Kenai accepts grant funds for bronze bear installation

Published 9:30 pm Tuesday, September 16, 2025

The Kenai Bronze Bear Sculpture Project will be installed at the Kenai Municipal Airport next month, organizers told the Kenai City Council during its Wednesday meeting. The city accepted a grant for $25,000 from the Rasmuson Foundation to help fund the project.

The council for the third time in as many meetings used a rare truncated process to introduce and enact an ordinance because of a deadline to accept funds — the council similarly on Aug. 20 and Sept. 3 accepted grants from the Federal Aviation Administration via that process. The council voted unanimously to accept the money.

Mary Bondurant, interim Kenai airport manager and a member of the Kenai Bronze Bear Sculpture Working Group, said Wednesday that the project has been in development since receiving council approval in 2023. The projected cost to produce and install the bears, she said, was $200,000.

The sculpture set to be installed by the airport is a set of three bears, a mother and two cubs. The working group has also said that the display will include a call for safe travels rooted in Dena’ina culture, using language approved by the Kenaitze Tribal Council.

With support from the Rasmuson joining previous donations from Grant Aviation, Three Bears, Marathon Petroleum, Alaska E-Line Services, HDL Engineering, Lynden Transportation and others, Bondurant said the bears are on track for installation this year. The two cubs are already in production, she said, and a contract will be approved for creation of the mother based on the securing of the Rasmuson grant on Wednesday.

Paul Ostrander, formerly Kenai’s city manager and now a board member of the Rasmuson Foundation, said during the meeting that the bronze bear project was a “perfect” example of the foundation’s search for “worthy things to fund in the state of Alaska.”

“It’s a community-driven project that’s going to do incredible things for the airport,” he said. “This is the type of community project that I can really get behind. And Rasmuson can as well.”

More funds are still needed, Bondurant said, for a “donor recognition board,” signage and lighting. While that effort continues, the bears will be transported to Kenai from Utah next month, where they will be installed behind tall fences. An unveiling will be held in late October, she said.

Mayor Brian Gabriel said he’d originally thought the $200,000 fundraising goal would be “a heavy lift.” He said he’ll be excited to see the bears installed because they’ll make a strong first impression on visitors to the city.

For more information, visit kenaibronze.com.

Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/peninsulaclarion.