“When the Kenai River-Soldotna Rotary Club was formed, the club got involved in the Highway Cleanup project like other organizations around the peninsula,” said Rotarian and past club president Tom Janz.

“About 2 years into the effort we discovered that another organization were cleaning the same real estate and figured we had better come up with another area. It was about that time that we heard about the City of Soldotna launching an ‘Adopt-a-Park” program where civic organizations could adopt a park not only for cleaning the trash but to share in some much needed improvements. Our club visited city officials and entered in to an agreement to sponsor Arc Lake. We began to schedule the cleanup as we would have under the highway program and began fund raising for the improvement effort. Arc Lake was in need of some care and we felt that being located on the Sterling Highway it would benefit not only summer visitors but also locals who use the lake for ice skating.

The City, has in the past removed snow to facilitate winter ice skating. By upgrading the park, to include adding more gravel to the parking area, adding a few more picnic tables and a few benches, we felt that this park will enhance the City and provide another avenue for use without driving a great distance,” explained Janz.

The club went on to get Rotary District 5010 involved in their improvement project.

At a recent Soldotna City Council meeting Kenai River Soldotna Rotary President, Kathy Heindl presented Pete Sprague, President Pro-tem a check in amount of $ 6,675.00 for the City on behalf of Rotary District 5010 and the Kenai River Rotary Club-Soldotna.