10.0°

Not all campaign promises fall by the wayside.

In Soldotna, where four candidates for city council recently campaigned with a pledge to honor voters' wishes to site a city cemetery next to the Kenai River near the end of Redoubt Avenue, the newly elected council members are considering just that.

The first resolution Dale Bagley, Nels Anderson, Peggy Mullen and Brenda Hartman will face Wednesday night calls for "designating Crystalline Subdivision Tract 1, also known as the Redoubt site" as a city memorial park.

Soldotna voters, one year ago, favored the city-owned site in a 608 to 374 advisory vote.

Sitting council members, however, settled instead on the purchase of several parcels off Knight Drive for a city cemetery. One 2.83-acre parcel was purchased by the city from the Aleutian-Pribilof Islands Association Inc. for $68,000.

The Redoubt Avenue site has drawn strong opposition from property owners in the adjacent Mooring by the River Subdivision.

If the Redoubt site is selected, no decision has yet been made on the disposition of the Knight Drive lot that has already been purchased, City Manager Larry Semmens said Monday.

The resolution also directs Semmens to negotiate a land acquisition with the Kenai Peninsula Borough for a 10-acre parcel directly south of the proposed cemetery site, or to secure a 60-foot right-of-way to the Crystalline tract.

The city council also is scheduled to consider awarding a $110,297 contract to A-1 Industrial Machine and Welding of Anchorage to extend the Centennial Trail 300 linear feet and to design and build three elevated walkways from the gravel trail to three new stairways that lead into the Kenai River.

On its consent agenda, the council is slated to introduce and set a public hearing for Nov. 10 on an $815,000 appropriation for city water system improvements on Well House C.

Stimulus funding for the improvements originally had been requested for Well House B, but because Well House C work is considered a green project by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, a switch to that project would make it eligible for 100-percent funding.

Work on Well House B would be postponed until more funding is secured, according to Semmens.

If a Kobuk storm water outfall protection project receives a "green" designation from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, it too could receive 100-percent grant funding from the federal economic stimulus program.

An ordinance increasing appropriations for the project is to be introduced Wednesday and set for public hearing Tuesday, Nov. 10. The regular Wednesday meeting the second week of November falls on Veterans Day when city hall is closed.

The outfall project installs four 28-foot deep by 14-feet in diameter oil, grease and grit removal traps underground near the intersection of Kobuk Street and Kobuk Court.

Semmens said the project will allow Soldotna to meet new federal standards for release of storm water into the Kenai River.

The council will get a look at a proposed land swap with the borough to facilitate the rerouting of Funny River Road at the northwest corner of the Soldotna Municipal Airport.

Semmens said both administrations are in agreement on the swap, but neither the city council nor the borough assembly has considered the trade.

In exchange for land enabling the rerouting of the road, the city would give the borough land it needs for additional parking at the Donald E. Gillman River Center -- formerly known as the Kenai River Center.

The city council meeting is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. after a Committee of the Whole meeting at 5:30 to discuss the city library expansion, and the swearing in of new council members at 6:15.

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