The two candidates running for the two open spots on the Soldotna City Council this year met Thursday to discuss their visions for Soldotna’s future as part of a candidate forum moderated by the Peninsula Clarion and KDLL 91.9 FM public radio.

In Soldotna, candidates run for specific seats on the city council. Incumbent Linda Farnsworth-Hutchings is running for Seat A, which she’s held since being appointed in 2020, later winning election in 2021. Incumbent Jordan Chilson is running for Seat C, which he’s held since 2018. Both seats are for three-year terms ending in October 2027, and both candidates are running unopposed for reelection without an official challenger on the ballot in the Oct. 1 municipal election.

The forum, hosted at the Soldotna Public Library in partnership with the Central Peninsula League of Women Voters and KSRM Radio Group, was the third in a series of forums set throughout the coming months. Forums will be held in September leading up to the Oct. 1 municipal election and in October leading up to the Nov. 5 statewide election.

Over about an hour, the candidates fielded questions from forum moderators Ashlyn O’Hara, a reporter at KDLL, and Jake Dye, the Peninsula Clarion’s general assignment reporter.

Farnsworth-Hutchings said she’s lived in Soldotna almost for most of her life — excepting only a small stint elsewhere when her husband was in the military. In Soldotna, she said, she’s raised her children and grandchildren and been active and engaged in business, nonprofit boards and the city council.

Chilson, similarly, said he’s a lifelong Alaskan and Soldotna resident who has started his family here and put down roots. With six years on the city council already under his belt, he said he’s proud of his accomplishments and eager for more.

Both agreed that Soldotna has exciting things in the works between the under-construction Soldotna Field House and the more long-term Soldotna Riverfront Redevelopment Project.

The pair also said they remain supportive of Soldotna’s overnight lodging tax — which visitors will begin paying in January and which both voted in favor of while on the council.

Farnsworth-Hutchings said that visitors “use our streets, they use our police force, they use our emergency services and they don’t pay for that.” The bed tax, she said, will “help pay for that,” though she said that 4% “is not very much.”

Chilson said the bed tax will raise money to support further economic development of Soldotna — and he amended the proposed tax to put in specific guidelines to that end. Further, he said, people don’t change their plans and avoid going to a place they intend to visit “simply because of a bed tax.”

“If we have the way to raise revenue — to really continue to develop our city — and do it in a way that doesn’t place burden on our local residents, I think that’s a win and I fully support it.”

Both also agreed that the city can do more to support and to showcase its arts and culture, though they each had their own ideas for how such an effort could manifest.

A community art gallery, Farnsworth-Hutchings said, is something Soldotna is missing.

“There are so many pieces of art in this community and a lot of them are sitting in people’s closets because they don’t have enough wall space,” she said.

The City of Soldotna already offers a mini grant program that provides small infusions of funding to civic programs, services and events. Chilson said he’d like to see a similar program for arts. He said he’d also like to see Soldotna establish a local arts commission or advisory board like Seldovia does — assembling artists and stakeholders to come up with “the ideas that we need to be pursuing.”

Both also discussed annexation — a long-gestating effort to expand Soldotna’s boundaries. Farnsworth-Hutchings said she wants to see the city grow, and that annexation is something that “we really need.” Chilson, too, said “I think it needs to happen at this point.”

Looking long term, Chilson also said he’d like to see Soldotna take efforts to become more walkable, and that he’d like to see the city partner with other municipalities on the Kenai Peninsula to create a shared insurance pool — which he said can save the cities money.

Other topics discussed during the forum included city employment, housing, and community feedback in times of controversy.

A full recording of the forum can be found on the Peninsula Clarion’s Facebook page, as well as at kdll.org.

Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.

Soldotna City Council member Linda Farnsworth-Hutchings participates in the Peninsula Clarion and KDLL candidate forum series, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, at the Soldotna Public Library in Soldotna, Alaska. (Photo by Erin Thompson/Peninsula Clarion)