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The $108 million borough budget proposed for fiscal year 2009 beginning July 1 gets the second of three scheduled public hearings at today's meeting of the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly. 052008 NEWS 1 Peninsula Clarion The $108 million borough budget proposed for fiscal year 2009 beginning July 1 gets the second of three scheduled public hearings at today's meeting of the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Story last updated at 5/20/2008 - 2:08 pm

Borough budgets $108 million: Round 2 of 3 public hearings on tap today in assembly chambers

The $108 million borough budget proposed for fiscal year 2009 beginning July 1 gets the second of three scheduled public hearings at today's meeting of the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly.

The bulk of the spending plan, some $67.6 million, is in the general fund, which includes $40.8 million to operate schools. Some $32.5 million of the school money would come from local taxes.

The rest includes spending in local service areas and appropriations to cover debt service, capital projects and assorted internal service funds including insurance and litigation, health insurance reserves and replacing equipment.

No one came forward at the Seward meeting, site of the first public hearing May 6, to offer opinions about the new spending package, Ordinance 2008-19. Testimony is expected at today's meeting, however.

Six other ordinances are on tap for public hearings as well.

Ordinance 2007-19-45 would authorize acquisition of 40 acres of land with a 5,000-square-foot house in the Kalifornsky Beach area as a new location for Central Peninsula Hospital's Serenity House Treatment Center. Specifically, the ordinance will appropriate an additional $571,750 needed to secure the property and make alterations. Most of that money -- some $486,750 -- is coming through a Denali Commission grant. The entire project is projected to cost less than $1 million.

Ordinance 2007-19-46 would appropriate $200,000 from the Road Service Area fund balance to supplement the FY 2008 budget and cover anticipated maintenance costs through the end of the fiscal year June 30. Unexpected spring snowfall and an extended breakup season have stretched the borough's Road Service Area budget, Roads Director Gary Davis said.

Other ordinances up for public hearing include:

* Ordinance 2007-19-48, which redirects $32,549 in bond proceeds from the 2003 General Obligation Bonds and appropriates another $791,976 in interest income to fund school improvement projects.

* Ordinance 2007-19-49, which appropriates a $5,140 grant from the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management for fabrication of two portable emergency sirens.

* Ordinance 2008-10, amending borough code to require that developers show documented legal access to subdivisions within the borough. The measure would not require that such accesses be built, but that legal and constructible access exists.

* Ordinance 2008-11, which authorizes the sale of land to the Cooper Landing Senior Citizens Corporation for senior housing purposes.

Hal Spence can be reached at hspence@ptialaska.net


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