Election 2023: Soldotna candidates talk city’s future at Monday forum

Candidates for Soldotna public office gathered in the Soldotna Public Library on Monday evening to share their thoughts on riverfront redevelopment, arts and culture development and the future of the city as part of a candidate forum moderated by the Peninsula Clarion and KDLL 91.9 FM public radio.

The forum, hosted in partnership with the Central Peninsula League of Women Voters and the Soldotna Public Library, is the first of eight being held throughout September heading into the Oct. 3 municipal election.

Over the course of about an hour, candidates fielded questions from forum moderators Ashlyn O’Hara, the Peninsula Clarion’s government and education reporter, and Riley Board, a reporter at KDLL.

Soldotna voters this year will cast ballots for two city council races and for a mayoral candidate.

Incumbent candidates Mayor Paul Whitney and council member Chera Wackler are both running unopposed in their respective races. Council member Dan Nelson, who currently holds Seat B on the council, is running for reelection against Garrett Dominick, a disability rights advocate who also ran for council last year. All race winners will serve a three-year term.

Dominick was provided forum questions in advance as part of a disability accommodation related to a speech impediment, and used Chat GPT, an artificial intelligence application, to help craft his responses.

The four candidates were first given the opportunity to make opening statements. Whitney, Wackler and Nelson all mentioned the city’s large projects, such as the Soldotna Field House and plans for redevelopment along the river, as being among the reasons they were seeking election or reelection to city office.

“I look forward to helping out guide the process for a lot of the big projects that are coming up,” Wackler said. “The field house the mayor mentioned, we also have the arts and cultural master plan, which I think will serve the community for years to come, if not decades, if it’s set up properly.”

Council members in July got their first look at a draft plan that recommends ways Soldotna can bring more art to the city, such as by creating a regional arts council or developing a way for the city to commission art pieces.

Candidates were asked about their vision for one of Soldotna’s biggest projects: riverfront redevelopment. The city last summer was awarded a $360,000 grant made available under the U.S. Economic Development Agency for planning associated with the project, which would revamp about 85 acres in Soldotna between the Sterling Highway and the Kenai River.

Dominick said the city will need to keep in mind that some residents, such as himself, live in the project area and should be considered as planning efforts are advanced. Whitney agreed, saying that future planning meetings must be collaborative between the city and members of the public, and Wackler said she sees the project as a way to grow Soldotna’s sense of community.

Nelson called the project one of the most “critical” that the city is currently involved in.

“From my perspective as a city council member … our planning group and our city manager (should) look at basically how we can accommodate some of those things, while making sure that we’re respecting, kind of the core of the City of Soldotna,” Nelson said. “We call ourselves Alaska’s Kenai River City and that project is really going to be, I think, how people see Soldotna for many, many years to come.”

In a similar vein, candidates were generally all supportive of boosting Soldotna’s artistic profile, whether that looks like establishing a central location for residents to display their artwork or designating spaces for artists to use creatively. Wackler, who said she is an artist, said the master plan can serve as a conduit to bringing Soldotna creatives together.

Dominick pointed to galleries in Anchorage that accommodate artists of all abilities and said he supports Whitney’s proposal to expand creative opportunities for Soldotna youth, such as in schools. Whitney said his mother-in-law, also an artist, has work displayed in local businesses but that she, like other residents, would like a central location for art displays.

“It’d be nice for our community to have a central location where these people can display their art and anybody can see it — what great things they do,” Whitney said. “I’d also like to see those same artists being able to have a location where they can work with young people — the kids that are in school right now that may not have those art programs in the high school or grade school anymore. It’d be a place where they could come and learn from the older community.”

When it comes to the recruitment and retention of city employees, incumbent candidates said they’re largely satisfied with a package of policies the council passed earlier this year. Those policies, among other things, gave the city manager permission to institute hiring bonuses, added Christmas Eve as a paid holiday and expanded bereavement leave.

Dominick suggested that the city work with the Alaska Department of Vocational Rehabilitation, the state agency that helps Alaskans with disabilities participate in the workforce and create a work environment that employees want to be a part of.

“I strongly believe in working from home, so if that is an option, then I say go for it,” he said.

Candidates were all given the opportunity to make closing statements.

Election Day is Oct. 3. Absentee in person voting starts on Sept. 18. Monday’s full candidate forum can be streamed on the Clarion’s Facebook page or on KDLL’s website at kdll.org. The next forum will be held on Thursday, Sept. 7 at the Kenai Community Library, and will feature candidates for seats on the Kenai City Council.

Reach reporter Ashlyn O’Hara at ashlyn.ohara@peninsulaclarion.com.