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Five city-owned lots in the Mommsens Subdivision are now the property of the Amundsen Educational Center.

The Kenai City Council last week voted unanimously to donate the lots to the vocational training school, which will train students in building trades as they build houses on the lots for subsequent sale.

"Our intent is to put in the foundation for three (houses) and hope to get two done by this fall," said Mark Hill, executive director of Amundsen. Construction of three additional houses is planned for 2009 to 2011, he said.

Specializing in education for students from rural Alaska, the center charges students $11,400 for tuition, room and board, which Hill told the council is generally paid by the student's Native corporation.

Currently Amundsen has five students enrolled in the construction education program and 27 enrolled in office education.

The lots were in the city's possession through foreclosure dating back several years, and were deemed to be no longer needed by the city. Once houses are built on them and sold, the properties will return to the city's tax rolls.

Amundsen agreed to pay back taxes owed on the lots to the Kenai Peninsula Borough and city assessments owed Kenai. The council agreed to allow the payments to be made at the time the houses are sold.

In other action Wednesday night, the city council rejected a proposed ordinance that would have restricted the use of Conex boxes as storage sheds in the central commercial and residential zones.

The proposal also would have required accessory structures such as sheds to be roofed and sided or painted to match the primary building on the lot.

Councilman Rick Ross said there was considerable testimony at a recent Planning and Zoning Commission meeting against the ordinance. "I think we should defeat this ordinance and come back with a clean slate," Ross said.

Councilman Hal Smalley suggested new regulations dealing with Conex boxes and storage sheds separately, rather than trying to address all concerns with one ordinance.

The council also approved sharing health insurance savings with city employees that resulted when the city opted to raise the medical coverage deductible from $200 to $1,000, self-insuring the difference.

The savings generated by the move is to be shared with city workers who will each receive $500.

During her report of the mayor, Pat Porter told the council Lincoln Wensley's Caring for the Kenai project to protect Kenai's dunes placed first in the competition, and she asked the council to approve giving Wensley, a Kenai Central High School sophomore from Rick Frederic's science class, $500 to help pay for video discs he wants to produce to educate people on the need to protect dunes.

A motion by Councilman Mike Boyle to approve the award passed unanimously.

Porter also appointed Maya Johnson to be the council's student representative, replacing graduating senior Britt Harding.

To avoid conflicting with the KCHS graduation on May 21, the next city council meeting is scheduled for May 20.

Phil Hermanek can be reached at phillip.hermanek@peninsulaclarion.com.