Kenai’s city council last week adopted a capital improvement plan for the next five years describing projects on the immediate horizon, like rehabilitation of the Kenai Municipal Airport runway, replacement of the Animal Control Building roof and assessment of all City of Kenai asphalt roads, and several other projects not expected to be realized for years or until grant funding materializes.
The plan was first presented to the council and discussed during a Dec. 18 work session. The draft brought forward then is largely the same as the one adopted by the council during their Jan. 15 meeting. According to a memo by Kenai Public Works Director Lee Frey included in the resolution adopting the plan, a project to rehabilitate the access road and parking lot of the Kenai Municipal Airport — budgeted at $3.6 million in the draft — was deleted, while rehabilitation of the airport’s primary runway was added to the next fiscal year after grant funding was secured. Rehabilitation of the airport taxiways was split into two phases across two years “to recognize local funds needed upfront to proceed with design work.”
The adopted plan describes, in the next fiscal year, rehabilitation of the airport runway for over $25 million, of which all but around $200,000 is grant funded, replacement of the Animal Control Building roof for $400,000 of city funds, design for airport taxiway rehabilitation for $650,000 of city funds, rehabilitation of Wildwood Drive for $1.2 million of grant funds, a variety of road improvements and others.
In the coming years, Kenai plans to replace the roofs of the airport’s Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting Facility and Kenai Multipurpose Facility, rehabilitate a variety of airport taxiways, improve the aging exterior of Kenai City Hall, reconstruct the Old Town Playground, repair and improve water and sewer facilities and others.
Much of the council’s discussion during the Jan. 15 meeting centered on a request by the city’s Council on Aging to add a feasibility study for addition of more senior housing in Kenai. Such a study, Kenai City Manager Terry Eubank said, would likely resemble a study undertaken in the 1980s before Vintage Pointe was constructed. It would also cost around $300,000.
“I don’t know what council’s appetite is,” he said. “A full blown feasibility study, at this point, that’s a lot of effort to put in. I think you’re looking at significant construction costs that will never be built without some significant grants to the city.”
Vintage Pointe, Kenai Senior Services Director Kathy Romain said during the meeting, has a long wait list. She said they recently connected a local senior with the smallest size bedroom available after a two-year wait. The existing facility has 40 units, and Romain said they could fill another 40 “yesterday.”
Council member Alex Douthit said he wanted to see the feasibility added to the list, despite concerns about cost, to acknowledge it as part of Kenai’s vision for the future and to open the door to seeking grant funding.
The council unanimously amended the capital project plan to add a feasibility study for $300,000 to the project list for fiscal year 2029, meaning not sooner than July 1, 2028, with the condition that it be funded with $200,000 in grant funding.
The full text of the City of Kenai Capital Improvement Plan for Fiscal Years 2026-2030 can be found at kenai.city. A recording of the meeting and the Dec. 18 work session are available on the City of Kenai Public Meetings YouTube channel.
Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.
