this point. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of council. Um I did provide a memo here in the packet. Um, also in that memo, um, I I provided a presentation that was presented from the, um, school district's administration to the school board in January of this year. You know, this process kicked off for the city um, when the KPBSD uh, school board adopted its FY26 budget. At that time they indicated they were unlikely to fund um the operations of pools beyond fiscal year 2026. They were funding them into FY2026 to give um the opportunity for alternate operation plans um to be developed um for continued operations of the pool and that's what we've been working on. I will start by saying it's been a bit of a frustrating process to try um you know I I guess I should say after that point what my the direction that I received from the city council was to um participate in those discussions and see

if the city of Kenai could be part part of a solution to continue the operations of the pools and uh that's what I've been trying to do. Um, uh, staff were reaching out, uh, last fall, uh, late last summer, last fall, looking for information. Um, really the first information that we, we did receive, um, was in November, we did get some information from the school district. Um and then um after that we asked and and that presentation was to um um mostly city managers of all of the communities uh here in the bureau. Uh what came out of that meeting was more questions than we got answers. We asked for a lot more information from the district and um you know that information again I think was culminated in the presentation from the um the district administration to the school board in January. Um since that time uh again I've been party to a number of cons uh conversations uh multiple hosted by Burough Mayor Machiki which I really appreciate his participation. Um it's in um included other um city managers and mayors from other communities in the bureau. Um also I've had a couple of meetings with the the Piranha Swim um team representatives and um I think where I'm at right now is I think uh the swim club is is working to finalize a proposal to um that that they will be making to the school district. Um, and I believe that that proposal um will likely have some amount of request or you know be looking for participation from the city. And what I'm requesting at this point

because I don't think um just looking at the timing if we're trying to keep an operation effective July one open this really doesn't line up very well with our budget process and these things and and or with their timeline to have to present an offer or negotiate with the school district. Um, I would request, you know, an executive session to talk with the council about, um, you know, negotiating strategy and authority for the city manager, um, to, uh, you know, try to move or try to continue to help move, um, a solution forward and a partnership forward to fund the pools. And I'm happy to answer any questions. Any any questions of the city manager for discussion? Council member Grammy.

Um you may this may be outside your scope, but in reviewing the um the information that was presented, the financial overview and options that was included in the packet. Um it talks it it indicates the cost for each of the pools in our air in our district burough area. Um Kenise is substantially more expensive than the others. Um, I see salary and benefits. I I could understand that given um testimony previously that he'd been at the pool for 36 years, but maintenance um is is substantially more. I mean, four times as much as some of the pools, twice as much as some of the others. Do you know why those huge differences or if there's something that could be done to mitigate some of those costs? City Manager Eubank.

Yeah. Thank you, Council Member Grimmy through the mayor. Um, I do I I have an understanding. So, I'm going to relay what how I understand this. And what I will also stress to you is if you actually get the presentation from the school board or school district to the school board in January, it is a little different than this presentation. Subsequent to that meeting, the school district provided me the version that I've provided you. The and the one difference the one difference in the presentation is the the maintenance. So what what the school district attempted to do is look back four years through burough maintenance records to determine the cost of maintenance that has been being done at the pool. This number was substantially more for Kenai Central than the $83,000 you're seeing because um the main boiler that heats the pool um was replaced in the last four years and I think that project was $900,000 maybe in that range. It was a substantial amount of money. They did factor that out and that's how they reduced this down to 83,000. But I think you will also hear that um the KCHS pool has had the um the deck redone. Um they've had a lot of maintenance done. There's been a lot of work done in the last four years on that pool. Um probably more so than most other pools and it's probably in the best shape of of a lot of the pools in the district because um I think like Mr. Hubard said, it's 50 years old, but it's been receiving major maintenance. So that that is why I think ours shows higher. It's a 4-year average of what burough maintenance has spent maintaining that facility.

Okay. So it's not a it's not a really a fair indicator of of what it would cost to m generally maintain that pool for a year or four years. That is correct. And and talking with um Kevin Lions from the school district, he even indicated he thinks you know that number and don't quote me on the numbers. I I think he was saying in the 20 to $30,000 range is probably what I would he would be expecting for the Kenai pool just because of all of the pumps that have been replaced all you know that decking all all of the maintenance that has been done there in the last few years.

Any further discussion? But thought maybe a a clarification on on on who the players are. We're obviously going to go into executive session and talk to go into the weeds, but the school district is closing the the pool. They're the ones that fund that. The building, I think, is owned by the burrow. Who are we having the discussion with?

Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I I think that's part of the discussion is you know um you know and the negotiating strategy is like to what extent you know does council want to give the city manager the authority. I mean there there are multitude of options and I think a lot of different communities here on the peninsula are exploring all of those types of options. You know, one option um I believe one one city is considering is just to write a check to the school district and the school district continue the operations just offset what they say is their cost. Um, in this case, what what I'm excited about and I think I'm trying to move in the direction of is our local swim club, you know, potentially taking over the actual management function of the facility under contract with the school district in which the city could participate with the swim club um, and potentially help offset some of their costs or help with funding of of the model that they're going to use. But there's that that's all I think what what we should discuss and again I'm looking for the boundaries uh the council wants to and the authority level the council wants to give to me to work in negotiating those aspects.

Thank you. And and to follow up based on the numbers that were provided in your memo, one could discern that uh if the if if we were the one of those cities that were just going to write a check that it would be in the range of $250,000. Is that correct? Uh yeah. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of council. Um, if we gave the school district exactly what they were asking, and I think there are, um, uh, I think if if we gave them exactly what they were asking, that number, according to this presentation, would be over $300,000. Um, and so,

okay. Well, the savings is $250,000, but they went over 300. So, I'm not maybe that's discussion for later, but I'm just pointing out there's a kind of a kind of a difference in the numbers here that I've been kind of struggling over.

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Mayor. you and I struggle over the same thing then because and I've had conversations with representatives of the school district where I ask those specific questions and um you know I I don't agree with I don't agree with their stance that um if you tell me that you're only going to save $5 from shutting something down and you ask me to pay 10, I don't that doesn't compute it. you're asking me, or in this case, you're asking, you know, somebody to pay you more than you can save by simply doing nothing. And so I I think all of those concerns you're raising are the same concerns that I think everybody in this room is seeing. And um have been struggling with. Um so it it is a very interesting process. there are multiple players involved because you know as you indicated the school district you know runs these facilities technically you're absolutely correct the the Kai Peninsula Bureau owns the facilities um you now have a potentially a third party nonprofit the swim club that wants to get into managing a facility that is ran by a school district and owned by a bureau and um So it gets complex very quickly. I I'm I like to employ the KISS methodology in a lot of my decisions. You know, keep it simple, stupid, and I like to try to keep things as simple as I can and as clean as I can. Um and and those are the directions I've been trying to work in. Thank you for that information. Any any further discussion? Okay, we'll uh we'll take it up in executive session later, a little bit

later. So, we'll move on from there to item H11, another discussion item, candidate filing period. Um, clerk.

Thank you, Mayor Nstead. With the outcome of last week's election, yeah, that was a week ago, the two propositions passed which made changes to our charter. there are necessary changes to our code to align code with charter at this point. And then I'm I'll be introducing an I'll bring you bringing forward an ordinance at the May 6th meeting that also recommends some process changes to account for the increased voter turnout that we're anticipating. But the area that I don't know what you guys are interested in is our candidate filing period. The bureau has changed their candidate filing period to August 15th through August 31st and incorporated a oneweek withdrawal period after that. Other municipalities that have moved have incorporated a September 1st through September 15th candidate filing period. What I'm looking for is general direction is how you would like me to bring forward that section of the ordinance. And just just for clarification on the on the filing period, it it doesn't either or it doesn't make any difference to your operation here.

It does not. And I verified with the burough clerk that a candidate filing period of September 15th still allows her enough time to get the ballots ordered and printed in time for our election. Okay. Any discussion? Vice Mayor Askin. I really like the idea of including the oneweek withdrawal period. Um, and I'm good with either time frame, August or September. Member Granny, before the election date changes, did our dates align with burrow filing dates? They did.

Okay. So, I think that might be important to keep in mind, too. I mean, if if we've made these changes for par, parity is should be consistent. It I like consistency, too. But I'm just again, I think I asked the question, but maybe I didn't ask it. But it doesn't it make any difference as far as with the burough clerk, which we do in because I they're still going to publish that booklet or put it online, you know. Correct. And yeah, so either choice of the council, it will be able to meet all of the burough deadlines. It's and I can draft it how you want and you guys are free to amend and edit it when it's up for public hearing.

Any other council members online have an opinion? Yes. Um I would agree with everybody and I'd keep consistency with the burrow and with the oneweek filing period. That's what I would do. Yes, Mayor. Um, Naxstead, I I agree and also would like to have that um period of time with withdrawal so that their name could be removed if they made that decision from the U publication. Thank you.

Thank you. seems like we have mostly consensus anyway on the oneweek period and uh um as far as uh the the 15th through the 31st of August. Is there any objections to that? Seeing none, I get a lot of nods here. So, it'll be August and then one week withdrawal period. Can I ask one more question? Absolutely. Could you clarify? Do you have a preference? I do not have a preference. Okay. Thank you for asking that question.

Okay, you got your direction. Thank you. So, that brings us to Commission reports. Council on Aging, Council Member Asen. Thank you, Mayor Nagstead. Um the Council on Aging welcomed two new members um to their commission. They approved their last year's plan and also approved this year's goals um and work plan. Okay. Airport commission is council member Sonart. She's not here. Does anybody have a report for her? I believe the last airport meeting was canceled.

I think you're right. That's correct. So that brings us to parks and recreation commission grant. Parks and Recreation Committee Commission, excuse me, met on April 2nd. Um, Corvvis Design um provided a draft of the parks and recreation ma master plan. Yeah, they had some really interesting um suggestions and feedback and metrics um that exist and for like how many acres of parkland should be there based on population and I I was surprised to learn to learn that. Um, what I was not surprised to learn is that Kenai scores pretty well as far as the amount of parks and um, leisure areas that we have for residents. Of course, there's always room for some improvement. Um, pickle ball courts were mentioned since that is the fastest growing sport in our country right now. Um, among a couple of other things, um, the 25 work plan report would be sent to council as we heard earlier. Um and the uh cleanup day, communitywide cleanup day is this Saturday. Um they're going to provide bags, grabbers, gloves, vests, and um I would be remiss if I did not mention they will have little kid vests and grabbers. Grabbers also, Tyler, or just vests?

Grabbers and vests. Um kids size um at the visitors center. Correct. Library. Can library. Library. Saturday morning and our parks and recck Facebook page uh just hit 3,000 followers. Thank you. Landing and zoning commission council member Daniel. I'll take that one for him. It's one of the two of you. It is 50 50 5050. Yeah. Bet not not doing very well. last time it was it was off to.

Well, uh I don't have any numbers on what the planning and zoning commission's Facebook page uh subscriber count is, but I guess we got to pump those numbers up. Um and then we also haven't met since our last meeting, but their next meeting is the 29th at 7 p.m. Thank you for that report. Beautification commission. Council member Petty.

Thank you, Mayor Nstead. Yes, we met over uh here at the chambers on April the 7th and uh they forwarded their goals from uh goals and objectives for 2025 over to 2026 which will include uh summer tours, winter tours, uh updates on the fountain there at Leaf Hansen. Um they're working on a citywide mural and they're also working on banners and static displays. Uh they were also introduced to a memo that came from uh council member Grimmie and uh council member Asin about the suggestion of perhaps um joining um beautifification with um parks and wreck and they're in the uh contemplation thought process in that to give city council guidance on that. Uh we also were um noting that our uh cleanup for our beautiful city is happening like um council member Griby said uh this Saturday with vest and bags for kids and adults and it will be there under the white tent at the library starting at 9:00. Um they are um we were told looking for part-time opportunities for the personal use fishery for three weeks. Uh the planting day this year is for um May, no, April, let's see, the 30th after Memorial Day. And also we're having the kite festival on June the 6th and our next meeting will be on May the 12th. Thank you so very much.

Thank you. Very good report. That brings us to report of the mayor. I have a few items to report. First, I'd like to thank the the clerk for all of her work on the uh on the special election. Um and uh I could say it's over. The election is over, but now there's a lot of code changes to be made. But on uh on April 8th, the clerk and I did go to the radio station to discuss on the radio uh with the public, you know, that there was a special election and and uh and try to promote people to come out and vote. you know, she she could not uh promote which way to go. I could as a me as a member of the public, but anyway, I I hopefully that got a few extra votes for us here, voters. On April 10th, I gave uh opening statements at the CIRCAC annual meeting. John Williams is our liaison. He comes here and gives us a briefing and all that. And uh I have a thought I had a great idea of what CIRAC does. I had no idea of really the depth of CIRAC. They have PhDs and doctors and whatnot. It's it's it's it's a it's it's an impressive organization. Um I was reading all their bios before I went there so I could be prepared, but u it's uh it's it's something to be proud of within our uh within our community. On April 12th, um I attended the Kenai Historical Society meeting and uh uh that meeting was uh uh had a trivia contest basically for uh historic trivia from around here and uh Mayor Whitney was there and there was a Satna contingent on one side of the room and then I was there for the Kenai contingent and uh and we had these random questions being asked and the groups would have we alternated and I like to uh say, well, the city of Kai won. We we also have a lot longer

history, too. So, a lot of our history was not really even theirs. But anyway, that that was that was a fun event. On the 15th of April, uh the city manager manager and I gave the city of uh the state of the city presentation at the chamber and it was well attended. And uh um uh want to thank uh um for all the help I got for having all the data that I had to present which I I think uh was picked up by the press. A lot of the data of of the different departments and what they do and uh and something that we're all very proud of and uh and the department heads were all there um as well and uh and thank you Vice Mayor Askin. You were were there also uh for that too. So anyway, um enjoyed doing that and bragging on the city and uh just the last thing I want to mention that I was involved with was I went to the chamber again um on the 16th of April for the Kenai Chronicles and Clark Fair was there to discuss some Kenai history items here when there was an agricultural uh um department that was being set up and where that was and how long it lasted, which wasn't very long, But anyway, it was it was quite interesting. But it some of that kind of formulated uh parts of our city and there's still some buildings that are here from it and uh u but some of the development it's kind of near the near the church uh down there too. So that was quite interesting. So if you get a chance to do the KI Chronicles when they do those it's about once a month I suggest uh you give it a try. And uh that concludes my report. So that brings us to administrative reports. City Manager Eupank.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members and council. I do have a few things to report on here tonight. Uh I'll start with staff recruitment. Uh staffing and recruitment. Um first, uh I I did report at the state of the city, but I do want to uh report the city has received notice of retirement from uh our police chief, Mr. Dave Ross. Uh Dave has served the city uh and the citizens of Kenai for more than 25 years and uh we want to make sure we thank him for his many contributions to the community and uh he will be mischief. Um absolutely. Uh I'm also pleased to welcome uh the a new part-time administrative assistant at the police department. I'm going to go with Wendy. And if Chief could help me with her last name,

Wendy Greenhall.

Wendy Greenhall. We'll be starting here with the city. Uh in the public works department, Mr. Robert Flake um has been promoted to lead equipment operator um after Kurt Brower, our current lead, announced his retirement after more than 10 years of service with the city. Uh recruitment is currently underway for a police chief, uh police officer, equipment operator, a public safety dispatcher, two part-time recreation center workers, and we also have a number of seasonal positions open. So, if you're a graduating senior or you're at least 17 years old, you might want to talk to our parks and rec director if you're looking for a job. Um, and I wanted to let council know that I have extended uh another uh job offer to an airport manager candidate candidate as we were unable to uh finalize um or reach an agreement with the prior applicant. Um next, uh I'm happy actually pretty honored to report uh our senior center director, Miss Roma, has been appointed to the Alaska Commission on Aging. Uh we really look forward to to what Kathy can contribute to that group and I I think they should be looking forward to having her on on their commission. So congratulations Kathy. Um we were able to I did execute the uh memorandum of agreement for um Wildwood Drive reconstruction by the state. So uh that project continues to move forward. Uh early this month I did attend the Northwest Managers Conference in Sikka. A conference brought together uh local government professionals from Alaska, Washington, and Oregon. Included sessions on strategic planning, tribal partnerships, and housing uh that will um be valuable to our work here at the

city. Uh the mayor already reported on the 15th he and I were able to um present the I think 8th 8th annual 8th annual um state of the city uh report to uh the chamber and the citizens. I enjoy doing that every year. Um I'd be remiss if I didn't give a little bit of recognition, actually a lot of recognition to Christine Cunningham who works in my office. She's she she puts a lot of that together for the mayor and I and we really appreciate her efforts. Um, on pools, I already reported uh I did attend a meeting hosted by Burough Mayor uh Machiki uh with representatives from the swim club there last week and we're we're working towards uh a a community solution for that. Today I testified um before uh Senate Resources Committee on SB280. SB280 was uh introduced by the governor um and it deals with tax reform related to the Alaska LNG project. Um, and I think one from a city perspective, one shortcoming of the governor's proposal is there is no funding for a municipality like the city of Kenai, who in my opinion will be one of the most impacted communities in Alaska because, you know, the liqufaction plant and export facility is going to be constructed just outside of the municipal boundaries. Every bit of materials used for that project will either come by boat to Nikkiski or will be trucked through the city of Kenai. Much of the labor and workforce for the project will come through the Kenai Municipal Airport. there will be substantial municipal

impacts to the city of Kenai as a result of the project and the track structure proposed would provide um directly provide no impact money to the city or um any sort of tax uh revenue. Um so there is a committee substitute um that has been provided that um does provide some consideration for the municipalities in Alaska. So, uh, I did provide testimony on that today. Um, I believe it is available if council wanted to go listen to it. Uh, also, um, the draft budget was, uh, transmitted to, um, council, I believe this week. We're looking forward to our work session with you, the administration, and and all our department heads on May 2nd. You know, the budget focuses again on maintaining the core services the city provides. uh continued planning through development of a strategic plan and an increased investment in in maintaining the city's infrastructure. So, looking forward to discussing that with council. Um I want to say thank you to um our public works director, Mr. Fry. Um so, Mr. Fry has been drafting a new set of city design standards for roads, city roads. Um on 413, Mr. Fry hosted a uh open house. Um we're soliciting comments from uh let's see the the the the folks that build the roads a lot of times the excavation companies and like that. We also solicited comments on the proposed standards from local engineers and other um design professionals. Um you know I will tell you there was no attendance at the open house. However, I am happy to report we did have two engineering firms that have provided written comments to Mr. Fry that he's reviewing and will be

trying to incorporate into um those standards before they come to council for approval which should be here in in a coming meeting. Um also uh last week um Mr. Fry and our new building official um along with the um Satna's um public works director and building official um attended a meeting of the Kai Peninsula Builders Association to talk with um the the contractors about uh their concerns or questions on codes and uh our building permitting processes. So, I really appreciate them doing those public outreaches and and trying to to make our processes better. Um, you guys have already talked about cleanup day a number of times, 9 to 12:30, Ken Community Library this weekend, um, on Saturday. Um, one thing you didn't say is there will be donuts and there will be water there for those that would like. Um, so sometimes that gets people out and again there'll be uh, garbage bags for folks, safety vests and grabbers. So um, that's the place to kind of congregate. I'm happy to answer any questions. Any questions for the city manager? Council move. Sorry.

Thank you. Uh, is there a way we can deny a retirement uh announcement by any chance? Yeah. Thank you, Council Member Cassenna. I tried for the record. Any further questions? Okay. City attorney Bloom. Thank you, Mayor Knackstead, members of council. So, I don't have anything to report, but I'm happy to answer any questions. Doesn't look like we have any questions for you tonight. Perfect. Yep. City Clerk Ser.

Thank you, Mayor Knoxstead. I'd just like to note that with the wrapping of the election, there's only a few small invoices still out on it, but we came in roughly $7,000 under budget on the election. Good job. Any questions for the clerk?

I just wanted to comment. I think that's the maybe the third or fourth thing in the process of this election where you have pointed out gone about it another way that saved us a chunk of money. So I I want to I want to point that out and and thank you for being fiscally minded. I too want to thank you for your your hard work and making this all come together. I am disheartened that we had such a low turnout, but you did a fantastic job. Thank you, Council Member Cassenn. You were looking at me. Okay, now you now you got to talk. Uh maybe maybe we can have donuts and water for that as well next time. There you go.

Any any further questions of the of the clerk? So, uh, that brings us down to additional public comments. Are there any members of the public who would like to to address the council at this time on anything? Seeing no one, that brings us to uh, council comments. Council member Daniel. Oh, I wasn't ready for that. Um, thank you.

Mr. Bowling is not here, nor Sonart. So, you're you were third in line. Now you're first. Oh, all good. I'll keep it short. Um, first of all, I uh um want to say thank you again to the to the city clerk for conducting that election. Uh went smooth, went and voted like and nothing happened. It was great. I really appreciate that and all that work goes into that. Also, I'm looking forward to continuing the conversations around the pool. I know it's really important to the community and I'm really uh encouraged by the amount of people that have come out and shown their support, written testimony and that it really shows the value asset. So, thank you for that. Um and and just looking forward to continuing that along with the Challenger Center. I know that's also another um top a hot topic and those conversations as well. We got a lot of fun things happening in the city and looking forward to being back in Alaska this weekend. That's all I got. Okay, thank you, Council Member Grimmy.

I agree with Vice Mayor Askin. I was very disappointed um at the low turnout of voters, but I am grateful for everybody that did make the effort to come out and vote and be pro part of the process. Um if there's any election where your vote and your voice really matters, it's it's local. So, please consider that the next time we have an election. Um something that you Mr. you banks did not mention about cleanup day is um that if you are unable to participate on April 25th that bags and equipment can can be made available to you uh pick up at the visitor center or parks and recck Tyler I can't remember we can coordinate with you at the park uh at the rec center

to pick up okay rec center thank you so if you're unable to clean up or if your yard's still covered in snow or your streets are still covered in snow as is the case in many areas now you can do it a little bit later um And I also wanted to say thank you to all of you that came and gave testimony written or orally about something that is important to you and to the community. It takes a lot of effort to show up and to sit through these and wait your turn and stand up and talk about something that matters to you. Um and I I appreciate your willingness to be part of the process and and make sure that that you're speaking for the other people who aren't willing to do that. Thank you. Okay, Council Member Penny.

Thank you, Mayor Nextad. Um, I just like to thank everyone for their efforts in making this go smoothly and also thank the clerk and her assistant, Mr. Logan, for um, helping expedite that uh, election. I too was disappointed in the folks that did not have the privilege to participate, but I do want to thank everyone that did. And so, um, thank you for everyone's work tonight, Vice Mayor Asc.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, next, um, I too attended the Kenai Historical Society. It was pretty educational. Found out how Wildwood got named and it wasn't for any place around here. That's interesting. Um, I also attended the state of the city uh chamber. um very informative, well well presented and um we had there was a pretty good turnout. I voted again like I said I was disheartened with the number of voters. So many of our local elections are are um determined by less than you know 10% of our voters. And that's kind of it's discouraging because we're trying to represent everybody and we have 10% that show up and make their opinion known. Um I too want to thank all of you who came and spoke tonight about various different things including the pool. And um as council member Grie said, I echo her sentiments that it it helps us to understand what we need in our community and thank you for taking the time.

Council member Cassana. Thank you. Um where to start? Uh congrats to the KPA girls. Um I think uh I mean full disclosure that is my daughter and my wife's team. So, I am particularly proud of their efforts this year. Uh, and it's been fun to spend all winter with those 16 little uh psychopaths. Cheers.

So, um, but uh, congratulations to them all. They're all getting uh, put into the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame this year as well. So, it's a pretty cool deal. uh appreciate uh Doug's time coming here to speak at the about the Challenger Center and what it would offer for him. Uh I think I'll echo the same comments as everyone else. I appreciate everyone who was here for the pool, everyone who emailed about the pool. Um you know, unlike the hockey players that got to leave early, you stuck out the whole meeting and and I and I know what that takes, especially with kids being here or being a kid and sticking out this meeting. So, um, really appreciate you guys being here and just thank thank you, Will. Uh, I also took swimming lessons from you at that pool. So, um, appreciate Mrs. Powell's testimony uh today as well. Um, Logan, nice work on your first full meeting for this this council. Chief Ross, congrats. And, uh, we'll miss you around here. If you want to get one more ticket in on me before you retire, just let me know. And uh Lee, despite the lack of attendance at your open house, uh just thank you for all the work that you do um in in getting some of these things put in in front of the community. So, appreciate it.

Okay. Thank you. And I would like to point out that I did show up for the open house. So, somebody did come, I was here. So, yeah. But so you should have had donuts. There weren't any donuts. You're right. That's what you do wrong.

Yeah. So, uh, now it brings us to executive session. We're going to have two. We'll we'll start one and then we'll come back. So the uh if the first one is uh competing applications for gas storage space pursuant to AS4462310 C1 a matter which the immediate knowledge may have an adverse effect upon the finance of the city and AS4462-310 C3 a matter of which by law municipal charter or ordinance are required to be confidential brought to us by administration pleasure of counsel I move to enter into executive session to discuss competing applications for gas storage space pursuant to AS4462 310C1 a matter which immediate knowledge would clearly have an adverse effect upon the finances of the city as AS4462 310C3 a matter which by law municipal charter or ordinance is required to be confidential. This executive session will include Mayor Nstead, Council Members Energy Eubank, and Attorney Bloom.

I'd just like to note for the uh record that council member Asin has recused herself as we're discussing her uh immediate employer. Did I have a second? I second. Did I hear unanimous consent? Yep. That's what I said. We are going into executive session and but before just before since we've got two online when it are they are they set up for uh pres where we're going to Yes. They have everything to join a separate meeting for executive session. So we're going to we're going to go back to the back room to that. Yeah. We'll take a we'll take a break and we'll start when we're ready.